Chase Atlantic: Hit the gas

Chase Atlantic appear on the cover of the Winter 2024 Issue — head to the AP Shop to grab a copy.

“The one thing everyone says about Chase Atlantic is ‘they never miss,’” says Mitchel Cave a few days before the release of their fourth album, LOST IN HEAVEN. “But while we were making this record, I started asking myself, ‘What if we did?’”

Since their debut EP, Dalliance, in 2014, the Australian trio have tackled every record with a swaggering confidence. Their music has proudly weaved between different genres while urgent lyrics put a theatrical twist on escapism — a delicious mix of frank confessionals and larger-than-life fantasy. Chase Atlantic have been compared to everyone from the 1975 to the Weeknd by way of Arctic Monkeys, but really, there are few bands capable of producing fluid, hard-hitting tracks like “OHMAMI,” “SWIM,” or “Friends.”

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Chase Atlantic’s debut self-titled album was released toward the end of 2017, with the more ambitious follow-up PHASES coming a little over a year later. It was a similar schedule for BEAUTY IN DEATH, with world tours slotted in between every release. Venues and streaming numbers kept getting bigger, but the band knew they needed to take a break after slogging it out for nearly a straight decade. They just didn’t think it would take them more than a year to return to the stage or put out new music.

“Life got thrown at us — pretty hard, pretty heavy, and pretty quickly,” Mitchel says. “We were still picking up the pieces when we were trying to make the album.” Their first attempt at a follow-up to BEAUTY IN DEATH saw them head to a beautiful house on Lake Tahoe. The plan was to shut out the rest of the world and really focus on creativity. It’s a shame, then, that their getaway coincided with the worst winter storms the area had seen in over 100 years. “We’re Australian. We know nothing about snow,” Christian Anthony admits. Shoveling snow and fighting through blizzards to get groceries was a “bonding experience,” Clinton Cave adds. “But it’s definitely much harder to make music when you’re trying to survive.”

Instead of a fully realized fourth album, they walked away with the beginnings of the woozy single “RICOCHET,” which then traveled with the band as they visited studios across Brazil and Europe. “There’s something really special about that one,” says Anthony, with the fizzy, reflective track evolving alongside the band and talking about their renewed bond. “This is the first time we’ve made a record where we haven’t been living together.” For the first two, the band would spend every moment together, while the third was created in lockdown. “This time around, we were trying to make a record while also living these separate lives we’ve created for ourselves,” he continues. “We had to learn how to be Chase Atlantic again.”

Other ideas slowly came together in the months that followed that icy trip to Lake Tahoe, but then another act of God (or a monumental fuck-up, depending on how you want to look at it) meant a majority of that work got wiped after Mitchel left his laptop in the rain. “There was no point trying to recreate any of it,” he says, with the band uninterested in retreading their steps. That attitude is what makes their music spark with excitement, but it also meant they had to start from scratch.

“We don’t ever want to sound redundant or have a repertoire of songs that sound the same. When you’ve created as many songs as we have, it definitely becomes harder. I mean, how many choruses can three guys make?” Mitchel asks.  

They decided to lock themselves away at the start of 2024 to get the record finished. “I’m super excited about the album now, but I was terrified going in,” Mitchel admits. “It was the longest we’d ever gone without releasing music. We’d already failed to make an album twice before, and I was second-guessing myself at every turn. I didn’t know if we had any more songs in us.” It was a far cry from the surging confidence and constant hits the band are known for.

Turns out, he had nothing to worry about. Over the course of two months, Chase Atlantic built the world of LOST IN HEAVEN, a record that explores being exactly where you want to be but still feeling adrift. “We just had to dust the cobwebs off and push through the ideas that weren’t as exciting to get to the gold,” Mitchel says. There was so much excitement, so much reckless potential that “it felt like we were making our first album again,” he adds.  

“A  lot of big things happened in the run-up to making this album. We all went through a lot of life, and things were very intense, in terms of our own mental health and our family’s well-being,” he continues. Making music together was meant to be an escape, but LOST IN HEAVEN also provided catharsis and understanding. “Those experiences ended up pushing us to make something great. I guess that was the beauty of all the shit that went down.”

LOST IN HEAVEN is sleek, noisy, and beautiful, dancing between misery and celebration while defiantly refusing to give in to the darkness. “It’s definitely our most vulnerable album,” Mitchel explains. “DISCONNECTED” starts with the line “This might be depression” and doesn’t get any more optimistic, while songs like “DEMON TIME” are fueled by anxiety about drowning and the urgent need to make others proud. “I was lost, almost took my life in the shower, fuck,” they sing on the angsty “HOURS LOST.”

Normally, Chase Atlantic songs are exaggerated versions of real life. They create drama that somehow has a way of coming true down the line. But LOST IN HEAVEN is a raw recollection of the past two years.  

“All of these songs hit pretty close to home,” Mitchel continues. “We really did wear our hearts on the sleeve for this one.” It means the band can’t really talk about the specifics of the moody “DOUBT IT,” but you don’t need to know the finer details to connect to the aggressive anthem. It’s the same with the visceral heartbreak of “MESS ME UP.” Sure, “AMY” is a little more fantastical with the storytelling, talking about a young woman growing up without parents, but it touches on addiction and trauma with an empathetic slant.  

“It’s a little uncomfortable essentially putting your diary out into the world, but it’s important that the songs are so raw, they’re almost scary to listen to,” Mitchel explains, wanting people to feel seen in the blunt honesty. “The fact that the music has been so well received has been a huge relief. I know people use music to escape from everyday life, but it’s also important to have the reality in there. Conversation is the first step toward fixing things.” There is a lot of pain across LOST IN HEAVEN, but there’s hope as well.

It’s a deliberately empowering stance. “A lot of the albums I’m listening to are very surface level. They’re very vague. I’m not going to say who,” Mitchel says, not needing the drama. “But I’m proud we have the brutal real life in every song.” Even though the band have constantly gotten bigger, they’re “all still living life.”

“We go into detail talking about things like mental health, which I don’t think gets spoken about enough in music,” Mitchel continues. “I guess some people might be scared to do it because they’re worried their song won’t make radio or be a mainstream success, so they shy away from that vulnerability. We’re not looking for that, though. We just want authenticity, which is what got us traction in the first place. People relate to real.”

LOST IN HEAVEN is also loads of fun. Opening track “FAVELA” is a bold, wonky intro to this new era of Chase Atlantic, while “MAMACITA” might just be the funkiest pop-rock song released this year. Despite all the messy, uncomfortable reality, there’s still a level of otherworldly transcendence. The cover art features two characters (The Void and Auro, who represent the light and the dark), while the album’s closing track “DON’T LAUGH” ends with The Void telling their counterpart that the world isn’t kind. “I’ve had to become someone I didn’t want to be,” they sing.

The song was written back in 2017, with the band trying to get a surreal, Tame Impala-inspired vibe. “We had to sneak it on the record without telling Mitchel,” Clinton grins. “I just think, ‘Why use an older song when we can make new ones?’” he replies, but after a few days, he came around to the idea. “Ending the record with the track makes it feel ambiguous as well. It rounds off the album but also hints at future deluxe stuff or a continuation of the story,” says Anthony. “The album doesn’t end with the last song, you know?”

Early on in their career, Chase Atlantic were compared to a countless list of genre-bending artists as fans and critics alike struggled to define their R&B-infused rock ’n’ roll. LOST IN HEAVEN though? That sounds like Chase Atlantic. “When we were sitting in the studio, I was really interested in capturing our sound. And that’s a really daunting process,” says Anthony, with the band giddily taking from the worlds of punk, pop, and dance. “But we do have this insane ability to make anything sound like Chase Atlantic.”

“We were inspired by ourselves this time around,” Mitchel adds. “We sound uniquely like Chase Atlantic. What genre are we? We’re just a hub for good music.”

“It’s a weird time to be releasing an album that’s more sad boy summer than Brat,” says Clinton, looking at the chart-dominating, cultural phenomenon of artists like Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter. A lot has changed in music since the band last released an album, but Chase Atlantic have never really been interested in following trends. “We just stay true to our sound. We also believe that our music has longevity,” he adds. “So many of our songs get bigger as they age, like a fine wine. Even if it’s not a hit today, it could be next year.”

“It’s music for the future,” Mitchel adds. “Hopefully we’re making something that’s timeless.”

That belief comes via a dedicated fanbase that’s very much down for the sonic ride of each and every Chase Atlantic album. “They really care, which is so amazing. We’ve always tried to be honest and bring conviction to whatever we’re creating, and I think people appreciate that,” Mitchel says.

Anthony believes the sense of hopeful community that is the Chase Atlantic fanbase is a reflection of the band’s own close-knit bond. “We’re always going to have each other’s backs, and we’re always going to be Chase Atlantic. It’s just a bond that can never be broken, and something that we’re very lucky and very grateful to have each other for.”

“We ain’t going out like Jane’s Addiction, that’s for sure,” adds Mitchel, a few days after the legendary rocker’s reunion tour was abruptly cut short after vocalist Perry Farrell punched guitarist Dave Navarro during a gig. “That was just heartbreaking to see. We know what it’s like to fight like brothers, but you need to sort that shit out before you walk onstage.”

Toward the end of their recent U.S. tour, Clinton missed two shows to focus on his own mental and physical well-being. “We support him fully in this decision, and we are very excited to be back onstage with him soon. Make sure to send him lots of love,” said a statement from the band. “We just started out as three mates making music together, but we’re closer than brothers at this point,” Anthony explains. “I’m feeling very positive about the future as well.”

Ten years since Chase Atlantic released their debut EP, LOST IN HEAVEN feels like the start of the next chapter. “I’d love for us to start working with other musicians,” Anthony continues. “We’ve always existed in our own little world, but I’d love to experiment with artists that are really in their element, that we admire, like George Daniel from the 1975. I think we could create something cool.”

“We’re pretty introverted by nature. We started out as producers just sitting behind a screen, but it does feel like we’re figuring it out,” Mitchel says. Whatever the future holds, though, Chase Atlantic aren’t going to settle down or play things safe.

“We don’t want to get lazy just because people say they like the music and we’ve established a solid foundation,” he continues. “If we ever start to get complacent, we’d just stop making music. 100% of the time, we have something to prove, even with the success and notoriety we’ve gained over years of hard work.”

“We do just want to keep it going,” Clinton says. “We’re never sitting around, telling each other that we’re killing it or that we’re the best to ever do it. We’re just a bunch of computer nerds really, but maybe it is time we started to embrace the praise a little bit.”

“That’s the beauty of Chase Atlantic. Every record is going to feel different because we’re still growing as individuals and as a collective,” Mitchel adds. “We’re still figuring life out.”

Chase Atlantic have always had a reputation for lofty live shows, with the three members very much on their rock star shit. The latest run of shows is a “huge upgrade” from anything the band have done in the past, which is a bold claim considering how massive their gigs have always felt. “We’re always trying to push it,” Clinton says. “We’re not in it for big profits. We want to make sure people have the best night ever and come back to do it all again in the future.”

“We still go hard, but there’s a level of focused intimacy as well,” he continues. “There’s vulnerability. It’s just more elevated.” The “refined moments” are to help the band tour more sustainably, meaning they’re not destroying their bodies in pursuit of the perfect gig. They also help the band turn huge arenas into something more intimate. “The gigs have become this diverse, welcoming space, which is incredible to see,” he adds.

Before the tour kicked off, fans new and old took to social media to ask about acceptable fits for the show. When their music pulls from so many different moods and styles, it can be hard to dress accordingly. “They should buy the merch and wear that,” Clinton grins. But really, Chase Atlantic have become a beacon of self-expression and feeling free to be who you want to be. “We’re just a bunch of misfits, so that’s absolutely the message,” Mitchel says.