We spoke with indie-pop duo Late Night Thoughts who recently dropped their new single, “Faith”, available now on all streaming platforms. Late Night Thoughts consists of Brian Rauch and Michael Harlow, and we ask them both all about their new music, their music influences, and tons more. Check it out below!
Image credit: Jake Chessum

How excited are you to release new music?

It has been over two years since our last original release, so we are completely beside ourselves. We didn’t want to release at the height of the pandemic because we felt like we needed to perform the songs in public in order to maximize the potential of their success and serve them justice. 

When people listen to your music, what are you hoping they get out of it?

We pride ourselves on writing songs that have stories people can relate to and hopefully aid in them reaching conclusions for problems in their own lives. Obviously, every artist’s goal is to get some kind of emotional response from the listener, but we want to take it a step further. We want the listener to be able to empathize with the conflict and then respond to the resolution with optimism. 

Who would you say are some of your musical influences?

Both of us had early musical influences that really have helped us grow into the artists we are today and make our collaborative process really mesh well. For Brian, that meant long car rides with his family jamming out to the classics of Elton John and Billy Joel; for Michael, it meant listening to lots of funk and jazz as well as regular jam sessions in his basement and a deep love for the Grateful Dead.

Did you always know that music was something you wanted to pursue?

We both knew that music would always be part of our lives, but we did not want to pursue it full time until after we released our first single, “Shit Happens.” We were Sophomores at Brandeis University and there was a campus wide excitement around the release. Receiving so much love for the tune, and seeing it succeed as it was on Spotify, we started to realize that this path was a real option for us; and, feeling the joy it brought us, we decided to give it our all.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?

We give the same advice to any aspiring musician, which is that the most important thing is the music. It can be so easy to get wrapped up in all the other components needed to turn this passion into an independently financially stable profession, but that is not why we get into this field and it is certainly not what will make you successful in this field. Making great music is the most important thing, and everything else comes after that. 

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Listen to “Faith” here

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