JAY SOM Announces First New Album in 6 Years
JAY SOM
ANNOUNCES BELONG
HER FIRST NEW ALBUM IN SIX YEARS, FEATURING
HAYLEY WILLIAMS (PARAMORE) & JIM ADKINS (JIMMY EAT WORLD)
PLOTS NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
Belong out October 10th via Polyvinyl Record Co.
Jay Som - the project of Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Melina Duterte - returns today, announcing her first new album in over six years. Since Jay Som’s critically acclaimed sophomore album Anak Ko came out in 2019, Duterte has spent the last few years cultivating her passion for production and audio engineering. This lead to producing credits on the GRAMMY-winning boygenius album the record, Lucy Dacus’ latest Forever Is A Feeling, and countless beloved indie records. She also joined boygenius as a touring band member, collaborated alongside the likes of Troye Sivan and beabadoobee with No Rome, contributed to the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack, and more. Yes, Jay Som itself has been on a bit of a break; Duterte, however, has perhaps been busier than ever.
Finally, Jay Som is back to announce Belong, out October 10th on Polyvinyl Record Co. While Jay Som has always been a solo project for Duterte, this album finds her expanding her world by collaborating with outside musicians, writers and producers. Duterte wrote, composed, performed, produced, engineered and mixed the record with contributions from Joao Gonzalez (of Soft Glas), Mal Hauser (a collaborator to Mk.gee and Illuminati Hotties), Steph Marziano (producer for Vundabar, Hot Wax, Sir Chloe) and Kyle Pulley. She also welcomed guest vocalists for the first time on one of her albums, featuring Hayley Williams (of Paramore), Jim Adkins (of Jimmy Eat World) and Lexi Vega (of Mini Trees) on different tracks. The album finds Duterte searching for her place, or somewhere she belongs, within an indie rock ecosystem that Jay Som stepped away from for the past six years. The result is an album unlike any Jay Som record before it: a gripping 11-song set about self-definition that floats between supercharged power-pop hits and hazy ballads, between electronic curiosities and lighters-up anthems.
Alongside today’s announcement, Jay Som shares two tracks off of the record. First is “Float (feat. Jim Adkins),” plus “A Million Reasons Why.” Duterte grew up with rock radio outside of San Francisco, memorizing the hits of early ’00s pop-punk and emo as a teen. Though she was 400 miles north along the California coast, The O.C. soundtracks—Imogen Heap, Bloc Party, Death Cab for Cutie, and so on—became major touchstones, too. You immediately hear the collision of it all in “Float (feat. Jim Adkins),” the first song Duterte wrote for Belong. “This song is about desperately trying to hold on to past versions of yourself for self preservation. The fear of the unknown is so overwhelming that sometimes the best solution is to sit with it instead of fighting or running from it.” Adkins adds, “Melina is an absolute professional in all aspects of music creation. I am honored she had space in her vision for me to contribute. And it was a lot of fun to work on. Great song!“ Listen to “Float (feat. Jim Adkins)” and watch the Nina Ljeti-directed music video, which unintentionally but very serendipitously references Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” music video, now HERE.
Jay Som announces her first North American tour in over 5 years today. She will also support Lucy Dacus on tour this Summer. See below to find a show near you, and get your tickets HERE when they go on-sale this Friday, July 11th at 10 am locally.
Tour Dates
07/25 - Philadelphia, PA @ FDR Park %#
07/26 - Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! #
07/27 - Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theater #
07/29 - Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple Theatre #
07/30 - Lewiston, NY @ Artpark Mainstage Theater #
08/02 - Shelburne, VT @ The Green at Shelburne Museum #
08/08 - Troutdale, OR - Edgefield Amphitheater #
08/09 - Boise, ID - Morrison Center #
08/10 - Carnation, WA - Remlinger Farms #
08/12 - Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre # SOLD OUT
08/13 - Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre #
08/16 - Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre #
10/31 - 11/01 - Amsterdam, NE @ London Calling - Paradiso
11/03 – Berlin, DE @ Kantine am Berghain
11/6 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique, Rotonde
11/05 - Paris, France @ Pitchfork Paris - Le Trabendo
11/08 - London, UK @ Pitchfork London
11/23 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
12/02 - Austin, TX @ The Parish
12/03 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
12/05 - Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5
12/08 - Washington, DC @ Atlantis
12/09 - Philadelphia, PA @ Foundry
12/11 - New York, NY @ Warsaw
12/12 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Hall
12/13 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
12/14 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
% w/ Hop Along
# w/ Lucy Dacus
(album art | download)
Tracklisting
01. Cards On The Table
03. What You Need
04. Appointments
05. Drop A
06. Past Lives (feat. Hayley Williams)
07. D.H.
08. Casino Stars
09. Meander/Sprouting Wings
10. A Million Reasons Why
11. Want It All
More on Jay Som & Belong:
Six years ago, in 2019, Melina Duterte released Anak Ko, the expansive sophomore album from the project that had quickly grown far beyond its so-called bedroom pop origins into something resembling an actual band. Duterte still wrote and produced that Jay Som record, but her friends now surrounded her, playing parts of their own. But when a shuttered touring industry scrapped Jay Som’s ambitious 2020 plans, Duterte realized she had long needed a reset from the road after several years of constant pivots between touring and writing, anyway. She decided to splurge on herself and her lifelong interest in production. She self-produced all of her records, after all. So she committed herself to manuals and online tutorials, peppering experienced friends with questions about becoming more than her own home-recording engineer.
She never could have imagined where the past few years would have taken her – collaborating, producing, touring, and working on so many incredible projects with a wide range of artists. So when Duterte reckoned the time had come to revisit Jay Som, she did not pretend to be hidebound by the project’s past. Instead, she let the half-decade of life she’d lived and work she’d done since releasing Anak Ko filter not only into her songs but also her process. The new friends she’d actually had time to make in Los Angeles now that she was off the road—especially Joao Gonzalez (of Soft Glas) and Mal Hauser (a collaborator to Mk.gee and Illuminati Hotties)—became key partners, as Duterte opened her music to others like never before. But she also opened up her music to herself and her memories, writing songs that revisited the sounds of her youth with the benefit of her experiences as a musician, producer, and performer. She was neither shy about her influences nor limited about where they might lead her. And so no previous Jay Som album sounds quite like the new Belong. It is a map of the first 31 years of Duterte’s life, all leading to the present.
“When you try something for the first time, you’re always going to hold some type of fear, but I had to come to terms with the fact that I had to let go of some control,” she explains. “This record is essentially still me, but a lot of choices were made by friends who helped me, because I trusted them.”
Though Duterte has never been one for special guests on Jay Som’s intimate records, Hayley Williams had insisted on singing together at some point since the band opened for Paramore in 2018. So Duterte and Steph Marziano—another new friend who has written with Bartees Strange and Cassandra Jenkins and who began working and hanging with Duterte after Williams introduced them—went to Nashville to try a song together. Later, Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World and Lexi Vega of Mini Trees would join the record as well.
And while Duterte’s production credits have mounted spectacularly since 2020, she knows enough to know she might not always know best. As she neared the end of Belong, she went to Philadelphia’s Headroom Studios, where producer Kyle Pulley told her that, simply as a Jay Som fan, he wanted to hear more of her. This became her first time working with another producer on Jay Som, yet another sign of her opening the band to others’ ideas.
For the better part of six years, she mostly checked out of Jay Som, cultivating and tending to the other side of her artistry. Now that she has returned to the band itself, she wonders where she belongs within an indie rock ecosystem, or how much of the rest of her life and work she is willing to give up to live up to that role. This is why she named these songs Belong, after all, as she tries to figure out where she fits into the wider world as an artist, producer, and person. “Do you really want to go? Will you hate what you will find?” she sings near the start of that title track, built on a seesaw of repetition. Duterte doesn’t know the answer yet, how she balances being an acclaimed and in-demand producer with being a proper bandleader, too. She just knows that Jay Som is back, invigorated by more ideas, experiences, and inputs than it’s ever enjoyed before.
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Photo Credit: Daniel Topete
