Jay Som Takes a “Nighttime Drive” in Dreamy Video for New Single

The latest single from Jay Som’s much-anticipated new album Anak Ko is “Nighttime Drive,” a sleepy strummer that arrives Thursday accompanied by a clever, X-Files-referencing music video.

Jay Som mastermind Melina Duterte stars in the Han Hale-directed video as a weary traveling musician (a role she is well-equipped to play!) who, asleep in her band’s touring van, dreams she’s the leader of a group of suit-clad special agents on their way to investigate a mysterious, crop circle-esque pattern that has appeared in the wilderness. “Shifting through the nighttime drive / We’ll be just fine,” Duterte sings, her breathy vocals evoking the blurry state of being in between—sleep and waking, one city and another, late night and early morning—over gauzy guitars, playful bass plucks, and judiciously deployed piano and strings. Meanwhile, the video dives deeper and deeper into her imagination, ultimately uncovering the supernatural truth at the heart of the mystery.

The new song “basically encapsulated my entire life for the past two years,” Duterte says in a statement, referencing the constant touring that followed the 2017 release of Jay Som’s breakout studio debut Everybody Works, Paste’s top album of that year. Hale describes the “Nighttime Drive” video as “an homage to the song’s namesake; the song is about being a band on the road and the camaraderie involved.” Camaraderie is key to Anak Ko, the recording of which found Duterte inviting friends—Vagabon’s Laetitia Tamko, Chastity Belt’s Annie Truscott, Justus Proffit, and Boy Scouts’ Taylor Vick among them—to contribute instrumentation, the do-it-all artist’s first time bringing guest musicians into the recording process.

“Nighttime Drive” is Anak Ko’s third single, following June’s “Superbike” and July’s “Tenderness.” The album as a whole arrives on Aug. 23 via Polyvinyl Record Co., and Jay Som will embark on an extensive fall international tour in support of the LP—you’ll find those dates right here, along with the details of Anak Ko.

Watch the “Nighttime Drive” video below.