Aldus Santos’ new music project isn’t cookie-cutter singer-songwriter fare; it’s a miracle of grief and recovery
One of Lilystars Records’ very own, but now he’s behind the mic, “self-conscious but hyper-aware,” he tells us.
Aldus Santos has announced a new music project called St. Ruin, the songs for which he cut over the course of the summer, done across intermittent visits to Lilypod Audio (which is like indie-pop church, if we want to stick to this tack).
“I’ve long wanted to heed Clem Castro’s gracious invites to release material under Lilystars. I may have taken forever, but I’m happy I did it,” the writer-musician adds.
“Uncool,” the first advance single off St. Ruin’s projected five-song EP, drops today.
It is, Santos shares, a love letter to the departed, with “its verb tenses volleying between a pretend present, a protracted past, and a poignant future.” He wrote it for his only brother, who died of cancer in 2023.
Apart from Santos – who is on vocal, guitar, and harmonica detail – the track also features performances from bassist Yan Bagay Cruz (Bayang Barrios, Joey Ayala, Abby Clutario) and drummer Dave Cruz (Blind Stereo Moon). Electronic artist-producer kvtvlv’s synth and sound design work, meanwhile, elevates the melancholy tune into something akin to a filmic experience.
The forthcoming EP will be called ‘A Cocktail Called Last Word,’ and Santos describes it as “a grief journal in audio.” It is slated for an October release and will be Santos’ first recorded output since Pamphleteer’s double-A-side ‘Two Novellas’ in 2022.
“You’d think it would be weird to get back on the horse and put out new music and launch a new alter-ego in your 40s…but not really,” Santos says, laughing. “A poet doesn’t stop hurting past a certain age.”
Stream Uncool by St. Ruin today.