New music video from Last Relapse

Atlanta-based indie rock outfit Last Relapse have been walking a musical path paved by both a catalogue of songs left behind and a sense of unfinished business that drives them forward. First making their mark on the Southeastern music scene between 2006 and 2012, the group built a loyal following through more than 200 live performances and their breakout record Machine. Their sound combined relatable songwriting with bright guitar work, balancing intimate moments with anthemic energy and musicianship that helped confirm their status as a band to watch.

Then, just as momentum was gathering, everything came to a halt and what initially seemed like a temporary pause gradually became a 13-year absence. The members moved into different lives, cities and creative pursuits but the music remained simmering somewhere in the background. For frontman and guitarist David Holding, the band’s incomplete story never quite settled. “We thought it was a pause. But years passed, and suddenly the band was a ghost that never stopped haunting us,” he recalls. The image feels fitting for a group whose identity continued to exist through half-finished riffs, echoes of songs and melodies that had never found their way onto a recording.

Last year, that enduring connection finally brought the band back together in Atlanta where the members began revisiting the material that had originally sparked their journey, reopening a collection of unreleased songs and rediscovering the relationship that had once driven their work. Not just looking back at what they’d achieved, they viewed the reunion as an opportunity to address the music that had remained unresolved and one of the first results was “Everyone Dances Outside of Their Bodies,” a live favourite from their early years that had never previously been recorded, followed by the release of a self-titled EP.

Now Last Relapse are continuing their exciting return with “Throw Away the Key,” a single that carries an unusually long history; originally penned by David back in 2006, when he was just sixteen, it was the first song he had ever written entirely on his own. The track helped forge for the band’s early identity but despite its significance, it remained unheard outside the group’s circle for nearly two decades. Following the band’s early run of more than 200 shows, their extended hiatus and eventual 2025 comeback, it’s finally being introduced to a wider audience.

“Throw Away the Key” brings together breezy guitars, melodic hooks and mellow energy, shaped by an impactful production that allows the song’s original character to come through. Set up by the twang of guitar chords, the punch of drums ushers in a smooth groove where plashy cymbals and intricate guitar leads give way to David’s compelling vocal leads as he spins memorable melodies carrying picture painting lyrics. With slick ebb and flow, the song swells with layers of guitar and bursts of rolling drums to deliver an epic indie rock outing that’s catchy, engaging and timeless all at once.

Peppered with lead guitar flourishes throughout and wah-tinged tones in the finale, “Throw Away the Key” offers a stellar display of the band’s original sound and performance flair. The single also marks the first release connected to Early Days, a collection of songs composed and recorded during the period between 2008 and 2010, with Last Relapse preserving the identity of the original material, allowing listeners to encounter it in a different context.

After more than a decade away, Last Relapse have returned to the music that first brought them together and with “Throw Away the Key” finally out in the world, the band are giving unfinished ideas the chance to move forward. Commenting on the release, David Holding shares, “Throw Away the Key was the first song I ever wrote. I never imagined it would wait this long to be heard. Releasing it now lets it belong to the present instead of only being part of the past.”

Watch the music video for Throw Away the Key below