"Her solution was six years of self-driven schooling: putting her stimulus check toward vintage gear, polling friends for engineering advice, and holing up in the deep archives of "YouTube University" (her words) to grow as a producer. Her goal was simple, yet elusive: to learn "what it felt like to be a musician without being a leader or being a solo project artist.""
"But mostly, she was behind the boards, producing and engineering for Hatchie, Beabadoobee, Jeff Tweedy, and biggest of all, boygenius' . She later toured with Lucy, Julien, and Phoebe, which was not only a dream gig- floating saunas! horseback riding!-but a glimpse into the group's deeply collaborative writing process, which turned songs into communal belongings. If the past several years were Duterte's school, the tour was her research capstone: learning what it felt like to be a musician and not need leaders at all."
"What the album loses in raw shaggy experimentalism of her last records, it gains in understated poise. The arrangements are pop-punk at bedroom-pop scale: fist-pumping in a small space. The lyrics are full of holding patterns just about to break, frustrations on the verge of coming to a head, and the tentative epiphanies of someone who's only recently started to leave things behind: fading friendships, ill-fitting ambitions."
Melina Duterte redirected quarantine-era uncertainty into six years of intensive self-teaching in production and engineering. She invested stimulus money in vintage gear, polled friends for engineering advice, and learned techniques through "YouTube University" to become a producer. She produced and engineered for artists including Hatchie, Beabadoobee, Jeff Tweedy, and boygenius, and collaborated on records such as 2021's Doomin' Sun. Touring with Lucy, Julien, and Phoebe exposed her to deeply collaborative songwriting practices and confirmed her desire to be a musician without traditional leadership roles. On Belong, Duterte returns as Jay Som with understated poise, pop-punk–tinged arrangements, and lyrics about breaking holding patterns and leaving ill-fitting ambitions behind.
Read at Pitchfork
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