After are making the music we’ve been waiting to hear. The Los Angeles duo, made up of Justine Dorsey and Graham Epstein, formed in 2023 after meeting online. Inspired by the sounds and songwriting of Fountains of Wayne, Michelle Branch and Portishead, the duo are gearing up to release their highly anticipated album, Fell Asleep In The Sun, on September 18.

After are heading down under to play a series of shows, including Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory on January 2, Melbourne’s The Night Cat on January 3, and Brisbane’s The Brightside on January 5. We spoke to the duo about making their upcoming record and forming After:

I'm so obsessed with your album. I love your backstory and how you met, and I'm sure everyone will ask you about the Hinge match and how that's eventuated into a band. Tell me about the moment where you realised that you guys could be a band and you could make music together.

Justin: The minute that Graham suggested that we start a band, I was just like blind yes. No songs were written or anything, and there was no name, nothing. He was like, "We should start like a Y2K pop rock band with cool aesthetics," and I was like, "Down," immediately. That is always a mystery to me in a weird way, 'cause I'm not really a gut decision person like that. But every once in a while there's like a really crucial thing that comes through in my life and I am. So that was one of those moments.

Were you guys making music separately beforehand?

Graham: Yeah, I was in like in a shoegaze metal band with my high school friends that I was a part of my whole life. Then I was getting really into like just pop music. I've always loved Fountains of Wayne and pop stuff that my dad showed me. I was listening to Michelle Branch and was like, "These are amazing songs." So then I thought, "I'm gonna mix my thing with that”. I talked to Justine about it and we had we talked before that. We were just sharing music and then something clicked in my brain and was like, "Let's just do it together."

So are you still in your lifelong band? How do they feel?

Graham: No, we broke up during COVID. My friend Adam, who was in my old band, he always sends me little covers of our songs just on an acoustic guitar, which is really sweet.

That's cool. Tell me about the making of the album. Did you make it in LA?

Graham: We made it in LA and New York. But we wrote it for the past year and a half. There were a lot of songs. We just wrote a bunch of songs and then decided what we want on the album. And then fit three or four more that we definitely knew the vibe that we wanted to make sure were on there. But yeah, mainly LA, just a couple songs in New York. Our producer, Oscar Scheller, moved to New York, so we had to go finish some songs there. He wrote and produced on a song that we did with our friend Cowboy Lansky on our first EP. Oscar has a gift for finding people really early.

It’s really cool that you guys work with Oscar. Are you both from LA?

Graham: I am.

Justine: I'm from Colorado originally.

Do you think that the vibe of LA effects the sound of your music?

Graham: Definitely. I do feel like we sound pretty California for sure.

Justine: Like The O.C. soundtrack.

Graham: But then sometimes people meet us and they'll be like, "I thought you were from Toronto," or "I thought you were from somewhere colder or something."

Justine: I feel like there's a lot of English energy in there.

Graham: I like that we don’t sound too much like an LA band to people. There’s a bit of mystery when you first hear us.

I love Fell Asleep In The Sun, the title track.

Graham: Initially, to be honest, I didn't love it when we first started writing it, but then it became like one of my favourite songs. I continue listening to it and it makes me feel the same every time I listen to it, which is rare. It never sounds old even though I've heard it a million times. It's addicting to listen to that one song for me.

Justine: I am really proud of the lyrics, and I feel like it's the best of what we do as a band. It’s a hopeful song, but it's inherently melancholy, even though it is trying to be positive. It's still sad. I feel the same way that Graham feels about it. I still just really enjoy listening to it.

Tell me about the visuals as well. Did you guys find that you were drawn to the same things in that world as well?

Graham: I think so. I was also a visual artist before this too. I was directing a lot and making props and production designing. So I feel like I've always had a visual eye, and I just wanted to put everything I find cool into a project. I originally wanted to mix very underground visuals with high-budget sounding pop songs. I think that was a cool juxtaposition. We just share photos and places and music and everything, and it correlates to what we end up doing. For this album, I think it was pretty focused. I was inspired by this guy DreamWeaver, who's a producer. He makes music. I just love his music videos and art for all of his covers, and I've just been a fan before the band even started. So I reached out to him, and he was down to help us creative direct this whole thing. It was such a dream. I just feel like we have got exactly what we want, visually.

Are there any other artists that you guys are excited about right now who are like at the same stage as you that you feel you're rising up with?

Justine: I always wanna shout out our friends Mgna Crrrta. I love them. I just adore them and I just think their taste is so ahead of the curve. They’re just little stars.

I am obsessed with their music.

Graham: Yeah we do have a remix of one of their songs that I think is really good. Their music is so good. So I'm gonna shout out Mgna too.

We can't wait to see you in Australia.

Justine: We're so excited to be coming out there. Thank you.

Listen to After HERE.

‍@aftertheband