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#Grownupz

Metadata

title
#Grownupz
meaning
FEiN Times Issue #1 trust-fund satire: pill-poppin jump-jumpin kid who doesn't wanna grow up: mad stacks, grown ups are all sad, clap on everybeat.
year
2016
release
Little Homes
releaseType
album
artist
FEiN
artistId
#fein
coWriters
  • Brandon Michael Woodward
credits
Written by Luke Francis Walton and Brandon Michael Woodward (FEiN). Produced and recorded by FEiN at Tiny Giant; engineered at LMU; mixed and mastered by Frank Rosato at Woodcliff (Discogs). Brandon Woodward, bass.
spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/2xWtW9VwcaoHkS7FnIJfaQ
apple
https://music.apple.com/us/album/grownupz/1111956961?i=1111956969
officialVideo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usz0siRteGI
press
themes
  • FEiN
  • FEiN Times
  • Little Homes
  • satire
  • wealth
  • 2014
  • 2016
  • viral
isrc
QZ2QB1600005
isrcSource
soundexchange
draft
false

Lyrics

Someone told me that,
Desire is the root of suffering.
But I've got mad stacks,
So desire ain't a thing.
I'll take your girl,
And I'll sweep her off her feet yeah.
(Sweep her off,
Sweep her off.)
My father worked so that,
I didn't
have to do a single thing.
So lets have some fun
I mean some pills,
And play some games.
I count to ten,
Ca
n you count higher than me yeah?

That bass,
Drop
-
drop
-
in'
It keeps me jump
-
jump
-
jumpin,
And uh,
That kick,
Drum
-
drum
-
in'
It makes me
go
:

Daddy I don't wanna,
Grow up anyway.
Grown ups are all sad.
doesn't matter where I,
Come from anyway.
I'll grow up and get sad.
Instead,
I'll
clap my hands,
On everybeat.
Who would ever wanna,
Grow up anyway.
I don't,
No
we don't,
Oh
.
Hmm.

Someone told me that,
A
-
happiness a
-
come
from deep inside.
Well
I bet
he's
poor,
I bet
he live
a
shitty
life.
C
uz
you know that don't,
That just don't resonate with me,
Yeah.
My
mother
taught
me that,
With help you can accomplish anything.
My
nanny taught me,
All the names of all the days
I can say em fast, can you go as fast as me
Yeah?

Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday Fri
day
Saturday
aaaand
Sunday
Monday Tuesday Thursday Wednesday Friday Saturday Sunday Dayday

Daddy I don't wanna,
Grow up anyway.
Grown ups are all sad.
doesn't matter where I,
Come from anyway.
I'll grow up and get sad.
Instead,
I'll clap my hands,
On everybeat.
Who would ever wanna,
Grow up anyway.
I don't,
No we don't,
Oh
.

You,
Oh what would you do
If you were me?
Raised
,
I
n the pit of,
Temptation and greed.

Content

Originally August 25, 2014 on FEiN Times (Issue #1) with B-side Monay Grabba. Track five on Little Homes (May 31, 2016), after Outro. SoundCloud (~339k plays; album version ~137k) · #Grownupz (8 Bit/Chiptune) (FEiN × Cydoniac) · official music video — FEiN's only produced MV (also on /music/fein/#videos and /music/#selected-videos). Walton/Woodward co-write.

Recording: Michael Christofi tracked #Grownupz vocal takes inside actor Gary Sinise's garage — laptop and interfaces on an ironing board, red acoustic foam on the wall. Indexed Feb 22, 2016 FEiN Facebook throwback (archivist proof: /evidence/fein-grownupz-christofi-ironing-board.png): Throwback to recording #Grownupz on an ironing board with Christofi. That mobile vocal pass sits alongside the earlier LMU drum day with Christofi that seeded Little Homes — same engineer, different room.

Breakout: FEiN's #Grownupz became the band's clearest early micro-breakout — not memory haze. Hype Machine: Dec 16, 2015 FEiN Facebook post (archivist proof: /evidence/fein-grownupz-hype-machine-charts.png) reports #13 non-remix charts, #20 popular charts, #2 Twitter charts, and 30,000+ plays; chart screenshots match the indexed Hype Machine pages. The track page still indexes the song (posted by 7 sites; links Fresh Beats 365 and blog coverage). Indie Shuffle (Dec 13, 2015, Jason Grishkoff) shared #Grownupz as the duo's kickoff track (Aug 2014 Issue #1 release). I Heart Moosiq later described it as a Spotify and Hype Machine success, tied the arc to their earlier #Grownupz premiere, and indexed the path into later FEiN releases. A separate I Heart Moosiq post places #Grownupz in Spotify's U.S. Viral top 10; that aligns with BMI reporting #4 on Spotify's U.S. Viral 50 and 500k+ streams by September 2016, Canadian Press / Globe and Mail listing among Spotify's top viral tracks, and an indexed Feb 13, 2016 FEiN Facebook artifact claiming #4 most viral in the US (post not fully archived here).

Press & spread: Fresh Beats 365 interview (Apr 9, 2016, Tom Roden) — Brandon on sudden #Grownupz Spotify activity driving the Little Little Homes teaser (we wanted to update our presence on our page). ReverbNation Blog (Jan 27, 2017, Dave) — Spotify Playlists, Dragon Ball Z, and Collabs — Luke and Brandon on Christofi × The Disco and #Grownupz stats: over 1 million plays on Spotify, features on several playlists, and featured on Hype Machine; Brandon on Discover Weekly saves/repeat listens snowballing; Luke on near the top of the Spotify Viral 50 for the US, Canada, and Mexico and **#GZ in 50,000+ playlists. Asked what drove the breakout, Luke: Hashtags and the letter z. #DragonBallZ — same public window that names Dragon Ball Z in the headline (Dragon Ball $d spine). Fresh Beats 365 EP review (Mar 10, 2016) singled out #Grownupz on the Little Little Homes teaser as bubblegum indie-pop with child-vocal warping (not any throwaway indie-electro artist); their Apr 2017 MV feature wrote that #Grownupz first put FEiN on most people's radars in 2014. Indie blog traction: The Burning Ear · Poprock Record. College radio: WMBR Insomnia Sounds played the FEiN Times Issue #1 cut Nov 20, 2016 at 12:53 a.m. Post-Little Homes, LOVED (2017) became the duo's biggest track overall (~9M Spotify). Later public video: KCRW 360° sessions for Liminal and Stupid Forever* — live performance, not additional MVs.

Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) added #Grownupz (from FEiN Times Issue #1, not the later Little Homes album cut) to his public Spotify playlist DJ set — Feb 27, 2016, track 3 (archivist proof: /evidence/fein-grownupz-rivers-cuomo-dj-set-spotify-2016-02-27.png). Cuomo’s playlist note: here's the set I played at Melissa's party (14 songs, 51:44 · 185 saves on capture). Full party set: Alan Walker “Faded” · Future/Drake “Where Ya At” · FEiN “#Grownupz” · Young Thug “Best Friend” · Desiigner “Panda” · Emmit Fenn “Painting Greys” · Rae Sremmurd “No Type” · Greyson Chance “Hit & Run” · Drake/Future “Jumpman” · Módl “Years From Now” · Dawn Richard “Not Above That” · Lil Yachty “1 Night” · Marian Hill “Down” · Drake “Know Yourself”. That is a direct Cuomo ↔ FEiN link separate from the CHAI production arc — but Cuomo and Non (のん) later both wrote release congratulations comments for CHAI's self-titled album CHAI (Sep 22, 2023), alongside Shingo Murakami, Kaho Nakamura, Orono, and Sui Ishida. Non stars in The Fish Tale (さかなのこ), where Walton sound-produced CHAI's MY DREAM theme — a Japan network where the #Grownupz title is coincidence, not a shared song, but the same quirky-indie orbit.

B-side: Monay Grabba.

FEiN Times (Issue #1)'s Recording Journal (Aug 2014) names money as the inaugural theme and pairs this song with Monay Grabba: imperialism on the B-side, a pill-poppin, jump-jumpin trust-fund baby that doesn't wanna grow up anyway on the A. Written in practice rooms, Venice and Downtown apartments, walks to Which Wich, a little home in Westlake, and voice notes in traffic. The LMU drum sessions that day (with Michael Christofi) were meant for an EP; fourteen hours later the band had the foundation for Little Homes. Brandon was tired.

The joke is a rich kid weaponizing wisdom against itself. Told that desire is the root of suffering, he answers I've got mad stacks, so desire ain't a thing; told happiness comes from deep inside, well I bet he's poor, I bet he live a shitty life. Inheritance funds the regression: the father worked so he wouldn't have to, the nanny taught him the days of the week (which he then raps as a flex), and the whole thing dissolves into pills, an EDM body-count, and the title's refusal, daddy I don't wanna grow up anyway, grown ups are all sad. The bridge admits the cage without leaving it: what would you do if you were me, raised in the pit of temptation and greed.

Same thread as American Man and Sculptor: here youth is the brand, sadness is for grownups, and the beat keeps you from thinking about either. Leads into Goodness Gracious.