Before you even listen to I Dreamt I Was Awake, the new EP from Late Again out today, a glance at the song titles reveals a sense of irony and humor: “All My Exes Moved to the Countryside,” “Crazy or Stupid,” and “If You Have A Bridge (I’m Buying).”
For Late Again, the nom de plume of Brazilian-born, Brooklyn-based artist Rafael Melo, it’s all part of a collection of tunes he calls “optimistically cynical.”
“I try to explore several topics, from the lack of belonging and craving for human connection — the fact that I am a foreigner living in New York City and all that entails — to the shit show that is the political world right now. I tried to do it in a lighthearted way for many reasons. I think humor is a great mechanism for lowering people’s guards before you share a message with them.”
The lyrics are cloaked not only in humor, but also in hazy, dream-pop textures. He says the confidence he’s gained over the course of making previous EPs, as well as better connections and resources in the music community, have strengthened the foundation needed to make a song like “Every Time I Take Sudafed,” a spoken-word track.
“When you have a melody supporting you, it’s so much easier to say whatever you want,” Melo says. “You have a shield. When you’re just talking into the microphone, it’s like, ‘Oh, am I really gonna wake up in the morning, go to the subway, go to a studio, and turn on a mic to record me saying this specific sentence? Is it really worth it?’ It really makes you vulnerable.
“So I don’t think I would have been able to write a song like this and put it out on the first EP. The other thing I think changed a lot is the fact that, because the project grew so much, I was able to connect with a lot of talented people, like the band that is playing with me on this EP.”
He continues: “I think every time I release something new, it builds up my confidence a little bit. Especially for my first EP — I still am incredibly self-aware, but I guess it was even worse. I’ve been a musician ever since I was 15. I had this little band back in Brazil. We toured, and it was this whole thing. And like most musicians, I had this frustration arc where I realized, ‘OK, I don’t think I could have a comfortable life making the kind of music that I want to make in Brazil, where there’s not really an industry for that.’ So I remember that before I started Late Again, I kind of distanced myself from putting music out there for like five years or so. I had this moment a lot of artists do, but when I decided to move to New York City, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to take this seriously now. I’m gonna make this work.’
“For the first EP, there was a lot of overthinking. Those songs were sitting there for over two years. And after you start putting shit out there, it just gets easier. I’d say, especially if you pay attention to my lyrics, I have the feeling that I’ve been a lot more honest with myself. And in this EP specifically, I’m trying to experiment with being more bluntly descriptive.”
Melo says “my natural habit is definitely my acoustic guitar,” and during our video conversation he shows me his guitar made by the Brazilian company Giannini. “I’m immediately drawn to bossa nova chords when I pick it up. Whenever I’m sad, I just grab this nylon-string guitar and play, and maybe I’ll try to play myself to sleep or something. I’d say 80 percent of my songs start that way: I have a melody in my mind, and I try to figure out the chords with my nylon-string guitar.”
However, for his last few releases, he pivoted: “I was like, ‘OK, what if I start with a synthesizer this time?’”
“For songs like ‘If You Have a Bridge (I’m Buying),’ I had that sequencer melody in my mind. So I went straight to the synthesizer to record it. It’s one example.”
Melo released the first Late Again EP in 2024, a year before his life shifted with the release of 9 Kings, a video game he made with childhood buddy André Young. The success of the game has allowed him to put more time and resources into his music.
In October, he’ll launch his first European tour with dates in Germany, France, and the UK. On Oct. 28, he’ll play at Gold Diggers in LA before a hometown gig at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on Nov. 28.
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