3AM, which stands for 3 Awkward Men, is a band based in a few places, namely Michigan, and the midwestern United States. They released an album, Home’s Here, on November 8, 2024, and completely took over my playlists, car speakers, and became the topic of most conversations that I had over the release weekend. 3AM is comprised of Hunter (main vocals and guitar), Craig (drums) and Meg (vocals and strings), who came together despite geographical distance to create one of the most incredible albums of 2024. 3AM is known for their fun, captivating sound and Home’s Here is no different – the album is a beautiful blend of multiple genres and influences that work together to both tell stories and help the listener find their own meaningful interpretation from each track.
Made up of eleven tracks and almost thirty-six minutes, Home’s Here is genuinely one of my favorite releases from this year. 3AM have such wonderful lyricism skills and are so incredibly talented at songwriting overall that each track is its own work of art. It was so hard to figure out a few favorites to spotlight in this review because I have such a deep love for each track and take such great meaning from each as well. However, after a couple listen-throughs and some thought, I solidified “Home’s There” as my favorite from the album.
The seventh track, “Home’s There”, is so unique and so striking that when I heard it for the first time, I had to put it on loop and hear it a few more times before I felt like I could move on. It takes inspiration from classic blues sounds and has a folksy beat and guitar that hit me straight in the heart, and along with the lyrical content, forced me to think of the prallels between the sound and lyrics about the home in the song and my own hometown. The opening lines talk about a grandfather, still riding his tractor at eighty-four years old, while the grandchild is dreading waking up for their desk job – and I know that a lot of people, myself included, have compared their places in life and their struggles to that of their older family members, wondering if perhaps there’s something wrong with them. The song then pivots to the grandchild longing for their hometown in Michigan, the folksy sounds amplifying this feeling of yearning for home, for warmth, for belonging. It almost feels like a song you’d hear sung alongside an acoustic guitar at a bonfire, or at summer camp in the woods – it feels like it’s been a classic for decades, and yet 3AM just released it.
Another favorite of mine is “Dinner”, which also features a more folksy sound, acoustic guitar driving the song and a violin adding a lot of auditory depth to the track. The song starts off with the lyrics talking about making dinner so that you don’t forget to eat, and the vocals heavily feature two people in this track, which gives it such ambience and gravity as the lighter and heavier vocals combine, creating a really nice atmosphere. The violin in this track not only adds to the folksy sound, but also has this air of nostalgia that brings one back to the whole tone of the album, nostalgia and home, and “Dinner” is one of those tracks that I’m sure will be a staple in my playlists for a long time.
I was super lucky and was able to interview 3AM about the album, the inspirations behind it, and their creative process, as well as how they feel about certain tracks and how they felt about certain aspects of the release.
Valor: When you describe your band to someone who’s never heard your music before, which bands or musicians do you compare your sound to?
Hunter: I guess it depends, if it’s someone within the scene or that I can gauge knows emo music, I’ll say we’re originally very influenced by Marietta and dikembe. If the person I’m talking to hasn’t heard of those bands I’ll mention blink-182 and early modest mouse. If that doesn’t land I say that we are an indie band with bad singers…
Valor: When you began writing this album, what were some creative challenges you had? What track was the most rewarding to write or complete?
Hunter: Most of the creative challenges for this album were workflow related. Since we live pretty far apart, I’d usually track guitar and maybe vocals for a new song, then take a weekend to fly out to Michigan and track drums with Craig. The logistics of that aside, on this album I think we learned we make better songs when I come with an idea for a riff or chorus and then we write the majority of the song together, as opposed to pre-tracking it. It’s slower and we get fewer songs recorded per session, but I think the songs are better when they’re more directly made by both Craig and I. The title track is an example of that more collaborative process. I remember when we got the instruments tracked, and we put in the sample of our friend Derek, we were so stoked about how it turned out. We blasted the pure instrumental loud af like 10 times in a row at literally 3AM that night haha.
Craig: I think each had their own unique challenge, most of which related to either structure of the song, cutting parts out that weren’t necessary, or just making sure a singular part of a song worked perfect between all instruments. Most rewarding track for me was absolutely have you tried turning it off and on again… we hyped each other up to either sing, scream, or nail our parts on guitar/drums, and I think it really showed through in the song (goose egg included in song).
Valor: A lot of things inspire an album – what was your favorite piece of inspiration that went into home’s here?
Hunter: From an emotional angle, unconditional love for your family and friends, as cheesy as that is haha. From a technical standpoint, in the early writing phase of this album I learned how to play the song “home is where the heart is” by sweet pill. Learning that song literally taught me how to do finger tapping to a level I’d never practiced or used. That style is featured pretty heavily on most of the songs.
Craig: Hunter knowing that he’s going to move back to Michigan soon so we can continue to pump out bangers.
Valor: What was something not related to music that inspired the album, either heavily or just a little bit?
Hunter: I think it’s worthwhile and interesting to tackle our big issues, like for me personally anxiety and depression, through the lens of mundane every day experiences. The song recycling is an example of that, and it started from me really taking back the recycling, then extrapolating and hyperbolizing the experience. I don’t know if this will make perfect sense, but have you ever been looking at stars in the sky at night, and you can see certain stars out of the corner of your eye, but not when you try to look directly at them ? I think this inductive writing method, beginning with inspiration from little everyday trivial experiences that we’d normally just throw away but then taking them to extremes, is a way to examine parts of myself that I can’t see if I’m directly looking.
Craig: Personally for me it was nostalgia. A lot of the songs reflect back on things we did, stupid or otherwise, in a place we love with people we love.
Valor: What would you say is the best setting for listening to home’s here? Is it outside, inside, during specific weather, etc.?
Hunter: The production nerd in me says good earphones or hi-fi stereo; we put a lot of details in the songs and want you to hear them! The actual true answer however is it’s best to hear it in your car, too loud, while driving too fast.
Meg: Sitting outside in a blizzard.
Craig: Two fucking feet of snow stuck in your car driving back from work.
Valor: What track are you most excited to see audience/fan reactions to? What’s the most exciting part overall of this release?
Hunter: I’m most excited for folks to hear “have you tried turning it off and back on?”. It’s another song that we wrote entirely together, was recorded after our studio upgrade, and to me has the essential 3AM mix of pop choruses, sprawling structure, and huge drums. It’s the best we have to offer. Considering the whole album, these are some of the best songs we’ve written, and they are an entire level-up in terms of production quality from our last release. I’ve spent a ton of time on learning front-end recording technique and back-end production, so I’m excited to hopefully see that pay off in the way the music is experienced.
Meg: Probably dinner, it’s sonically and thematically pretty different from the rest of the album.
Valor: If you had to assign home’s here a color palette, what would it include? Feel free to use pictures to describe it!
Hunter: Midwest fall, but at night. The glowing cherry of a cigarette and shadows of deep red black cast by the crackling bonfire. The off white of a mist-shrouded moon, far enough out in the country that it’s plenty of light to see by, but not enough light to see in full color.
Meg: Hunter’s over here writing poetry and I’m like idk, black?
Craig: Black.
Valor: If 3AM had an animal mascot, what animal would it be?
Hunter: Probably Timber (the dog from our previous band photo) or a coyote :).
Craig: Sperm whale.
I first heard this album during the last part of a long road trip to Colorado. The nostalgic tone of the album hit me right in the chest as I watched the mountains fade out of view in the review mirror – Colorado represented an unachievable dream for me just as this album feels similar to the feeling of wanting to return to childhood or to your hometown and knowing that it’s not feasible. Even now, as I’m preparing to leave a city I’ve lived in for so long, I can’t help but feel nostalgic for it already. I consider everything in this city that I haven’t done or seen and I wonder just how bad it’ll hurt once I leave – but that’s the beauty of this album and of its tone and theme. We are not alone in our longing, we are not alone in our nostalgia. We always long for something, we all yearn for a time that we can’t go back to, but we also know that there is strength in powering forward. So as I leave this city that I’ve lived in for many years, I’ll remember Home’s Here and its weight, and I’ll play it in my new city, in my new apartment, as I unpack my boxes and sweep the floors.
Written by Valor
