Insomniac (EP)

Insomniac is the winter EP of 2026. It is the third EP released by mad routine. It's available on the website since February 6th, 2026 and released on streaming services on Feburary 20th. 100 cassettes were made and can be purchased from the website. The cassettes include 2 singles released since pool party and 4 exclusive tracks.

Tracklist

Official tracklist

These songs are officially part of the EP:

1. insomniac (3:36)
2. control (3:22)
3. hesitation (3:06)
4. fresh air (3:07)
5. double life (3:40)
6. rot (3:22)

B-side

There are 2 singles and 4 exclusive songs on the B-side of the cassette:

1. domino (4:08)
2. don't react (3:00)
3. break the silence (3:20)
4. 1999 (3:13)
5. maniac (2:36)
6. color blind (2:58)

History

Crowdfunding

The trip for the production of visuals and the accompanying movie was crowdfunded starting on October 8th, 2025. The goal was reached on October 25th, 2025.

Band trip

City went to Canada to shoot music videos between November 1st, 2025 and November 29th, 2025.

Initial reveal

The EP poster, name and tracklist (except for the 6th song) were revealed during the livestream of the trip on November 28th, 2025.

Website release

The EP was released on the redesigned website on February 6th, 2026. Both streaming and digital purchase are available on the site. Most of the listed cassettes and merch were sold on the first day. The site is split into a USA and an international section because of the tariffs. There are 50-50 cassettes and different merch on each side.

Official release

The EP released on streaming sites on February 20th, 2026. The music video for insomniac also released on the same day.

Cassettes

The cassettes were first packed during the livestream on February 27th, 2026. The full tracklist was visible on stream, including the 4 secret tracks. The music video for control also released on this day.

Music videos

The music videos were released on Fridays starting from the streaming site release. The music videos for fresh air and double life were first played during the Sunday stream of March 8th, 2026.

Background

Insomniac

Insomniac's project was originally called anvil and the instrumental was included in the movie introducing mad routine, first shown on November 17th, 2024. An early demo was played on January 17th, 2025 with live vocals, without City's knowledge and it was kept as a secret for a year.

Control

Control's demo name was yashica. The music video was filmed in the summer during the band trip of pool party at Farney's on Jefferson in Burlington, IA by V & C, @JordanBink and @YaBoi3Hunna. An early demo was played as a preview on February 9th, 2025.

Hesitation

Hesitation was the first mad routine song to be worked on live on Veela's stream (on October 30th, 2025). City started the instrumental during his first band trip in 2024 and wrote the chorus lyrics when he got back home. The project was originally called Fan Tan Alley. An early demo was also played as a preview on January 10th, 2025.

Fresh air

Fresh air's demo name was darkness.

Double life

Double life was started on City's birthday in 2025 and was called birthday for almost a year. Depeche Mode and Eurythmics were influences for this song. An early demo was played as a preview on February 28th, 2025.

Rot

Rot was mentioned in the pool party '99 movie as it was meant to be on that EP first. It was redacted from the movie and the title was kept a secret until the website release of this EP. V started and produced a lot of this song. When the mad respecters solved the puzzle that revealed part of the lyrics for this song, another solution was crowdsourced, which became rat by rat moodine. This also got recorded and a distorted and reversed version was included on the website as a hidden track.