Jay Som (real name Melina Duterte) and Chastity Belt bassist Annie Truscott have formed a new band Routine and released the first single off their upcoming EP.
Their debut single ‘Cady Road’ is a song about accepting uncertainties and living in the moment. It’s also the lead single of their five-track EP ‘And Other Things,’ which will be released on November 20.
Duterte and Truscott – who are partners – recorded the EP over the course of a month in Joshua Tree while under COVID-19 lockdown. Truscott served as bassist, songwriter and vocalist, while Duterte was the accompanist, engineer and producer.
Listen to the song below.
“In Annie’s songs I hear a yearning for something just out of reach, something unachievable. She’s such a great singer, so it felt good to just layer instruments to make her vision for it fully fleshed out,” Duterte said in a statement.
“We aren’t telling one story here, we’re telling a series of short stories that people can hopefully relate to,” Truscott added.
The band was formed after Duterte’s tour, which Truscott was supposed to join as a violinist, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Routine is part of record label Dead Oceans’ Friends Of series, which is a series featuring artists “who may otherwise operate outside of the [parent company] Secretly roster, but have now joined the group’s creative community in ways uniquely suited to the current moment”.
The series includes other pairings like Julie Byrne & Trayer Tryon, Triathalon, Devendra Banhart & Noah Georgeson, and more.
This isn’t the first time Duterte worked with Truscott: she co-produced Chastity Belt’s sixth self-titled album, which was released last year.
“We’ve never had a planned producer, so we thought, ‘Maybe we’ll try it out this time to see how it feels to have someone help us make decisions,'” Truscott told The Fader.
Duterte also released her fourth album ‘Anak Ko’ in 2019, which included songs like ‘Tenderness’ and ‘Superbike.’
In 2017, Duterte collaborated with singer-songwriter Justus Profitt for her EP ‘Nothing’s Changed.’
Her most recent release ‘Hurry Home’ was recorded in collaboration with Filipino singer-songwriters No Rome and Beabadoobee.