In February 2025, Melbourne-born and now LA-based electropop veterans Miami Horror made a grand return with We Always Had Tomorrow – their third studio album, following nearly a full decade between records, and marking their first fully-independent release after leaving the label system and operating on their own terms. 

It came as a surprise to some listeners, who figured the project's time had come and gone in a manner not dissimilar to many of their peers from the late 2000s and early 2010s. Thanks to the advent of having the world of music at your fingertips, however, Miami Horror never truly went away.

“In those first five years after [previous album, 2015's] All Possible Futures came out, I felt that pressure,” says multi-instrumentalist and producer Ben Plant – the project's founding member, who has overseen every iteration since it kicked off back in 2008. 

“You'd get messages all the time, being like 'Where are you? What are you doing? You've got to put something out!' As the streaming era came in, though, it didn't start to matter as much; everyone seems to have their own lane and time, which is kind of beautiful. 

“The pressure fell off a lot after that.”

Plant continued making music under the Miami Horror moniker in smaller doses in the late 2010s, including an EP dubbed The Shapes released in 2017. Speaking about that era retrospectively, however, he admits that the material simply “didn't hit”. 

“It didn't sit right with us,” he says. “When everything shut down in 2020, we needed to reassess our values of what was important. Immediately, I knew what we needed to do. Making this album connected to both the long-term story of Miami Horror as well as our own personal story. It was this grand vision – we knew we wanted there to be a message to the music.”

Said vision for We Always Had Tomorrow seemed to have everything but the kitchen sink, including several key collaborations with the likes of Alice Ivy, Telenova, Woodes, and Royel Otis keyboardist Tim Ayre (formerly of Tim & Jean and Lazywax). 

The only thing Plant hadn't factored in, ironically, was the album title – with only a few weeks to go until the slated release, the clock was ticking. 

“It was actually kind of scary,” he says with a laugh. “I had these huge lists of song titles, most of which I didn't even end up using, and all these lists of details I wanted for each song. It was the most planned-out album in our history... except for not having a title.”

Settling on the title last minute, Plant acknowledges it generates a sense of grammatical confusion – it makes more sense if it's We Always Have Tomorrow, or We've Always Had Tomorrow, for instance. 

In a sense, however, that's what he was going for: “It's supposed to be looking backwards and forwards at the same time,” he says. “That's what the album is reflecting on: The cycle of life, and the those periods along our journey that give us a different sense of perspective. Going from being a kid, discovering the world, all the way through to starting to lose people and looking back on your life... as a title, it ended up meaning a lot.”

This month sees Miami Horror stage a homecoming with a trio of east-coast headlining shows. The centrepiece of their first Australian shows in six years is a slot at Live At The Gardens, taking place in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens, where they will be joined by Sneaky Sound System and Bag Raiders for a night that is guaranteed to stir the dancing shoes of elder millennials from their slumber. 

“The last time we played in Australia was the last time we really did the rock four-piece thing,” says Plant. 

“It was fun, but it wasn't really the vibe of the project originally. Building a new thing around it since shows came back has been great; we did a big tour through Europe in 2022, and we've played at least a couple of times a year since then in either America or Mexico. We have two vocalists, one male and one female, in order to cover all the material. 

“It feels good to be able to do those songs properly rather than a rote interpretation by a single person,” he adds. “We're also going to have some special vocalist guests for these shows, too.”

Much like the audience will ignite when Sneaky System play UFO and Pictures, and when Bag Raiders play Shooting Stars, it goes without saying that tracks like Sometimes and Holidays are set for a rapturous response when they're played live in the Gardens. 

Plant is questioned on his relationship to the band's breakthrough material – which is now in its angsty teenage years – and whether he still gets something out of performing it even when the notion is to keep looking forward as an artist. “It's never gotten old to us,” he says.

“You work really hard at the start of your career, and you get to reap that reward for the rest of it. You obviously get better at your craft as you get older, but you never go as insanely hard as you did when you were 21. I'm glad that music has carried us all this time. 

“For a while there, nostalgia felt like a bad thing – you want to remain relevant and not fall off the wagon, right? You don't want to seem dated. But there's just something truly beautiful about people who listened to you when you were 15 coming to see you. 

“Maybe they didn't get to when they were that age because we didn't play an all-ages show near them, or they didn't have the money for it or something like that,” he adds. “We always get messages, even now, that people who loved us back in the day are coming out and seeing us for the first time. 

“It can only be a positive, for sure.”

Miami Horror’s We Always Had Tomorrow is out now, with tickets to their upcoming shows available now.

​Presented by Frontier Touring

MIAMI HORROR

​SPECIAL GUESTS TELENOVA AND TSEBA

​AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 2025 - ALL SHOWS 18+

Thursday 27 November - ICF: WAREHOUSE | Perth, WA | 18+

​eventbrite.com.au

Sunday 30 November - Liberty Hall Courts | Sydney, NSW | 18+

​moshtix.com.au

*Also performing at:

​Saturday 29 November

​Live at the Gardens | Royal Botanic Gardens | Melbourne, VIC*

​Lineup: Miami Horror, Sneaky Sound System and Bag Raiders plus DJs AROHA and Joey Lightbulb

​ticketmaster.com.au

*Not a Frontier Touring show