Crooks & Nannies Share New Single '3am'

Crooks & Nannies, the West Philadelphia duo of Madel Rafter (they/them) & Sam Huntington, who ended 2022 supporting Rubblebucket, and touring with Lucy Dacus, released their No Fun EP on Grand Jury Music in January.

They followed it up with a cover of Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers' "Islands In The Stream" earlier this month and are back with the raging emo-meets-disco single "3am" today. The new track, a fan favorite off of their cassette release, is full of skronking sax, Final Fantasy synths, chimes, and an unrelenting disco-inspired beat.

Crooks & Nannies meld confessional emo with their brand of off-kilter indie rock and a dash of disco on the track, which is a spiritual companion to EP track "Sorry", with singer/drummer Sam Huntington opening up about coming out, transitioning and finding support, confidence, and community. Paste Magazine's Matt Mitchell writes; "From sax-heavy jazz to emo to plucky synth-pop to heat-seeking indie, "3am" is, possibly, the duo's grandest statement yet."

Speaking to the single, Huntington says "I wrote "3am" a couple years back, shortly after our previous single "Sorry", and they deal with similar themes. In both, I hear myself struggling to stay afloat - grasping frantically for confidence in the face of what felt, at the time, like an impossibly hostile world. In "3am" however, I hear a shift away from isolation and toward community.

As I pulled myself out of desperation and reconnected with friends, I began to see my own value reflected back at me through those relationships. The anger and frustration I had been directing inward was beginning to shift towards a more deserving - if incredibly vague - target: the world in general, with all of it's cruelties and injustices. I had not yet learned to care for myself, but had found a buoy in my care for others and felt fiercely determined to protect them.

Madel is one of the first people I came out to, and hearing their voice on "3am" makes so much sense to me. I wrote all the lyrics, but the song has a conversational quality and we wanted to lean into that by trading lines. As far as sound, we went for a mixture of punk and disco, hoping to simultaneously emphasize the visceral frustration, as well as the warmth and communal focus of the lyrics. The cherry on top was a raucus horn duel in the bridge, between Madel on sax, and their dad - John Rafter - on Trumpet."

Crooks & Nannies is a collaboration between multi-instrumentalists and friends since high school. Their signature blend of brash, confessional indie rock functions on extremes. Alternating between painfully tender and jarringly obtuse, the childhood friends fashion themes of growth, loss, and transformation into off-kilter pop songs that whirr with the unpredictability of a failing engine.

Thematically, their songs tackle experiences with gender dysphoria, transitioning, anxiety, and finding a place as a 20-something in a world that feels utterly hostile. That search spills over into the music, too, a playground where each song's center of gravity seems unpredictable and fluid.

Musically the duo slams against the contours of modern emo & 90s college rock, toying with tropes of country songwriting while threading through elements of electronic music & avant-pop. In less capable hands, the amalgam could be dizzying. Here, Rafter & Huntington are in complete control.

Grand Jury Music, founded in 2014, is an independent record label with offices in New York City & Richmond, VA. The label has recently released albums by Austin indie folk duo Hovvdy, Nashville songwriter Samia, Twin City indie pop rebels Hippo Campus, along with New York-based acts like genre-shapeshifter Jordana, kaleidoscopic indie pop weirdos Rubblebucket, & folk rock upstarts TOLEDO.

Past releases include music from the Athens art-rock vehicle Mothers, LA dream pop project Day Wave, and Chicago garage legends Twin Peaks.

Photo credit: Brooke Marsh

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