J.R. Slayer, are back with their new single, “Parliaments,” out today. The track arrives just a few days before the band is set to take the stage with Say Anything on October 19 at the Regent Theater in LA. Recorded at Pale Moon Ranch Studios with Alex Estrada and later mastered by Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip, “Parliaments” is a carefree, post-summer anthem about the risks we knowingly take to feel alive. “You roll the dice because it feels so damn good in the moment,” they explain.

The project first formed as a creative catch-all for Cody Votolato (Blood Brothers, Telekenesis, Head Wound City) but has grown into a full band with the addition of bassist Jason Klein and collaborators like Cody’s sister Brandi Votolato, guitarist Mike O’Toole, and drummer Alex Oñate. Their debut release as J.R. SLAYER––an EP called Not Rotten––arrived last year, full of melodic indie-punk singalongs, bubblegum-pop choruses, and soaring guitar riffs.

J.R. SLAYER comes years after Votolato’s pivot away from full-time music work, on the tail end of decades between bands including beloved Seattle post-hardcore outfit The Blood Brothers, Jaguar Love, Head Wound City, Telekinesis, and Cold Cave. Blood Brothers began when Votolato was 15, and at the time was his main and only source of income. “I got fairly burnt out trying to make money as a musician,” says Votolato. “I was struggling for a very long time to have music make me money and be my career. It turned into this very toxic relationship with music.”

He vowed to leave that life behind but continued to write and play music at his own pace after moving to Los Angeles in 2016. Soon, friend and collaborator Andrew Martin pushed him to solidify J.R. SLAYER, and then another friend booked a show at the Hi-Hat (RIP), and Votolato started performing again. “I really wanted to reconnect with music in the way that I did when I first started playing music, which was more about just needing it to survive in an artistic and soulful way, as opposed to needing it to survive financially.”

Klein introduced Votolato to Will Yip, who produced Not Rotten at his Studio 4 in Conshocken, Pennsylvania over two sessions, months apart, in 2021, and released the EP on his own label, Memory Music.

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