After a decade heading up Choir Vandals, the St. Louis musician Austin McCutchen — who occasionally plays with Squint and Foxing — started up a new project called Hot Joy, rounded out by co-lead vocalist and bassist Nicole Bonura, guitarist Curt Oschner, and Wil McCarthy on drums. Hot Joy are releasing their debut EP Small Favor next month, which they announced with “Fingers On My Side” a couple weeks back. Today, they’re back with another single, the fuzzy and satisfying “Folded Tongue.”

“This was the first song I wrote for Hot Joy,” McCutchen shared. “Its first appearance in my phone’s voice memos is January of 2021 and it was the first song I sent to Curt when talking about starting this project. This song is sort of about being afraid of confrontation, but leaning into it because you know it’ll make your life easier in the long run. By not confronting the things that are taking up space in your head, you’re living in a different sort of reality. Not knowing if anything is fact or fiction, feeling the friction of wrestling with those thoughts in your mind all the time.”

Listen below.

The Small Favor EP is out 4/19.