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Jay Som, Everybody Works

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By
Andrea Gin

It’s not uncommon for artists to record their music in a home studio, but it is a little unusual to come across one who recorded every aspect of her album in what literally is her bedroom. Meet Melina Duterte, a 22-year-old from Oakland, Calif., whose new album, Everybody Works, will completely change your idea of what bedroom recording is supposed to sound like.

Duterte, who goes by the name Jay Som (chosen by an online baby name generator said to mean "Victory Moon"), has not only made a wide-ranging album that moves effortlessly from fuzz-rock to synth-pop to alt-funk, but also did it entirely herself, playing every instrument and self-producing every song.

Everybody Works is a followup to 2015’s Turn Into, which was intially released on the small San Diego-based indie label Topshelf before being re-released on Polyvinyl late last year. While Turn Into was a loose collection of songs written over the span of several years, Everybody Works was made in a three-week period of writing and recording last October. The angst of the lyrics from her first effort are still present, but Duterte says she is now looking forward instead of back.

“Last time I was angry at the world,” she said via press release. “This is a note to myself: everybody’s trying their best on their own set of problems and goals. We’re all working for something.”

She cites artists like Tame Impala, Yo La Tengo and the Pixies as inspiration, but also gives credit to Carly Rae Jepsen's last album.

“Also I was listening to a lot of Carly Rae Jepsen to be quite honest,” she says. “Her E•MO•TION album actually inspired a lot of the sounds on Everybody Works.”

You can hear all those influences and more on the album, beginning with the shimmering layers of “Lipstick Stains” through the shoegazy guitar fuzz of “1 Billion Dogs” to electric groove of “One More Time, Please.” Listen to the album a week ahead of its release date right here.

Everybody Works will be released on March 10 via Polyvinyl. Pre-order it here.

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