Chase Atlantic is an Australian alternative R&B trio from Cairns, Queensland, formed in 2014 by brothers Mitchel Cave and Clinton Cave alongside their close friend Christian Anthony. Built on genre-blurring, streaming-native songwriting that critics have struggled for a decade to categorize, the band's 2017 single "Swim" crossed one billion Spotify streams in March 2025, nearly eight years after release, powering a TikTok-driven resurgence that turned a cult 2010s fanbase into a global, arena-selling audience for 2024's Lost in Heaven.
Chase Atlantic's lineup did not arrive fully formed. Christian Anthony and Mitchel Cave first crossed paths as teenagers in a manufactured boy band called What About Tonight, assembled in Sydney in 2012 specifically to audition for the fourth season of The X Factor Australia. The five-vocalist group, which also included Tyrone Georgiadis, Luke Howell and Brock Jays, was eliminated in week two, finishing eleventh, but not before performing for One Direction's Louis Tomlinson during boot camp, who reportedly told them, "they're just like us."
Meanwhile, Mitchel's older brother Clinton Cave was running a modestly popular YouTube covers channel, ClintonCaveMusic, which included a 2012 cover of Bruno Mars' "Locked Out of Heaven." In 2013 the three performed together for the first time under the name K.I.D.S. (Kind Imaginations, Destructive Situations), releasing an original song called "Addicted" before scrubbing the channel entirely and starting over. The real catalyst for the eventual trio, by the band's own account, was almost incidental: Clinton needed help finishing a university music project and recruited Mitchel and Christian to record with him. That session became the band's actual debut.
The Chase Atlantic name debuted with the EP Dalliance on May 26, 2014, pop rock and pop punk material that gave little hint of what the band would become. The February 2015 follow-up, Nostalgia, contained "Friends," a track that spread through Tumblr edit culture years before TikTok existed, an early signal of the band's aptitude for internet-native virality. "Friends" was certified Silver by the BPI in 2022, seven years after release.
Mitchel Cave has said the band's name carries no hidden meaning at all: "It literally means nothing... It's so hard to find band names, we just put two words we really liked together that can't be associated with anything else."
The early buzz from Nostalgia and 2016's Paradise EP caught the attention of Good Charlotte's Benji and Joel Madden, who signed the band to their management and development company, MDDN, in early 2016. Fans who discovered the band around this time recall, per Alternative Press, listening "when the first EPs came out in 2015 and 2016, around the time the band were signed to Joel and Benji Madden's management company MDDN." MDDN has remained part of the band's professional infrastructure ever since, later serving as a publishing and release conduit for 2019's Phases.
January 2017 brought the real inflection point: a fourth EP, Part One, timed to the band's signing with Warner Bros. Records. Part Two followed in March and Part Three in September, functioning as a rolling three-act rollout for the band's self-titled debut album. Mid-2017 also brought Chase Atlantic's first U.S. tour slot, opening for Sleeping With Sirens on the Gossip World Tour, followed by their own 16-date headline run, Chase Atlantic: The Tour, across 11 states.
Chase Atlantic, the self-titled debut, arrived October 4, 2017 through Warner Records, recorded across studios in Los Angeles and Cairns. Mitchel Cave recalled the release itself was moved up: "the album was supposed to be released on Friday but the band surprise dropped it today (Wednesday) instead." The 14-track record included the breakout single "Swim" alongside "Into It," "Consume" (featuring Goon Des Garçons), "Church," "Triggered" and "Okay." "Swim" would go on to become the band's defining, decade-spanning streaming asset, eventually earning RIAA Platinum along with BPI Platinum, Music Canada 2x Platinum, RMNZ Platinum and SNEP Gold certifications in France.
After extensive touring behind the debut, including a run on Vans Warped Tour that the band has repeatedly cited as formative "boot camp," Chase Atlantic left Warner Bros. Records in the middle of 2018 to go fully independent. It is a defining moment in the band's story precisely because it wasn't a drop: the band chose to walk away from a major label to self-determine their creative direction, continuing to work through MDDN and, subsequently, through independent partners BMG and Fearless Records.
2019's Phases, released through MDDN and BMG following the trap-heavy Don't Try This EP, gave the band its first Top Ten placement on any Billboard chart, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and No. 24 on the Independent Albums chart. Built around a retro, astronaut-sampling space concept, the record split critics: one contemporary review called it a "poorly executed hybrid of R&B, dark pop and a little bit of alternative," rating it 1.5 out of 5, even as the band's fanbase continued to grow.
The pandemic reshaped the making of 2021's Beauty in Death. With MDDN's Madden-owned studio shuttered by COVID-19, the band largely self-recorded at home, releasing the album March 5, 2021 through Chase Atlantic Music and Fearless Records. Christian Anthony has explained the title as a direct reference to the pandemic era, "a flower losing its petals... can still have that beauty to it," a meditation on life's fragility. A May 2022 deluxe edition folded in the standalone hits "OHMAMI" (featuring Maggie Lindemann) and "Escort."
If there is one constant in writing about Chase Atlantic, it's how hard critics have worked to categorize them. Alternative Press summarized the difficulty bluntly: "Describing the Chase Atlantic sound isn't easy, it's equal parts the Weeknd, Issues and The Neighbourhood. It's rock, alternative, hip-hop, R&B, trap and psychedelic, and a careful listener could probably pick out more." The band's own 2018 self-description was "dark alternative pop punctuated by rock and R&B," and their sound has since drifted through alternative pop, alternative R&B and, by the Lost in Heaven era, heavier hip-hop, pop and electronic elements. Fearless Records' artist bio frames them as "the missing link between anesthetized woozy trap, nocturnal R&B, and psychedelically-spun alternative." Named influences across interviews include Tame Impala, the Weeknd, the 1975 and The Neighbourhood.
Reviewers have added their own texture. Lightwood called the sound "the most curious, genre-defying sound I have ever heard," citing saxophone, flute and clarinet layered atop drums, guitar, rap hooks and electronics, and quoted AllMusic's line that Chase Atlantic "straddles the emotional chasm between thoughtful introspection and #nof*cksgiving debauchery." A Cherwell review of Beauty in Death described "punk-pop meets alternative R&B meets moody trap soul," fixated lyrically on "substance abuse, depression, loneliness, and heartache." A PitPass review of Lost in Heaven called it "an immersive world of dark romance, indulgence and introspection, blurring the lines between trap, R&B, and alt-rock with an effortlessly cinematic edge."
Christian Anthony has framed the band's evolution as organic rather than calculated: "Some of the first songs that blew up were written when we were 18, 19... it has been a slow change of us growing up over the past five, six years." Mitchel Cave has described the band's process more simply: "Whatever feels right in the stomach, really." Producer breakdowns of the catalog point to recurring signatures, triplet-flow trap-adjacent drum patterns, heavily reverbed and delayed ad libs drowned in atmosphere (a hallmark of Mitchel Cave's vocal layering), analog-leaning synth pads, and 808-driven basslines, a sonic template that has since become a reference point for younger bedroom producers working in the same dark alt-R&B lane.
Chase Atlantic have released seven EPs and four studio albums since 2014. The early run, Dalliance (2014), Nostalgia (2015), Paradise (2016), Part One, Part Two and Part Three (all 2017), and Don't Try This (2019), traces the band's evolution from pop-punk teenagers to major-label alt-R&B act.
| Year | Release | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Chase Atlantic | Self-titled debut, Warner Records; home of "Swim" |
| 2019 | Phases | MDDN/BMG; first Top Ten Billboard chart placement (Heatseekers Albums) |
| 2021 | Beauty in Death | Chase Atlantic Music/Fearless; self-recorded during the pandemic |
| 2022 | Beauty in Death (Deluxe) | Adds "OHMAMI" (feat. Maggie Lindemann) and "Escort" |
| 2024 | Lost in Heaven | Fourth studio album; reintroduced the band to a TikTok-native audience |
| 2025 | Lost in Heaven (High as Hell) | Deluxe edition; adds "Warcry" and "Victory Lap" (feat. De'Wayne, Larissa Lambert) |
Lost in Heaven, released November 1, 2024 through Fearless Records, followed a three-year gap after Beauty in Death and was preceded by lead single "Mamacita" (September 26, 2023) along with "Die for Me," "Doubt It" and "Ricochet." The 13-track record was largely produced by the band alongside Seth Drake, with additional production from Tricky Stewart, Ben "Benchiki" Chambers and Austin Hull. It charted at No. 4 on the ARIA Australian Albums chart, No. 8 in New Zealand, No. 26 in Scotland, No. 88 in the UK and No. 146 in Portugal, the band's best chart run to date.
Chase Atlantic's commercial arc is unusual: a band that built a cult following through the late 2010s experienced its largest streaming surge nearly a decade after its breakout single, driven overwhelmingly by short-form video virality. "Swim," from the 2017 debut, surpassed one billion Spotify streams for the first time in March 2025 and, per chart-tracking site Kworb, sits well over 1.3 billion cumulative streams, remaining one of the band's most-streamed daily tracks years after release. Sped-up and "TikTok version" edits of the song have circulated for years, part of a broader wave of nostalgic 2017 to 2018 alt/R&B tracks resurfacing through video-editing and sped-up audio trends. ChartMasters' running tally places "Swim" at 1,444,937,980 streams, with "Friends" close behind at over 1.2 billion.
Monthly Spotify listener figures illustrate the scale of the renewed attention: publicly tracked numbers show growth from roughly 4.6 million monthly listeners at an earlier career point to over 22.5 million by January 2025, holding in the high-teens-to-20-million range through 2025. By August 2025, the band ranked around No. 434 to 440 on Spotify's global artist ranking with roughly 19 million monthly listeners. AMNplify described the band, around the "Die for Me" rollout, as "one of Australia's biggest global exports with 16 million Spotify monthly listeners." On an October 2025 appearance on Joel Madden's Artist Friendly podcast, the band cited over 8 billion cumulative Spotify streams, 20 million-plus monthly listeners, nine gold certifications and roughly 2.7 million YouTube subscribers as career milestones. Streaming analytics site StreamClout separately lists total streams at over 12.6 billion with top listener cities including São Paulo, Jakarta, Bangkok, London and Kuala Lumpur, underscoring how global and non-Anglophone-driven the band's resurgence has been.
Chase Atlantic have built their reputation as much through relentless touring as through streaming. Early headline runs, the Nostalgia Tour (2015) and Paradise Tour (2016), gave way to the 2017 Gossip World Tour supporting Sleeping With Sirens and the band's own Chase Atlantic: The Tour. 2018 brought the We Were Here Tour opening for Lights, a full World Tour with support from Cherry Pools, Xavier Mayne and Riley, and a run on Vans Warped Tour that the band has repeatedly called formative, 26 shows in a row with no fixed schedule, sharing bills with Waterparks, the Maine and Crown the Empire, and coming away, in the band's words, having learned "how to be in a band and care for everyone around them." That year also brought festival slots at Download Festival Australia, Bonnaroo (alongside Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish), Firefly and Pukkelpop.
The 2019 Phases Tour was an extensive North American and European trek, including a sold-out stop at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles. The Beauty in Death Tour ran October 1 to November 17, 2021 across North America, followed by 2022's Cold Nights Tour through Australia and New Zealand. 2023 brought international festival expansion via live dates in Brazil, Lollapalooza and Reading & Leeds. The band's UK popularity became its own recurring media narrative: a 2022-era Alternative Press cover story documented three sold-out Hammersmith Apollo shows, after the run was moved up from the 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy, with Mitchel Cave noting British crowds "know how to enjoy themselves... I feel like they put on more of a show than we do."
The Lost in Heaven Tour, announced August 20, 2024 and launched October 16 that year, is the band's largest to date, spanning North America, Oceania, Europe and Japan with stops including the Toyota Music Factory, Riverstage Brisbane, The O2 Arena in London and Lanxess Arena. In August 2025 the band headlined Japan's Summer Sonic Festival alongside Fall Out Boy and Yungblud. By the band's own account on the October 2025 Artist Friendly podcast, the tour cycle had sold more than 250,000 tickets, and the band announced a forthcoming theatrical concert film documenting their sold-out O2 Arena show.
Chase Atlantic write and produce the overwhelming majority of their own material, but the catalog includes several notable outside collaborations. Goon Des Garçons featured on "Consume" from the 2017 debut. De'Wayne and Xavier Mayne both appeared on "Please Stand By" from Beauty in Death; Xavier Mayne returned on "Mess Me Up" from Lost in Heaven, and De'Wayne came back on "Victory Lap" from the 2025 deluxe edition alongside Australian singer-songwriter Larissa Lambert. Plvtinum collaborated with the band on "Hit My Line" around the Beauty in Death era.
The band's most-discussed feature remains Maggie Lindemann's turn on the 2021 remix of "OHMAMI," a collaboration that began organically over social media: the band posted an instrumental to TikTok for fan duets, Lindemann posted her own rendition, and the two acts connected directly online before ever meeting in person, finally doing so at the shoot for the single's cover art. Veteran hitmaker-producer Tricky Stewart co-produced "Mamacita" and "Don't Laugh" on Lost in Heaven, while Seth Drake and Ben "Benchiki" Chambers have been the band's most consistent outside production collaborators across recent albums, with Drake credited across nearly the entirety of that record. Historic tourmates and scene affiliates include Blackbear, Sleeping With Sirens, Good Charlotte and Lights.
The period since late 2023 represents the band's most active and highest-profile stretch to date. After a hiatus the band has described as time to work on themselves, they returned with "Mamacita" on September 26, 2023, a track blending alternative R&B and pop that marked, in the band's own framing, the beginning of a new era.
The road to Lost in Heaven was unusually turbulent. Mitchel Cave revealed the band lost roughly 70 percent of what would have become the album's instrumental work after accidentally leaving his laptop out in the rain; the files were unrecoverable, and Cave has said he still does not keep backups, "I guess I like playing with fire." A subsequent creative retreat to Lake Tahoe was derailed by a severe snowstorm that, per Clinton Cave, left the band as the only people who hadn't evacuated the town, shifting the trip from inspiration to survival as they became, in his words, "full-time snow shovelers." Cave summarized the ordeal: "We basically had to make a fifth album, because we lost so much of what we were gonna do." The band ultimately regrouped at Blackwood Studios in Studio City, working in separate rooms while checking in with each other throughout.
Lost in Heaven was announced September 20, 2024 for a November 1 release. Reviews were broadly positive: UIC Radio called it "introspective, reflecting themes of loneliness and emotional struggle despite the band's growing popularity"; WNUR Wavelength described "a blend of alternative R&B, pop, and rock influences, exploring themes such as depression and passion"; and PitPass praised its "cinematic atmosphere and recurring motifs of dark romance," rating it 7.5 out of 10. A more measured review from The Rice Thresher noted the album "remains consistent with Chase Atlantic's established style" but "offers limited innovation beyond their previous work," while student outlet The Smoke Signal gave it an A grade, praising an album that "explores themes of self-destruction and emotional vulnerability through chaotic, immersive lyrics and production."
On a February 13, 2025 appearance on The Zach Sang Show, the band confirmed a deluxe edition was underway, with Christian Anthony describing it as "an extension of the story on Aura and Void," featuring material that "didn't make the album," a reference tied to the companion release You (Aura & Void Version), which appeared February 14, 2025. Lost in Heaven (High as Hell) arrived October 3, 2025, preceded by "Facedown" (August 14, 2025) and "Remind Me" (September 12, 2025). One review of the deluxe edition called it "a fully realised statement of who Chase Atlantic have become," praising "growth without losing their identity."
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2012–2013 | Christian Anthony and Mitchel Cave compete on The X Factor Australia as part of manufactured group What About Tonight; the trio later records together as K.I.D.S. |
| 2014 | Chase Atlantic forms in Cairns; debut EP Dalliance released May 26 |
| 2015 | Nostalgia EP released, including "Friends" |
| 2016 | Signed to Benji and Joel Madden's MDDN; Paradise EP released |
| 2017 | Signed to Warner Bros. Records; Part One/Two/Three EPs; self-titled debut album released October 4 |
| 2018 | Exit Warner Bros. Records to go independent; Vans Warped Tour run; AAA Rising Star Award |
| 2019 | Phases released via MDDN/BMG; first Top Ten Billboard chart placement |
| 2021 | Beauty in Death released; "OHMAMI" with Maggie Lindemann follows |
| 2022 | Beauty in Death deluxe edition; "Friends" certified Silver by the BPI |
| 2023 | "Mamacita" released September 26, opening a new era; Lollapalooza and Reading & Leeds dates |
| 2024 | Lost in Heaven released November 1; Lost in Heaven Tour launches October 16 |
| 2025 | "Swim" passes one billion Spotify streams (March); Summer Sonic Festival headline slot (August); Lost in Heaven (High as Hell) deluxe released October 3; Artist Friendly podcast appearance |
Nothing specific. Mitchel Cave has said the band simply combined two words they liked that weren't already associated with anything else, calling it a practical solution to how hard it is to find an available band name.
No. The band's actual pre-Warner trajectory ran through Good Charlotte's Joel and Benji Madden and their company MDDN, not the Brooklyn label Fool's Gold Records, which has no documented connection to the band.
The band exited its major-label deal in 2018 by choice rather than being dropped, opting for full creative independence and continuing to release music through MDDN and, later, BMG and Fearless Records.
The 2017 single spent years accumulating streams before crossing one billion on Spotify in March 2025, propelled by sped-up and "TikTok version" edits that resurfaced the song for a much younger, global audience largely discovering it for the first time through short-form video.
The band posted an instrumental to TikTok inviting fans to duet with it. Maggie Lindemann posted her own rendition, the two camps connected online, and the collaboration became an official remix, with the parties not meeting in person until the cover-art shoot.
Mitchel Cave accidentally left his laptop out in the rain, destroying roughly 70 percent of the instrumental work for the album with no backup, forcing the band to rebuild what became Lost in Heaven largely from scratch.
Chase Atlantic's reception has always split along a familiar line: critical ambivalence toward genre-blurring, dark, confessional pop-R&B set against a large and devoted streaming and touring audience. Early reviews of 2019's Phases were harsh, one outlet rating it 1.5 out of 5, while Lost in Heaven five years later drew far warmer notices, PitPass at 7.5 out of 10 and The Smoke Signal at an A grade, alongside a more measured Rice Thresher assessment that the record "offers limited innovation beyond their previous work." What has remained consistent throughout is scale: sold-out runs at Hammersmith Apollo and the O2 Arena in London, a headline slot at Japan's Summer Sonic Festival alongside Fall Out Boy and Yungblud, and, by the band's own account, more than 250,000 tickets sold across the Lost in Heaven Tour cycle.
Chase Atlantic's story sits at the intersection of manufactured-pop origins, Good Charlotte's Madden-brothers artist-development pipeline, and the streaming-era phenomenon of decade-old catalog songs finding new life through short-form video. Readers interested in the same dark, guitar-and-808-inflected alt-pop lane the band helped popularize may also want to explore The Neighbourhood, cited directly as a sonic reference point for Chase Atlantic, and Plvtinum, one of the band's outside collaborators.