Earlybirds Club

About Earlybirds Club

Earlybirds Club started as exactly what the name suggests: a group of musicians who could only practice in the morning because they all had day jobs. That was 2018 in Portland, where songwriter Maya Chen was working at a bakery that opened at 5 AM and guitarist Tom Westfield was doing freelance design work from his apartment. They'd meet up around 7 AM, record demos in Tom's bedroom before the rest of the world woke up, and the whole aesthetic kind of grew from there.

The morning thing wasn't a gimmick, though it probably didn't hurt. Their first EP, recorded entirely between 6 and 9 AM on weekdays, had this specific kind of hazy clarity that matched the hour. Morning Routine became a minor hit on indie playlists in 2019, mostly because it captured that half-awake feeling of going through motions before your brain fully turns on. The production was intentionally sparse, just guitar, vocals, and whatever ambient sounds happened to drift in through Tom's window.

Coffee Shop Daydreams expanded their sound a bit when bassist Lauren Park joined in 2020. The track has this walking bassline that mirrors the feeling of wandering around your neighborhood before it gets crowded, and Maya's lyrics got more observational, less internal. They signed with a small indie label and put out their first full-length, Golden Hour Problems, in late 2020. The timing was weird, releasing an album about morning routines and commutes when everyone was stuck at home, but it resonated for different reasons. People were desperate for any sense of normal rhythm.

Early Riser's Blues, from their 2022 album Breakfast Television, showed they could do more than just drowsy indie pop. The song has this underlying tension, drums that actually push instead of drift, and Maya's vocals sound genuinely frustrated rather than pleasantly melancholic. It's still about mornings, but mornings where you didn't sleep, where you're tired of the routine rather than comforted by it.

Sunrise Commute, their most recent single from last year, suggests they're leaning into fuller production. There are synths now, layered vocals, something approaching an actual chorus. They're still writing songs about the early hours, but they sound more awake doing it.

They've been touring steadily, playing a lot of early evening sets because apparently booking morning shows is logistically complicated. Maya still works part-time at that bakery, according to a recent interview, though probably not the 5 AM shift anymore. Their fourth album is supposedly finished and coming out sometime this spring. The demos they've been sharing on social media sound more polished, more intentional, but still recognizably them. They figured out their thing and they're sticking with it, just refining the details.

Their shows move slow and deliberate. Crowds stand mostly still, some swaying, nobody talking. There's this focused quiet in the room during verses. They're tighter live than you'd expect from their recordings, but they keep that rough-around-the-edges feel intact. Sets tend toward the contemplative.

Known for Morning Routine, Coffee Shop Daydreams, Early Riser's Blues, Sunrise Commute

See Earlybirds Club Live