Trailblazing electronic artist and producer Elaine Mai releases a brand new radio edit and accompanying video of ‘3AM (feat. MayKay)’ – one of the stand-out album tracks from her RTÉ Choice Music Prize nominated album, Home .
Although it has never been released as a stand-alone single before, ‘3AM’ has received such a huge reaction every time Elaine Mai and MayKay perform it live that they decided it deserved its own moment in the spotlight, and have breathed new life into with this version with a video directed by up and coming director Cara Gaynor.
Elaine Mai says: “‘ We’ve created so many amazing memories performing 3AM. It’s one of the clubbiest tracks on the album and we wanted to showcase it with a new visual interpretation from the brilliant Cara Gaynor. The track celebrates female empowerment, togetherness, and chosen family. It’s an ode to losing yourself on the dancefloor, in music, and with others.”
Since its release, Elaine Mai’s debut album Home has received critical acclaim and has been nominated for two awards at the RTÉ Choice Music Prize. She has performed album tracks and more extensively with an all-star ensemble of musical contributors including MayKay, Ailbhe Reddy, Sinead White and Loah at many festivals including Beyond The Pale and All Together Now, and she recently headlined and created a bespoke show for Mother as part of St. Patrick’s Festival featuring some of Ireland’s most exciting up and coming artists. The vinyl release of Home , which includes three vinyl-only exclusive remixes (‘No Forever (feat. MayKay)’ by PBH & JACK , ‘Go Slow (feat. Sinéad White)’ by CHANEY , and ‘Still Feel (feat. Ailbhe Reddy)’ by ESSEL ), was an official Record Store Day release in 2022 and is still available as a limited edition purchase here .
Throughout it all, Elaine’s contributor and friend MayKay (Fight Like Apes frontwoman and Other Voices host) has been a constant, with the pair regularly performing together, even performing live on RTE One as part of Culture Night 2022 with the RTE Concert Orchestra and working together on a specially-commissioned track for The Ark children’s arts centre.
MayKay says: “ As with the album’s first single ‘No Forever’, as soon as I heard this track the lyrics and melody kind of just fell out. The tracks on Elaine’s album are so uplifting and joyful but ‘3AM’ is kind of the messy sister of ‘No Forever’. And we’re not leaving her behind at the club so she’s getting a single release. It’s been non-stop discovery and collaboration on this project with Elaine so it’s made it even richer and more interesting seeing another artist’s perspective on it in the making of the video.”
The ‘other artist’ MayKay refers to is video director Cara Gaynor. As a finalist in the Youth Music Video Competition , the IADT graduate was matched with Elaine Mai to direct the music video for ‘3AM’.
Cara Gaynor says: “Working on this project with Elaine was such a cool experience. The opportunity to create the vision for a track with so much life, diversity and movement made it even more invigorating. Working with various performers from both Dublin and New York and showcasing the life and culture both cities hold made it a special one.”
Described as ‘a euphoric breath of fresh air’ ( Totally Dublin ), Elaine Mai’s stunning debut album Home features propulsive rhythms, stirring synth lines and contributions from some of the most exciting Irish artists. It is a creative electronic work that has found a broad fanbase in its home territory, with singles amassing some 13 million impacts (over 12,000 individual plays) on Irish radio since, and being nominated for the Choice Music Prize ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Song of the Year’ awards.
Since its release, Mai has signed a publishing deal with Sentric and dance music industry icon, Nick Halkes. Elaine is currently working on her second album and will be releasing highly anticipated new material before the end of 2023.
https://youtu.be/NwS0M-QWRlE
