“LATE AGAIN BLURS THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN POP AND ALTERNATIVE IN A WAY THAT'S BOTH CHARMING AND VULNERABLE”
- Billboard
“TURNS THE TEXTURES OF SAND-SHIFTING JAZZ FROM RIO INTO AN ELECTRONICALLY ALIVE CORNER OF BROOKLYN”
- Jazztimes
“A DASHING BLEND OF DREAM POP WITH SOUNDS FROM HIS COUNTRY”
- Galore
ABOUT LATE AGAIN
Late Again is the dream-pop project of the Brazilian Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rafael Melo.
Born and raised on the coast of São Paulo, Rafael found in New York City a home for his music. With his distinct background, Late Again combines the raw irony of the big city with the intimate textures of his home country to create a unique blend of dream pop.
Since his debut in April 2024, Late Again has been steadily building momentum, drawing over1 million unique listeners on Spotify, hitting the SubModern charts, and packing shows on the East Coast.
Late Again has collaborated with Brazilian composer Arthur Verocai (BADBADNOTGOOD, Hiatus Kaiyote, Gal Costa), producer Heal Mura (Aldo, The Band), and visual artist Rollinos (Tame Impala, Toro y Moi, Metronomy). With a background in visual arts that ranges from award-winning films to videogames, Late Again's work tries to expand the boundaries of his music beyond the sound itself, in an effort to tell his stories in whichever medium it takes.
Drawing inspiration from artists ranging from Gorillaz to Caetano Veloso, or Tame Impala to Ryuichi Sakamoto, Late Again sits comfortably alongside dream-pop contemporaries such as Mac DeMarco, Still Woozy, The Marias, and Men I Trust.
Late Again is currently getting ready to release its most ambitious EP yet, I Dreamt It's All Awake. The first single drops on June 3rd, and the full EP is set for September 4th.
I DREAMT I WAS AWAKE
I Dreamt I Was Awake is a six-track dream pop EP about the gap between the life you picture and the one you're actually living and the strange ways people make peace with that distance. With self-aware, sometimes funny, always subtly critical songs, the EP fluctuates between tenderness and irony, minimalism and chaos, and the hyper-personal and the universal.
Late Again's fourth studio EP starts to show a common thread across his past work, while a confidence shift becomes clearer as he doubles down on his unique writing style with each new track. Drawing from dream pop textures, alternative beats, melodies from his native Brazil, and cynical yet friendly lyrics, Late Again crafts a space where lucidity and self-delusion coexist. A collection of songs that are sonically nostalgic and welcoming, without losing a nuanced, soft but exacting edge.
I Dreamt It's All Awake's. The first single drops on June 3rd, and the full EP is set for September 4th.
2026 TOUR
With sold-out shows in Brooklyn (The Sultan Room) and DC (Comet Ping Pong), Late Again created a solid base on the East Coast.
In 2026, he's visiting the West Coast for the first and time setting off in his first European tour
For the live show, the team developed a custom, self-sufficient lighting rig and visual setup that travels with the artist. At the core of Late Again’s performance is the belief that visuals are as important as any instrument on stage. With Rafael’s background in multimedia art, lighting becomes a key tool, designed to be an integral part of the show and to help the audience connect with each song on a new level, no matter how big the stage is.
On stage, Late Again sings while playing live guitar and synth, orchestrating both sound and light in a performance that’s as visually captivating as it is musically immersive.