Lucky Number Music

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 led 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, beabadoobee and 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 10th October. 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) and Steph Marziano (producer for Bartees Strange, and Cassandra Jenkins). She also welcomed guest vocalists for the first time on one of her albums, featuring Hayley Williams, 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 from 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”, the first song Duterte wrote for Belong.

Duterte says, “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 honoured 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” and watch the Nina Ljeti-directed music video, which unintentionally but very serendipitously references the music video for Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle”, below now.

Bachelor—the collaborative project of Palehound’s Ellen Kempner and Jay Som’s Melina Duterte—release their highly-anticipated debut album, Doomin’ Sun, today. With an ominous eye to extreme fandom, the duo has also released their new “Back Of My Hand” video, directed by Ellen Kempner.

The band says: “For the “Back Of My Hand” video, we wanted more than anything to make something fun given the limited time and options available due to the current pandemic. Ultimately deciding to put Ellen in the director’s chair as well as film at her home with a skeleton crew. Our final single is about the dark side of fandom and we wanted to exaggerate that as much as possible in our video concept. When it came to choose an artist to obsess over we quickly chose Harry Styles as we both are truly big fans!”

With early support from the likes of Pitchfork, The New York Times, NME, DIY and more, Doomin’ Sun is a record steeped in friendship. Written and recorded in Topanga, CA over the course of two weeks in January of 2020, pre-pandemic, Doomin’ Sun finds Kempner and Duterte hybridizing their individual songwriting talents, producing a collection that slips between moods with ease and showcases their lyrical prowess. While the album features collaborations with the likes of Big Thief’s Buck Meek and James Krivchenia, as well as Duterte’s partner Annie Truscott of Chastity Belt, the record was largely made by the two musicians in isolation as a fitting precursor to the forthcoming year. Creating the space to explore significant themes from queerness to climate change, the collection also finds Bachelor experiencing pure, unadulterated joy: the kind of joy that can only come from creating, laughing, and having a ridiculous amount of fun with a close friend.

To celebrate the album release they have also announced Doomin’ Sun Fest, a massive, free/donation-based livestream festival + telethon to benefit and uplift Seeding Sovereignty. The festival will take place on June 10 starting at 6pm ET / 11pm BST, and features the likes of Tegan & Sara, Courtney Barnett, Benjamin Gibbard, Sylvan Esso, Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief), Jeff Tweedy, Japanese Breakfast, Julien Baker, Soccer Mommy, Claud and more.

Palehound’s Ellen Kempner and Jay Som’s Melina Duterte recently announced new collaborative project Bachelor and shared their acclaimed first single “Anything At All”. Now, the duo announce their debut album – Doomin’ Sun due out May 28 – alongside brand new track “Stay in the Car” with a music video directed by Haoyan of America, watch below.

On the bass-heavy rock song, the duo paint a yearning portrait of a woman in a supermarket parking lot, a barely-contained desire oozing out of cotidian descriptions like: “She burns out of the market / Plastic bags digging into wrists / Blood stuck in her fingertips.”

Kempner explains, “I wrote the lyrics to ‘Stay In the Car’ back in December of 2019 when I was in Florida for my partner’s top surgery. I had run out one afternoon, post op, while he was healing to grab lunch for us and as I was gathering my stuff in the parking lot, a big car pulled up and this absolutely beautiful woman got out. She was dressed all in red, dripping with jewelry and had the most wild fiery mane I’d ever seen. She was yelling at the man behind the wheel asking him what he wanted from the store and I wished I was that man. I wanted to be a part of her life, her best friend, her driver, whatever she wanted me to be. I was completely mesmerized.” Duterte continues, “We wanted this song to be a visceral listening experience, inspired by The Pixies and The Breeders”.

Kempner and Duterte hybridized their individual songwriting talents, producing a collection that slips between moods with ease and showcases their lyrical prowess. While the album features collaborations with the likes of Big Thief’s Buck Meek and James Krivchenia, as well as Duterte’s partner Annie Truscott of Chastity Belt, the record was largely made by the two musicians in isolation as a fitting precursor to the forthcoming year. Creating the space to explore significant themes from queerness to climate change, the collection also finds Bachelor experiencing pure, unadulterated joy: the kind of joy that can only come from creating, laughing, and having a ridiculous amount of fun with a close friend.

Written and recorded in Topanga, California over the course of two weeks in January of 2020, pre-pandemic, Doomin’ Sun is a record steeped in friendship. Pre-order it now.

Critically acclaimed, indie-rock powerhouses Jay Som (Melina Duterte) and Palehound (Ellen Kempner) have joined forces to form a new project called Bachelor. Today, they release their debut single “Anything At All”. The two musicians came together in pre-quarantine 2020, recording in California during what was then a rare break from touring. Written, performed, and produced entirely by the pair, the new single starts with a heavy, funky bass line followed by a chorus so playful it could be a schoolyard taunt.

The duo explains, “We’re so excited to finally share this song and announce our new band! We’ve been dear friends and huge fans of each other for years and were lucky enough to get to work together before quarantine in January 2020. One morning Melina was showering and this bass line idea just stuck in her head. She went downstairs to play it, waking Ellen who then came down and joined in on drums and started recording. After we got the basic track down we wrote lyrics about queerness, lust, and longing.Writing and recording “Anything At All” was a really natural process and releasing it now feels very hopeful and joyous to us.”

Stay tuned for more Bachelor news coming soon in 2021!

LA-based Jay Som – aka Melina Duterte – will release her second record Anak Ko later this month – which you can pre-order NOW. Ahead of release she has shared brand new single “Nighttime Drive”, a restless road song, but one with a sense of contentedness and composure, which “basically encapsulated my entire life for the past two years,” explains Duterte—always moving, but “accepting it, being a little stronger from it.” She sings, memorably, of “shoplifting at the Whole Foods.” Duterte focused more on bass this time, “I just wanted to make a more groovy record”.

You can watch the comical, paranormal video above, which director Han Hale describes as “a homage to the song’s namesake; the song is about being a band on the road and the comradery involved.” Melina adds, “I feel like Han’s style and vision for the video worked so well with the track and what it means to me, kind of a freaky juxtaposition – especially the added layer of alien activity.” Check out the video where Melina-fast asleep in the van en route to a gig-dreams that her and her bandmates go full-on X-Files and have an alien encounter. 

Jay Som just performed at Pitchfork Festival and Fujirock in Japan, and now she’s preparing to bring Anak Ko on the road for a massive international tour with a visit to the UK in November. All dates are on-sale now – find a show near you and get tickets HERE.