igotmytopsurgeryatclaires
Photo Credit 📷 : @juniberry.photos
Today I’m reviewing my first bedroom screamo act on Not Just A Phase. For those of you who are new to the screamo genre or just haven’t fallen down the rabbit hole of all the subgenres that have branched off screamo yet, let me explain: “bedroom screamo” is composed, performed and recorded in a bedroom. It’s as DIY as you can make screamo music and the subgenre as a whole is probably the main reason Focusrite and Reaper are still in business. The recordings are often lofi, giving the music a warm, homemade sound and feel. Outside of the quirks of the production, the genre is otherwise limitless in form, allowing full creative freedoms in songwriting.
They really do get freaky in the bedroom — as we’ve seen in the genre bending of fifth wave of screamo, bedroom screamo will incorporate any and all emo subgenre elements from twinnkly emo, to third wave “mall emo,” to classic hardcore and powerviolence, or jazz and whatever the hell else they wanna do. You want hyperpop or the bleeps and bloops of electronica, IDM, and glitch? Sure. Again, the genre is a hotbed for experimentation.
Today’s band igotmytopsurgeryatclaires is a one person project coming from the Bay Area of California and the experimental stylings on these tracks knows no limits. These songs were recorded in their car as opposed to a bedroom, proving that nothing should stop you from making the art you wanna create. Inspired by other bedroom screamo acts such as askyfullofstars, Calendar Year, ispentsixhourswatchingshockvideosyesterday, and Yours Forever Yours (a frequent collaborator). This project utilizes DIY writing and recording to its full extent while pushing their vocal cords to the absolute brink of extinction with a vocal style that’s often referred to as “kittencore.”
Lemme explain, “kittencore” is a vocal style in which the vocal range being screamed is as high pitch falsetto as possible. You scream these notes above your vocal range and as hard as you can until your pitch and voice cracks and breaks literally resembling the sound of a kitten mewing or being squeezed too hard. It’s often a vocal style only accomplished by young people since your vocal cords can’t register notes high enough to bend and break the way this vocal style demands. It must be terrible for your vocal cords to be honest; I can only imagine the damage if done too often. That said, this is a style that’s definitely not for everyone but those who like it certainly appreciate the stylistic charm.
How does music so bizzare get composed you might wonder? “Writing comes pretty naturally to me. I've been writing poetry extensively since middle school, and I've always been a proud writer and storyteller. I've tried writing songs with little luck throughout high school, I’ve always had a hard time with melodies, so screamo has given me more opportunity to allow my lyrics to shine without putting so much weight on the right notes and chords. Screamo is chaotic and gorgeous.”
Taking the bedroom screamo term to the literal road with their music, trans artist Serenity is the brains behind the project here and tells us of their unique recording process: “I live in my vehicle so recording literally takes driving to a desolate spot to scream. I usually record with my acoustic and run it through Garageband, and I program synths, bass and drums. It's a pretty straight forward process.”
Today we’re honoured to be premiering a new track for them that’s inspired by seeing the brightside in the full circle of life. “The theme of this single is quite literally the title: a flower. I was given a flower as a gift the day I almost lost a lover and realized, as people pick pretty flowers for their lovers, they kill them in the process. But we never see it as dead. Even if sun-dried and wilted, it still gets hung up or passed around to those we care about. A flower so pretty never falls into the wrong hands, even when murdered. This is a single about love, loss, grief and the silver lining of hope through desperation.”
as you grow in the soil through these rains,
you become a flower
forever to hold and to keep
though it's ripped from its root
the flower never falls in the wrong hand
sun-dried, it steals all that's left to believe
I can't see a future without you
would you be a flower for me
forever to hold and to keep
would you be a flower for me
forever to hold and to keep
when you're dried and live no more
I can still hold you as if you're alive in my hands
forever in the hands you can't feel
you're held so close
and will forever remain, in my eyes, alive
flowers can never die
she's so alone, and she can't cry, she's
breathing soft as the wind breaks
though she's alone, she won't cry for you
I can't see past all of the things they say about me
it consumes my thoughts like roots to the earth
once rotting and left to nothing but time
with nature and teeth to consume what’s left of me
This version of the release was mixed and mastered by Serenity Claire, with support from Sonnenwende. “Flower” is a single from an upcoming album scheduled to be released.
“THIS ALBUM TOUCHES A LOT ON THE DESPERATION OF LOSING YOURSELF TO LOVE AND WANTING TO “DO BETTER”, YET CONVINCING YOURSELF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START AND ALLOWING YOURSELF TO STAY IN A CYCLE ‘TILL IT’S TOO LATE AND YOU’VE BLOWN UP EVERYTHING AROUND YOU. SELF-HATE, SELF-LOVE, SELF-DISCOVERY”.
- SERENITY, @IGOTMYTOPSURGERYATCLAIRES
“This song was one of my most emotionally inspired songs, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with Sonnenwende to create this gorgeous sound. I have an album, Tremors, coming out in the next few months, as well as an unannounced split/collaborative EP with an artist whose sound I look up to heavily coming after Tremors! Tremors has about six tracks on it ranging in sound from bedroom skramz to punk to beatdown / hardcore. There's also a hidden bonus track only available on CD.”
This is the last single before the full album drops and we were left with some closing words to reflect on: “"Screamo isn't just about the riffs and breakdowns, it isn't just about punching each other in the face. Screamo is a movement, hardcore is a movement, punk is a movement. If can't wear the brand without the ideals.
Thank you to Animal Jam and Cardiac Kitten Records for believing in me, thank you to Sonnenwende for the incredible talent and dedication put into this collab, and thank you to everyone for listening!"
Follow the band at the social linked below and be sure to keep your eyes and ears on their creative process as they continue pushing borders and boundaries with their experimental DIY music.
igotmytopsurgeryatclaires is Serenity on vocals and all instruments heard on recordings.
Follow them on Instagram here : igotmytopsurgeryatclaires
Writer : @just_reidz
Editor : @garevthistle
09/08/25
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