After incessant groveling and promises of first dibs on Halloween candy tonight The FAMM agreed to let us premiere its video for "5am" and gave more insight to the song and the creative process.

Why so serious, musicians of Colorado? Didn’t you know it’s possible to be an artist and have fun with it?

No other hip-hop troupe in this state embodies that credo more than The FAMM. Often described as “charismatic and bombastic” on stage, emcees Johnny Chill and Trav bring humor and personality to their translation of hip-hop, and are stacking up fans like wildfire in the summer because of it.

This morning The FAMM is dropping the music video for its single “5am” – a song about late nights turning into early morning all in the name of productive creativity. After incessant groveling and promises of first dibs on Halloween candy tonight The FAMM agreed to give us the premiere, and gave more insight to the “5am” video and the process.

“It’s one of those things where you feel almost overwhelmed with all the shit you have to do,” Chill says about the song. “Not only to accomplish your next project but all the things you have to do to build off of that. Missing out on sleep is a regular part of what we’re doing (laughs). I honestly think it’s good. I feel like the hours that most people are sleeping in, it gives you peace and quiet to think for yourself. I definitely feel constantly being … almost … obsessed with music and the process is something that helps us stay focused.”

“It’s Jerry Maquire syndrome!” jokes Trav.

The accompanying theme of overworked mindsets and fervent creative output in the video for “5am” is something the duo says came pretty natural in the songwriting already. When creating lyrical prose, there’s most always a video in mind even before production rolls out.

“When we write songs we write them with a video in mind,” says Chill. “Almost every song we do we have some potential video in place. With this we got with Jeremy Pape (Welcome To The D.O.P.E Game) and we gave him our vision for what we wanted to do, and he dove off of that and came up with some great visions.”

But late night think sessions and easy-city-reppin’ isn’t the only face The FAMM crew can strap on. Trav says that the obvious easygoing vibe is a portion of who they are, but horizons are limitless for musical endeavors, and the creative spotlight is always on all forms of music.

“We’d like to think we’re versatile and we can go anywhere now,” says Trav. “We can do upbeat stuff, dancey stuff, soft, laid back – it’s all where we have fun. (This is) just the beginning. We feel like we’re artists that like music all across the board. The theme is forever making music, FAMM if you break it down, it’s Forever About Making Music, we don’t try and limit ourselves at all.”

It’s a dynamic that stems from differing formative backgrounds – Johnny Chill from Tucson, AZ and Trav from Long Beach, CA – and is a noticeable element in the blended formats. They take those inspirations from separate area codes and fuse it with our own here in Colorado, and say they are each proud to be in a place that facilitates a booming hip-hop community.

“We definitely want to continue reppin’ the state of Colorado,” says Chill. “We’re proud of where we’re at. Colorado is known for the weed and the alcohol and partying and having fun and being laid back, that’s a big part of who we are, but at the same time we’re from different places so we bring more than just Colorado to our music.

Being in a place where weed is legal and prevalent, you know, people get together to smoke and have fun and laugh and act like morons. That’s our lane, we’re out there, we like laughing and making people laugh and that’s something bringing people together too and putting down the bullshit aside of trying to be tough rappers.”

For now The FAMM is continuing work on its highly anticipated EP and gearing up for a few big performances: Nov 6 at Herman’s Hideaway and the other opening the stage for 2 Chainz on Dec 6 at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom.

It’s all part of the 5am grind, and it’s The FAMM’s way of life.