Song of the Day | “Side Quest” by Pearl & the Oysters

A year after releasing their most successful album to date – the sweltering summer pop opus Coast 2 Coast – Los Angeles duo Pearl & The Oysters has shared “Side Quest,” a breezy and animated jazz-pop number that sounds as though it were designed to incite a Soul-Train-style line dance on Mars. 

P&TO is made up of high school friends Juju (Juliette Pearl Davis) and Jojo (Joachim Polack). The duo’s latest came about while Jojo was dealing with family illness, when, according to press notes, in an attempt to counter his worry about processing a family illness, he and Davis channeled his feelings into joyful chord progressions and melodies. “I thought, ‘This has to be the poppiest thing I’ll ever do,'” said Polack. “I wanted to do that purely as a therapeutic outlet.”

All songs featured in our Song of the Day series can be found on our Fresh Squeeze Playlist and in rotation on our music discovery radio station, The Independent.