Music

Grand Rapids MI’s 3AM Makes You Feel Seen with ‘The Brainwashin’ EP

If you’ve ever felt the walls closing in while in the dairy section of your local Giant Eagle, you’re not alone. Grand Rapids’ emo/rock/alt hip-hop trio 3AM‘s new EP – The Brainwashin EP – will make you feel seen.

Since the release of Life’s Hard by Outcast Tapes in 2022, 3AM has been writing and collecting songs. If you follow them, you know they like to explore a lot of genres, and this recent period of time was no exception. However, they’ve had a tighter integration of genres over the last two years, aiming for smoother blends. The songs on The Brainwashin EP have a much stronger hip-hop/electronic/5th wave emo tone, integrating programmed beats and drum loops, booming 808s, and unconventional instruments with their usual mic’d amp guitars and acoustic drums.

By pulling these songs together, it helped give vision to the soon-to-be-released LP, allowing that work to be cohesive in theme and style. Thematically, these songs explore the anxiety of buying food, choosing a poor build for the RPG of life, wanting to wash your mental health problems away with laundry detergent, and getting caught smoking pot by your parents.

The title track, “Brainwashin,” was born out of the We’re Trying Records Bert compilation Vol. 1. Hunter had been social media friends with WTR for a while and loved the stuff they were putting out and was also friends with some of the other bands they released (like FinalBossFight!). So when WTR announced an open comp call, they were excited to contribute.

This single helped really start their relationship with WTR, and for this release we went back in to spruce things up a bit. Thematically the song is pretty forward. At the time of writing I was in the middle of an extended mental health crisis and I just had constant imagery of all these different ways I wish I could physically wash my brain, imagining if I could just pour enough laundry detergent on it I could pop it back in and have a fresh start.

BIO

3AM is an emo-folk, pop-punk band from Grand Rapids experimenting with hiphop/electronic/5th wave emo tone, integrating programmed beats and booming 808s.

CREDITS

Craig: Drums, vocals, writing, recording, mixing
Meg: Vocals, writing
Hunter: All other instrumentation, vocals, writing, recording, mixing, mastering

TRACKLIST
The Brainwashin EP

American Football Traphouse
Dollar Store
Life’s An RPG And I Put My Skill Points In The Wrong Category
Brainwashin
Above the Influence (I Just Talked to Your Mom)

Lyrics for “Brainwashin”:

I’m in need of a real brainwashin
Double-spin hot-cold heavy duty cottons
Put it in the bottom rack of the dishwasher
High-scrub high-flow pans and pots yeah

Chuck it in the wreckage jetsam and flotsam
Dunk it in a sharktank super fuckin awesome
Pickle it in brine with a bunch a salt spice yum
Still not enough to wash the bad stuff off it

Chorus

Whoa, can you spare me a gallon of soap?
I, know, the stains are startin to show
Like, whoa, can you spare me a gallon of soap?
I, know, im doin my best to cope.

Hang it up to dry out back on the clothesline
Watch it blow away like bro I don’t mind
Its had that old smell like pretty much the whole time
I haven’t felt well like pretty much my whole life

Unscrew the lid, open up the noggin
High time the pilot got ejected from the cockpit
A whole fuckin ocean worth a water on top of it
Still not enough to wash the bad stuff off it

Chorus

FFO: LVL UP, The Merrier, A Place For Owls
Genre: Emo, Rock, Alt Hip-Hop

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