3OH!3

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  3OH!3 is an American electronic music duo from Boulder, Colorado, and their name is pronounced exactly like the digits it contains: three oh three. That is also the area code for their home state, a number that once covered all of Colorado but had shrunk, by the time Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte started the band in 2004, to just Denver and its surrounding region. The name is a small piece of geography compressed into a punctuation-heavy tag, and it hints at how deliberately these two built their identity around where they came from.

  Before they were selling platinum records and touring with Katy Perry, Foreman was battling other MCs at local rap contests, and Motte was DJing hip-hop shows around Boulder. They were students at the University of Colorado when they discovered they wanted the same thing from music, and that overlap became the engine of everything that followed. Their breakthrough single, "Don't Trust Me," would reach number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. Their third album, Streets of Gold, would debut at number seven on the Billboard 200. But those numbers came later. First came a basement studio, a self-titled debut recorded in their shower, and a slow climb through Colorado venues before the rest of the country caught up.

• 2. From Boulder Basements

  ›

  The first track 3OH!3 ever made together was "Say 'Dem Up," a song that would end up on their self-titled debut album. Their debut single, "Holler Til You Pass Out," dropped on the 18th of August 2006, complete with a music video. The full album followed on the 2nd of July 2007, the same day they released a second single called "Electroshock." What made that debut unusual was how it was made: the duo recorded the whole record in their basement, through what they described as their "in-our-shower mixtape thing."

  After a few successful local shows, they started opening for acts like The Blackout Pact and the Faint and headlined two nights at the Marquis. That momentum was enough to catch the attention of Photo Finish Records, a division of Atlantic Records, who signed them. Their local success in Boulder had already begun pushing them outward. When the venues and crowds in Boulder hit a ceiling, the duo moved to Denver for access to bigger spaces and a larger fan base, a shift that marked the end of their strictly local chapter.

• 3. Want and the Breakthrough

  ›

  Recording their second album was a concentrated effort: four to five weeks in the studio, working sixteen hours each day. The lead single, "Don't Trust Me," was released on the 1st of June 2008, and it did something their debut never came close to doing. It topped the US Pop Airplay chart, reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, and was eventually certified 5x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

  The album itself, Want, came out on the 8th of July 2008, and sold 10,000 copies in its best week to that point, landing at number 44 on the Billboard 200. It was produced by Foreman and Motte alongside Matt Squire, with Benny Blanco contributing to a handful of tracks. Around the same time, 3OH!3 wrote an original theme song called "Sex on the Beach" for The Real World: Cancun, and also wrote an anthem for the Colorado Rockies.

  After playing Denver during Warped Tour 2007, they signed on for every venue of the 2008 and 2009 Warped Tour runs. In February 2009, they joined Katy Perry on a European tour. By the end of that year, they had performed in Panama City Beach for MTVU's Spring Break, played the Mile High Music Festival at Dick's Sporting Goods Park alongside acts including The Fray and Matisyahu, and appeared at the Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK. Want was certified platinum by the RIAA on the 13th of July 2023, fifteen years after its initial release.

• 4. Starstrukk and Kesha

  ›

  The second single from Want, "Starstrukk," arrived on the 4th of August 2009, and a remix featuring Katy Perry was released digitally on September 8 of that year. That version became a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Belgium, and was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA. The duo was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and performed at the ceremony on September 13.

  Their relationship with Kesha produced a different kind of chart moment. 3OH!3 were featured on her song "Blah Blah Blah," which peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, and the duo appeared on American Idol to perform the track with her. When it came time to record their third album, they brought Kesha in again, this time on the lead single "My First Kiss," which debuted at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the RIAA.

• 5. Streets of Gold

  ›

  After two years of near-constant touring behind Want, the duo retreated to Breckenridge, Colorado, for a two-week writing session. Within ten days, they had written 15 songs. They then flew to Los Angeles and recorded at The Lair Recording Studio, working with producers Matt Squire, Benny Blanco, Dr. Luke, and Greg Kurstin.

  Streets of Gold was released on the 29th of June 2010, and debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, selling 41,000 copies in its first week. A summer tour followed, with support from Hellogoodbye and Down with Webster, along with dates across Europe, Australia, and Japan in August 2010. That August also brought an unexpected legal development: on the 31st of August 2010, retired professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against 3OH!3 over their use of his trademarked "Diamond Cutter" hand gesture. Page had previously filed a similar lawsuit against Jay-Z in 2005, which he ultimately dropped for an undisclosed sum.

  The album produced multiple singles, including "Double Vision," released the 15th of June 2010, and "Touchin' on My," whose music video arrived the 20th of January 2011. The song "I Know How to Say" appeared in the trailer for the 2011 Disney animated film Mars Needs Moms and in commercials for the science-fiction comedy film Paul.

• 6. Omens and a Long Delay

  ›

  On the 20th of February 2011, Nathaniel Motte released a public statement confirming work on a fourth album. The process stretched across more than two years. Singles arrived in batches, including three previously unreleased tracks dropped in quick succession in December 2011: "Bang Bang" on the 13th, "Dirty Mind" a week later on the 20th, and "Set You Free" on the 27th. The last of those three performed best, reaching number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100.

  On the 22nd of June 2012, Motte announced the album's title via Twitter: Omens. The release date shifted repeatedly. Originally set for the 30th of October 2012, it was pushed to December 4, then delayed indefinitely. Omens finally arrived on the 18th of June 2013. The duo recorded 28 songs for it, working from their basement studio in Boulder, and the album peaked at number 81 on the Billboard 200.

  That same year the duo collaborated with Blues Traveler on a track called "Blow Up the Moon" from Blues Traveler's album of the same name, an unexpected pairing that illustrated how wide their creative reach had grown beyond their original electronic-rap niche.

• 7. Night Sports and the Cruise

  ›

  By August 2015, the duo had written more than 40 songs for what would become their fifth studio album. They signed to Fueled By Ramen in 2016 and revealed the album's title, Night Sports, on March 3 of that year. A run of singles followed, including "My Dick" in December 2015, "Mad At You" in March 2016, and "Hear Me Now" on the 14th of April 2016, the last of which was included on the soundtrack for Madden NFL 17. Night Sports was released the 13th of May 2016, and peaked at number 170 on the Billboard 200.

  In 2017, 3OH!3 played Warped Rewind at Sea, a four-day cruise that also featured Simple Plan and Good Charlotte. On board, they hosted a songwriting workshop with around 50 participants, and the group co-wrote a song called Sauce Daddy together. Sauce Daddy received its first live performance at the duo's DJ set the following night, an unusual origin story for a new track.

  The band performed on all dates of the final run of the Vans Warped Tour from June to August 2018, and in October of that year announced a tour commemorating the 10th anniversary of Want.

• 8. Need and Beyond

  ›

  On the 13th of November 2020, after four years without new music, 3OH!3 released a song called "Lonely Machines" with the duo 100 gecs. One publication described it as a "cheeky, fun EDM anthem, taking you back to when 'Don't Trust Me' was all over the radio." During that four-year gap, Motte and Foreman had spent their time writing and producing for other artists before returning to Boulder to write and record their sixth album.

  Singles arrived through early 2021. "I'm So Sad" dropped January 22. In February the duo appeared on a remix of Rebecca Black's "Friday." On the 3rd of March 2021, which they have long celebrated as 303 Day, they released "Last Breath," featuring Slipknot's CLOWN on drums. A fourth single, "Vampire's Diet," followed June 25, featuring Bert McCracken of The Used. The album Need, its title deliberately echoing their 2008 breakthrough Want, was released the 27th of August 2021, through Photo Finish Records, the label they had re-signed with the previous year.

  In October 2022, they performed at the When We Were Young Festival and returned to the same event two years later. On the 25th of July 2025, they released a new single called "Slushie," and the band is confirmed to appear at Welcome to Rockville in Daytona Beach, Florida, in May 2026.