You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Keish, Here Wee. J-SOM has a new album coming out on October 10th called Belong, which is pretty exciting if you're a fan like me, because her last album came out six years ago. This new one features guest appearances by Hailey Williams from Paramore and Jim Adkins from Jimmy World. And I've been really enjoying it, so I thought it would be nice to revisit her Song Exploder episode also from six years ago, November 2019. Since the episode was published, Melina's done a lot. She was part of the Grammy-winning boy genius album that came out in 2023, and she's produced and mixed a bunch of albums for other folks. I've been lucky enough to work with her a few times, including a duet that we did together for a song of mine. And I consider her a friend now. And that all started with this episode. So here it is. Melina Duterte, who goes by the name J-SOM, is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She's released three albums under the name J-SOM, and she's produced, engineered, and mixed each one. Her third album, Anakako, came out in August 2019. And in this episode, Melina breaks down a song from it called Tenderness. I'm Melina from J-SOM. I started writing Tenderness the summer of 2018. I just moved to LA, and I was doing a lot of production work for other people. This artist came over to work with me for her whole record. And there was one day where I had to clean her entire hard drive, and I noticed that there was a folder that said Vintage Drum Machines. And I just copy and pasted it onto my computer because I was like, oh, it's right there. She doesn't know that, but it's OK. And I just experimented with all of those. I started off by recording this Lynn LM1 drum machine. That's like the Prince drum sampler. And I know he used that on all the hits. And at the time, I was listening to a lot of Steely Dan. They make a lot of songs that have a shuffly beat, and I wanted to emulate that because you don't get to hear that often, especially in pop music too. It's like, boop, boop, boop, gap, boop, gap. And I thought it'd be really cool to have this, like, languid guitar part that strums as if it's a piano. Just boom. Boom, boom, boom. Just pretty like minor seventh chords. The concept and the meaning of the track came as I was writing it. Those chords are used in lots of R&B songs, and it just felt right to make a song about love. I was trying to conceptualize this idea of sitting in your bed, thinking about your new romantic partner that you just started dating, and you're kind of wondering if they're thinking about you and wondering if you're, like, their right person. As I was doing the vocals, I really wanted that lo-fi effect. I imagine myself on my bed with, like, an old telephone, and you're kind of, like, speaking into the telephone. I really wanted that conversational feeling, as if, like, you're either leaving a voicemail or you're the only one that's speaking, and you really want to put your heart on the line. And that was originally supposed to be the whole song. It was going to be, like, a minute and 30 seconds. It was going to be, like, the intro of that and one chorus. But I sat with the demo for a couple months, and it just didn't sound right to me. That was the first time for, like, an album-making process where I had demos. Usually when I write songs, I record them at the same time because I really like having the idea in my head and going through with it. But this time, I started to get, like, a little frustrated because I was writing songs that I couldn't play when it, like, goes into the part with a drum fill and it comes into the rest of the song. That's just, like, drum samples. And it started sounding too, like, rigid. It didn't have, like, a flow. And that's when I decided, like, I need to have Sack play drums on it. That is my touring mate, Sack. We've been playing music together since middle school and high school, like in jazz bands and, like, concert bands and indie cover bands. We just went up to his parents' house in our hometown, which is in the East Bay area. They have, like, this bonus room that he has his drum set in and he usually records music in there because it's always quiet. I just set up some mics on his drums and he just, like, nailed it. He did more to it than I would if I played the drums. More taste and style and, like, flavor. So I had the drums for tenderness and I was super happy because I was like, oh, I could finally have it sound the way that I wanted to. And then I went back to LA and started doing bass. Bass is my favorite instrument to play. I started playing the bass after I, like, really learned guitar. And then I realized that the bass was the most important instrument in every song. I think it just, like, has so much meaning in, like, the foundation of a song. It, like, really drives and, like, motivates the groove of it. With the bass, you can just do the roots. But I think I always like to do a little more. I like little nuggets of jazzy notes that work in the chord progression. And I think it, like, gives it, like, a really cool flow. Most of the guitar tracks were done in Joshua Tree. I rented this house for, like, a week. So the intro guitar, I wanted it to sound like the guitar was coming from an old record player to sound like vintage. And then I wanted to introduce these new elements for guitar layering to make the intro build a little more. So I played through a cleaner setting and put, like, a tremolo on it. And that was panned left. And then the end of the intro introduces, like, another guitar, panned to the right. And then for the first chorus, I added in a guitar with, like, a Leslie effect. I love layering guitars. I think that is the secret to making a song sound lush. The Warlet Sur was done in Joshua Tree as well. I thought that the Warlet Sur would really, like, serve its purpose as being, like, a steely-dan part of the song. Just has that, like, classic electric piano sound that can make the song come to life. It, like, brings a certain energy that, like, a guitar doesn't bring. I grew up playing jazz trumpet. And throughout that time, I was, like, really heavily invested in, like, music theory and, like, learning about everything. I've always had the mindset that, like, music can speak for itself and music can tell a story and, like, evoke a sort of emotion that lyrics and vocals can't. So I just wanted to have an instrumental passage rather than, like, more lyrics in the bridge of the song. I did the final vocals for Tenderness right before I turned in my album. That was the only song where I was like, I don't know if I'm going to release this because I don't know if I'm singing it good or anything like that. And I think there was just a moment where I, like, forced myself to keep doing the vocal takes over and over again for, like, hours. And I had, like, hot tea with me at all times so that I can, like, coat my throat to, like, sing it. Because I'm not, I don't consider myself, like, a singer or, like, someone that can belt. But if I can sing sweetly, I will. I got my friend Taylor Vick to sing harmonies. I really admire her voice and can relate to the way that she records her voice. She sings really quietly, kind of in a whispery fashion. I also got that style from learning about, like, how you can make your voice sound bigger by singing quietly. And I just think our voices sound really cool together. I think when you're starting off in a new relationship, you feel the effects of, like, puppy love. You're, like, obsessed with this person and you're always thinking about them and everything you do together is really important, like, where you go out to eat and, like, the sort of vacations that you take. You feel like you're in this environment that's, like, yours. You feel like you're sinking and you can't get out of that. It's just sort of like you're falling in love. It feels really good to write songs that are about being loving and showing, like, that you can be vulnerable and emotional in relationships and actively wanting people to know that you love them rather than, like, being emo, I guess. But I can write songs about being emo anytime. Coming up, here are how all those parts and ideas came together in the final song. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full-length. And this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Herway. I started making song exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then, for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabond, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Weinrope. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the US starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In The Last Hour Of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikesh.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. And now, here's Tenderness by J-SOM in its entirety. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM. Tenderness by J-SOM.
