It’s been five years since Miami Horror released their debut album Illumination, and after spending a busy three years living and recording in Los Angeles, the Aussie synthpoppers have returned with their all-new record All Possible Futures. This sophomore album has been a long time coming, but over that time the group’s sound has grown and matured. Frontman Ben Plant says the new album is the result of blending the feel of Illumination with some new and experimental sounds.

“I think we really tried to achieve a balance between what we really wanted and doing what you would expect from the first album,” he says. “We initially started with a lot of experimentation with different genres and sounds to what we normally would, and then kind of tied it all together with the sound of the original album.”

With the boys confident they had their production techniques sorted after recording their first album, Plant says the foursome had more of a chance to write from a deeper, personal perspective on All Possible Futures. “We focused a lot on songwriting, which we didn’t really focus on so much in the first album. That was more about production and genre, but this time we felt that we already had that down pat and we focused more on writing from a personal point.”

Ahead of the album release, fans got their first taste of the updated Miami Horror sound with lead single ‘Love Like Mine’ getting regular airplay on triple j. Plant says the response from listeners has been nothing but positive. “It’s been all good news so far. They’ve played it for four weeks on high rotation so it’s pretty good for us. The rest of the world seems to be reacting well too, and I haven’t seen anything bad.”

The new album draws plenty of inspiration from LA’s laid-back lifestyle, and Plant says it’s a place he’s always been fascinated with from a young age. “We chose LA just because it’s a very original city. Even compared with a lot of places in Europe – they all have their own thing about them but they’re quite similar in the way that they’re built and the weather and the way that they’re run. I guess LA has its own strange thing that I’ve always been attracted to from childhood.”

As well as having a unique vibe, LA also happens to house some of the best recording studios in the world. Interestingly enough, however, Miami Horror chose to record the new album from the comfort of their own home studio. The quality of production is a testament to Plant’s skills behind the desk, and he says it’s no different to how they would have done it back home in Australia. “We recorded at home in LA and we would have recorded at home in Australia too. It’s more so that we’re lucky enough to be in the position that we can do it wherever we want. We found the place really interesting and we rented a house and had a studio in there.”

Although Miami Horror have never officially released any music in the United States, the band is starting to develop a devoted American fan base. “We had already toured America maybe two or three times before,” says Plant. “Once DJing and twice with the band. Considering we never really officially released anything here and it was all just word of mouth, we got a really good reaction.”

Most of the band members also have side projects they’ve been busy working on while living in the US for the past couple of years.

“Josh [Moriarty] has always been interested in a more rockier style of music, so All The Colours was his outlet for that. Wunder Wunder was this idea that Aaron [Shanahan] and I had where we went for more of a psychedelic, ’60s-inspired style. We weren’t sure if that music would fit Miami Horror, so we created that outlet to do that and we wanted to get that out of the system before we went on to the Miami Horror record.”

Now that All Possible Futures has been released, Plant says the band would like to be based back in Australia, but they no longer have anywhere to set up tent Down Under after living overseas for so long. For the time being, it looks like LA will be home to Miami Horror – though they’re set to hit the road to promote the album soon.

“We’re probably going to be touring for the next two years, so there won’t be much downtime,” says Plant. “I guess it will be spread between LA and Australia, but the thing with LA is we have a house, so that’s kind of become home for the moment, whereas every time we go to Australia we have to find somewhere to stay.

“Sometimes it’s not about what place you want to be in, it’s more about not moving to another place. It’s just nice to stay somewhere for a while, so I guess once we’re back in Oz we probably won’t want to fly back to LA soon.”

All Possible Futures is out now through Remote Control Records.

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