Jane Lai has kept busy playing in bands across NYC’s DIY scene—most recently and notably Teenage Halloween—for years now, but is finally taking the time to process the events in her personal life over these years. After signing with Lauren Records and unveiling her debut solo tune a few weeks back, today we’re getting a follow-up track called “Packing Tape” as well as news of a full EP titled Received Receipt due out June 3, which will see the songwriter mulling over past relationships through the clarity of the present moment.
At just 74 seconds, this second single from the EP unpacks a loaded comment made by a co-worker at a former job, dramatically paring down broad ideas of memory and trauma like the musical equivalent of a haiku. “This is a song I wrote when I was 19 working as a cashier in a grocery store,” Lai shares. “A woman working with me told me a story about how ripping packing tape sounded like gunshots and the sound of that brought back so many memories, like the texture of a pie or the color of a lipstick. The crux of the song, I suppose, pinpoints how one snapshot of a moment can travel in so many directions and pull so much into the present.”
Hear the ruminative track below.
