Video premiere: Maddie Jay, ‘The Peanut Butter Song’

Kevin Bronson on February 19th, 2020

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Here’s one for when things get sticky.

“The Peanut Butter Song” is the fourth single from Maddie Jay, an L.A.-based singer, songwriter and producer who makes whimsical pop songs that stare millennial dread straight in the eyes. And crack a joke.

Born Madeline Jay Lough and reared in northern British Columbia, she moved to L.A. to pursue a career that so far has seen her work as a hired-gun bassist for the likes of Summer Walker, Skylar Grey, Drake Bell and Alunageorge, among others. She’s worked on her own songs while on the road, producing them in her apartment and arriving at a warm sound that mixes jangling dream-pop with beat-driven synth-pop. Serious with a wink, her songs are fun for the body and the mind.

In director Darren Dai’s playful video and in the new single itself, peanut butter is the bad guy. “You turn into peanut butter, you pretend that you’re healthy / You’re undercover, you say that you’ll help me / I tell myself that you’re only / my midnight snack when I’m lonely,” she sings over a tooting synth.

“‘The Peanut Butter Song’ came to be while I was trying to find a way to describe some toxic relationships in my life,” Jay says. “They can be so hard to spot, and in fact a lot of red flags can come across as super appealing right off the bat. Things like ‘You are so unhappy/unorganized, let me help you get your life together’ or ‘I want to help you with your career!’ It all sounds great at first, but there can be some really manipulative and controlling behaviors tied in with that kind of stuff.

“It’s like when people fall prey to health trends and healthy-looking packaging, but in reality what they are eating is packed with sugar and is soo bad for you. I like finding silly ways to talk about serious things.”

Mission accomplished. Spread this one around.

||| Watch: The video for “The Peanut Butter Song”