LA pop-rock duo After have shared ‘Fell Asleep in the Sun’, the title track from their debut album, arriving September 18 via Mom + Pop Music.
Made up of Justine Dorsey and Graham Epstein, After have spent the past few years pulling sounds from different eras into a distinctly contemporary form of pop. ‘Fell Asleep in the Sun’ continues that process, following previous singles ‘Take Me to Sunrise’ and ‘Promise’ as the duo build towards their first full-length record.
There is nostalgia running through After’s music, but it rarely feels interested in straightforward revivalism. The pair draw on grungy guitars, shoegaze, trip-hop and drum & bass alongside the polished melodies of the pop music that once floated through shopping malls. Those fragments are filtered through years spent with the internet functioning as a bottomless cultural archive, where decades and genres increasingly exist alongside one another.
That collision feeds directly into Fell Asleep in the Sun. The album explores impermanence, memory and the strange process of deciding what remains important as time moves forward. Dorsey and Epstein both turned 30 this year, a coincidence made stranger by the fact that they share exactly the same birthday.
“We both turned thirty this year, which feels like an evaluation point,” the pair explain.
The album consequently finds them looking backwards without getting stuck there, examining ageing, change and the quiet grief attached to leaving versions of yourself behind, while still allowing space for whatever might come next.
After’s origin story is equally unconventional. Dorsey and Epstein met through Hinge in 2023, quickly discovered they weren’t destined to become a couple and instead found a musical partnership. Two EPs followed, with tracks including ‘Obvious’, ‘Ever’, ‘300 Dreams’, ‘Deep Diving’ and ‘Outbound’ steadily expanding their audience. ‘Outbound’ subsequently appeared on Zane Lowe’s 26 for ’26 playlist, while the duo have since appeared in a Gap campaign and had their music used by Apple.
Australia will soon get its first chance to see how that carefully constructed world translates to the stage. After have joined the Beyond The Valley lineup at Barunah Plains over the New Year period, marking their first-ever Australian live performance.
Before then comes Fell Asleep in the Sun. Its title track offers another piece of an album concerned with moments that disappear almost as soon as we recognise their importance, and the curious ways music can preserve them long after everything else has moved on.
Pre-save the album HERE.
