In the ever-evolving world of music, we’re always looking for artists who push boundaries, offer new perspectives, and explore untouched realms. Sonic innovation is evident in the detailed guitar melodies, textural drums, intricate sound design, and intentional vocals that define the 5 AM Trio. Their debut album, Esoterra, draws in listeners through deeper journeys into bass and jam-centric arrangements, demonstrating how electronic and instrumental production can not only coexist but also complement one another.

5AM Trio continues to expand the possibilities of electronic music by blending raw instrumentation and high-resolution sound design, opening a musicverse of uncharted jam-tronica territory. Comprising Sam Andrus (5AM) on production/keys and vocals, Aaron Harel (ZONE Drums) on drums, and Keith Wadsworth (Wax Future) on guitar and bass, this Philly-based trio has a chemistry that defies genres and creates space for limitless musical expression.

The trifecta has performed at major venues and festivals such as Red Rocks, Sonic Bloom, Elements, Summerdance, Resonate, and Secret Dreams, sharing the stage with artists including Tipper, Papadosio, CloZee, Opiuo, Break Science, Lotus, and Sunsquabi. Beyond their vibrant soundscapes and bass drops, 5AM Trio emphasizes human connection, community celebration, and healthy living. They donate a portion of all their earnings to the One Tree Planted project and consistently inspire and encourage fans to express themselves through any art form, on and off the stage.

Flowing seamlessly from top to bottom, Esoterra reflects the blood, sweat, and tears poured into the trio’s debut album and everything that has led them to it. The project draws on elements of jazz, glitch, downtempo, jam, bass, and more. With some tracks developing for more than five years, the trio’s dedication and passion for what they do are embedded in every minute.

Themes of connection to the earth and appreciation for the beauty of nature are combined with positive affirmations and the message that everything will always be all right. Listeners are enveloped in blissful sensations and flow states from the hard-hitting electronic beats and soothing sunset anthems. Esoterra is a patient, intentional collection of whimsical experimentation and the blending of electronic and band styles to form a standout masterwork.

We sat down with the 5AM Trio and uncovered how they navigate the various transitions and adventures as they advance their careers together and separately, defining what this group and album represent to them and to music as a whole. Please continue reading for an exclusive interview with insights into how the trio built Esoterra song by song over the years, how the Philly scene has shaped them, and so much more!

Listen to Esoterra as you read!

Liz Seitzinger, Electric Hawk: How has the transition been of working together and learning each other’s creative flow and work ethic?

5AM: “I always felt like a lot of the music I was writing really called for a mid-range melodic element, like a guitar. I had been listening to rock and jam for my whole life, and later discovered hip-hop beats and electronic music. So, a lot of the riffs, motifs, and ideas I would come up with felt like they were written for a guitar. It was very organic because Keith and I had been playing jams and shows together almost since I moved to Philly. One of them was at Silk City; we both shared the lineup, and at the time, I didn’t know the keyboard well, so I brought a velocity-sensitive keyboard controller to play leads and melodies. Keith came on and was like, ‘Sam, play that shit! You have an instrument,’ and I would just come up with a solo inspired by him telling me to send it. So in that way, we’ve always been creatively pushing each other, and it felt very organic bringing Keith into the trio.”

“With that said, I also wanna shout-out Zach (Tygris) who is a very musical, kindred spirit, and great friend, because without him, the trio would never have started. He was a huge part of the beginning of the story. Bringing Keith into the project has brought us more in the direction of a jam band, whereas before, it was sitting within the Pretty Lights Live band world of turntableism and sample-based music. Now, we’ve found ourselves in this jam territory and jazz, with Keith and me working on melodies, doubling, and harmonizing. It’s been a really cool progression.”

LS: How has Philadelphia shaped you as artists?

Keith Wadsworth: “Sam moved here from Delaware. There was a lot of jam between us before we linked up for the trio. Lots of collaborations and side project shows. Aaron plays drums in my other project, Wax Future, whenever we have a live element. You could stumble out of your door and be in a jam session in Philadelphia. It’s been about a decade plus, for me, with Wax starting out and joining the trio, watching not only musicians flourish and start projects together, but promoters now have one of the best festivals on the East Coast. When you ask about Philly, how much time do you have? You know that meme where the guy opens the lawn chair? There’s a lot of talent and not much ego. Humans are humans, but there’s not a lot of ego based on how much talent there is, and everyone’s just trying to help each other. Someone will jump on your bill. It’s brimming with talent, and there’s not a shred of ego that takes over decisions. It’s all about collaboration. Aaron, Sam, and I are in the tapestry of this Philadelphia story with dance music.”

ZONE Drums: “The Philly jam scene was poppin’ in the late 2010s when we started to get kicking. Artists like Lotus, Disco Biscuits, Brother’s Pasture, and Ruso have always been just a hotbed for the electronic jam combo scene. We always had a good place to start in a community that was ready to receive it. Many venues supported us as we got our feet wet, including City Bisco and The Blockley. Since then, the music scene has changed quite a lot, but the city as a whole, besides Denver, is one of the better places for this kind of music.”

5AM: “I was eyeing where to live next when I was living in Delaware with my parents, and I almost moved until I realized Philly had a scene, but not only did it have a scene, but the scene was growing. Right around the time I moved there, coincidentally, Tipper played Suwanee, and a bunch of people brought back all the glitchy music they saw to Philly. Because of that, I was able to stay in Philly, as there was suddenly a huge scene for this style of music. Compared to the East Coast and the Midwest, it’s been really strong and a lot of the energy has culminated into things like Aspire Higher and shows they’ve thrown around here.” 

LS: What motivates you as a trio and as individuals?

5AM: “I once decided if I were ever asked or asked myself what my purpose is, I’d want to always have an answer ready. So, I came up with this thing I memorized, and it was: to inspire people, to test the limits of my potential, and to bring my visions into reality.”

ZONE Drums: “I think all three of us are mega driven by the same thing, each in our own little flavor. A lot of it is just inspiring other people to chase their dreams. We three have been collectively chasing our dreams for more years than we’ve been alive. We work really hard and constantly remind ourselves why we do it. We love this shit, and we try to encourage other people also to do it. No matter how hard it is, they should not necessarily pursue music, but find the thing that they love. I think that it drives us because that’s what we’re driven by, but it also drives us to push others to do it.”

Keith W: “If you’re capable, you’re obligated. That’s kinda my M.O. I really want to give people a break. I’m good at making music, and I’m capable of doing that, so I’m obligated to make art that will give people reprieve for a second, or two.”

Zone Drums: “We’ve been getting better over the past couple of years, taking some time to talk on stage while we’re playing to the crowd and say something. Anything to inspire in any way, shape, or form, and rotating how we’re feeling, what we’re caring about, or worrying about, or excited about. Just taking a moment, we can reach hundreds to thousands of people listening to us and say something beyond the music. Whatever the message may be, there’s always a message behind it, and we’re always trying to put that in the foreground, which motivates us too.” 

LS: How does having your own side projects affect and shape the 5AM Trio?

5AM: “Everything that the trio does comes from sketches, full tracks, experiments, and things I do in my studio that are equally applicable to either version of my projects. Whatever I’m inspired by in the projects themselves as a whole makes its way into the trio. It’s my style, which is already evident, combined with Aaron and Keith’s aesthetics and things that they make.”

ZONE Drums: “I play with another guy named Cal Blac, and it’s more fusion-y and a little heavier, more like rock band type stuff. After I find myself playing with him, I’ll come back to the trio and do more technical fills, or a little more rock stuff comes in, like ooo I’m going to open up this hi-hat and lean more into it. They seep in together, and Keith loves metal, so metal will also always seep into it. He’s been in a million metal bands. It’s the collective energy from everything we delve into. We’ve always been very multifaceted instrumentalists, and they all find their way back in, except for the material I DJ. That doesn’t make it into the trio because it’s extraordinarily different than what we do.” 

Keith W: “A lot with Wax, there’s a rollercoaster aspect where sometimes I’ll fling myself off stage and scream or bump the microphone accidentally. It’s like a frontman vibe with Wax. With trio, there’s so much power in being a supporting actor, and in an effective way, it can be larger than the sum of its parts. I can push as much energy into Sam’s ideas and extrapolate what he wants melodically and what we want as a team. It’s awesome to have the two aspects. A sixth gear and a more focused, collaborative team effort with the trio.” 

LS: How do you guys function as a group? What’s your group dynamic?

5AM: “A good percent of the time, I’m bringing a lot of the initial musical content to the table, like ideas, beats, and sketches. Much of the collaborative creative process is about everyone feeling good about it and contributing their ideas. We take it somewhere different, and every time it ends up being a really cool journey. Maybe It starts as a beat sketch I made, which is kind of halftime, and then I’ll try a pluck pattern while we’re playing it live. I think much of it is the iteration of ideas in a live setting. So, jamming and ‘taking it for a walk,’ and kind of looping a little section and extending it as long as we feel we can be creative with it, that’s the other side of it, where Aaron and Keith can get their ideas into it. Keith will be like, ‘What if there was a rage against the machine accapella over this entire breakdown?’ Since I’m the one with the open project files who can swap things out, I’ll try layering that vocal and… everybody claps! Those are the magic moments when one of us has an idea, people are skeptical, we try it, and we decide whether to keep pushing it or do it exactly that way for the show.”

“For me, it’s when I’m practicing for the show and playing live that I have my best ideas, because I feel the pressure to seize the opportunity and push myself. That’s my side of the creativity. The way we function is really jamming, being creative, and coming up with ideas on the fly. Keith and I also have one-on-one sessions where we work on melodic things. One section could be missing something, could be a strong place to add a melody, or there could be a track I still want to develop further, and we’ll get together and come up with something. if it’s some really nerdy jazz line, we sit there and do repetitions of that until we find the version that we like.”

ZONE Drums: “We keep each other accountable—Sam’s the president, but it’s a democracy. We often have strong opinions, so there’s a push-pull of figuring out what ends up in the set or the song. I’ll filter through Sam on the way out to the finish line, but there’s a lot of voting, and we all feel free to express what we like and don’t like to create the final products that we want to stand by.” 

Diving Deep into Esoterra

LS: Your debut album, Esoterra, is a 9-track, soulful blend of live instrumentation and a unique journey through electronic production. How has the creative process been shaping the project? 

5AM: “A lot of these tracks came together over the course of anywhere from a few months to seven years. The creative process, until about 2-3 years ago, when we started including these tracks in our sets, began with me working on them here and there around my busy touring schedule and various attempts to do things beyond just working in Ableton. I would have 5 hours one week, and 3 hours the next week, and then weeks, months, or a year pass. I would get an idea for a track I haven’t worked on in years, and that track would be on the table again because I made a breakthrough and want to finish it. Eventually, I would think the track was ready to play live. A lot of that happened when Keith joined the project because, like in ‘Rise’ and ‘Drift’ off the album, the main leads were already guitar, and it was easy to plug him into the process and learn the parts because he’s excellent at guitar. We turned these tracks from sketches on my hard drive into tracks we can play live, and they sound better now than they ever did in my Ableton project.”

“It was only this year that we actually cut any of that guitar to the track itself. Some of these songs have lived on YouTube or in recordings of us opening for Papadosio. But finally this year, I tracked Keith on all the projects in the actual studio. They went from an idea to a record-ready one with a high-quality guitar sound. Keith had gotten some new gear, so we were able to use the tone from that, and only this year would that have been possible. It started with me just working on it in Ableton on and off, and eventually, I made nine tracks. That was the goal: not to make just five tracks that didn’t sound cohesive. I was waiting for nine tracks to fit the gap between glitch, sound design, and downtempo, and a more pop- and mainstream-friendly track. Then I figured it out: in ‘Sprout,’ I had an idea for one that was in between downtempo and jam; in ‘Eyedropper,’ I was able to take a track that was sitting on my hard drive to the point where it finally worked.”

“That was my experience putting the album together; it didn’t come together until the last six months of the process. We tracked Aaron on it, sourced all the high-quality drums, and replaced the timing with his to better match his drumming. Then we tracked Keith and brought the guitars into the mix. I did endless final passes balancing the beats I created, the sounds I designed, Aaron’s Drums, and Keith’s guitars, and chopped, edited, and polished the final product.”

Keith W: “There’s a fun tidbit in the track,‘ Rise,’ which has a guitar not from a studio session, but from a place where you could see the exact take live. ‘Rise’s,’ guitar is from Drowning Fish. It’s sometimes hard to get together even when you’re in the same city, with scheduling and timelines, but there was also a magic in that take that couldn’t be easily recreated. We wanted to maintain the liveness. That’s a fun fact that if you got to the Drowning Fish recording studio session, you’ll hear that same guitar take in the final record.” 

ZONE Drums: “We played a version of ‘Rise’ in the first trio show ever. That’s been around for many, many years. It was a distant version, as Sam tends to take a song and morph it over time. Whenever we played the first wave, it was probably nearly unrecognizable, but we played it at Sunnyvale as ‘5AM live.’ Some of these songs have been floating around live forever, but never on a record.” 

Keith W: “I play guitar and synths? very occasionally live. I’ll rarely play a synthesizer on a small keyboard. A lot of the time, I play bongos live. There were a lot of moments that Sam and I got into things that were guitar-forward. The song ‘Encompass’ is shred-y. So, when it comes to those parts, we were jamming and tried them probably 100 times in the garage in the old house. We tried it several times until we achieved it, and that was a stretch goal. I was like, how are we going to play this live if we practice it 100 times to get it once? I try to layer parts and have different ambient sounds to match. That’s what I try to do.”

“Aaron and I will love some tracks, and we will always lobby for them. We’ll cheer some on and ‘Rise’ and ‘Drift,’ with the final version of the name for the song ‘Drift. We were lobbying and cheering on those songs to make it, and they’re finally out and have seen the light of day.”

LS: What does this debut album mean for your group’s careers?

5AM: “It could open a lot of doors because, in my subjective opinion, putting out an album puts you in a different tier. I think a lot of artists can get to that tier with singles or a big track that goes viral. Still, most people, I think, to get to a certain level of legitimacy and recognition, which are two things that I really do want for my project long-term, I feel like you have to have an album out. This album might not be the one that does it, I hope it is, but the idea of having a discography is my next goal. I want people to say, ‘Which is your favorite album?’ and can see the progression and growth from album to album. I read a lot of Pitchfork back in the day and was a big fan of artists who leaned into their albums, using their album to immortalize stories from their lives or pay tribute to things they loved. I always wanted one of those, so it felt like a bigger, more audacious goal than just another EP, which I have 5 or 6 EPs out. Before this, Onward was a five-track EP that felt like an album to me. I put a similar amount of work into it, but this one was a whole level up, having made Esoterra. It forced me to level up, and I think that’s growth and the album evokes the idea of growth and progression.”

ZONE Drums: “We just announced a major tour and plan to keep adding to it. It’s the first time we’ve toured around a release. The songs will all be included in sets throughout the tour, and the tour is promoting the album. In very tangible ways, that means something for the trio: we can go out with a more defined purpose on the road.”

LS: Which track off Esoterra is your favorite, if you have one?

ZONE Drums: “Drift,” with ‘Sprout,’ as a close second.”

Keith W: “Sprout,” with ‘Encompass,’ as a close second. ‘Sprout’s’ a journey of a tune, a chill banger.”

5AM: “Eyedropper” was my favorite work in progress for as long as I was working on it; ‘Rise’ was a close second. ‘Eyedropper’ aligns with my vision for where I want to go from here, both into more glitch, downtempo, and bass music and into ethereal, otherworldly, mystical vibes. We’ve been inspired by Glass Beams a lot lately, and by Khruangbin, whose Eastern European and Asian-inspired string parts sit over a guitar-forward, minimal beat. There’s so much you can do with that sound and fusing bass music that hasn’t really been explored, so I’d like to do more of that.”

LS: Some concepts and themes I found throughout the album included feel-good dance vibes and flow states with connections to nature and humanity. What do you want your audience to gain from Esoterra? 

5AM: “From a musical perspective, and then from more of a life messages perspective, but musically, the idea that jam music can coexist and augment the electronic world, and those two genres have a lot of potential for continued exploration. Consider what happens when the bassline is an electric, digital, high-resolution Tipper-style bassline, while the mids and highs are filled by keyboard, guitar, and drums. It’s something that’s been touched on by some groups, but we really have the potential to take that to somewhere I don’t think it’s been taken before.”

“As far as the message I want people to take away – for me me it’s the significance of life and that everything’s going to be okay. Just appreciation for the beauty of the world and nature. The first track says, ‘Well make it’, so it’s a very positive affirmation that’s important for defining what’s going to happen in life. I like how the album starts out intense and chaotic, then it chills out in the end in a more positive place. I like that story arc.”

ZONE Drums: “The intention with Esoterra, too, has been patience. I think a lot of electronic music right now and always has been banger-based and overstimulating with extreme, in-your-face sound design. These songs are supposed to arc and take more time to understand. The album is supposed to be listened to top to bottom with intention.”

Experience 5AM Trio Live

LS: What else can you share about the upcoming tour, or is there anything else you want fans to know? 

ZONE Drums: “We had to do the hometown kickoff in Allentown and Philadelphia. Then we go to our second hometown, Colorado, and we’re doing dates in the mountains, all with Phyphr and Mcwavy. We’re focusing only on mountain towns, excluding Boulder. That’s something we always knew we wanted to do. Sam’s doing a bunch of solo dates with Sunsquabi, and we’re also doing a bunch of dates with G-Space. This tour is the fruition of a lot of seeds we have planted over the years, between reaching out to various people and places many times until it finally all came together.” 

“We also take a percentage of all of our income musically, and we plant trees with it. We work with a company called One Tree Planted. I want to encourage other creators and musicians, and honestly, anyone, to take just 1% off the top of your check and do something good with it. Even if you don’t have time or energy or desire to go volunteer or put your hands in the dirt, you can still take something and, over time, do something with it. It came from Patagonia’s CEO, who proposed the 1% idea. Every dollar that comes in, drop a penny in the bucket, and over time, you can plant forests, build cities, and feed nations. We’re in the thousands of trees planted at this point, and it’s been no pain to donate. Little things like that. That’s just a little message that we like to talk about when we can.”

Keep up with 5AM Trio on Socials:

5AM | Instagram |Twitter |Facebook

ZONE Drums | Instagram |Twitter |Facebook

Keith W | Instagram 

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