Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Hi Mel, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Hey, Thanks for having me, what a pleasure. I’m good. Busy working on new music and the releases coming along with that. It’s fun and always also a bit scary. But mostly exciting.
“ORANGE” takes the simple image of a meticulously peeled orange and turns it into a metaphor for intimacy, desire, and the things we sometimes remove in order to get to the sweetness. What inspired that image, and when did you realize it could become the centre of a song?
I was thinking a lot about relationships. Not only romantic ones but also the kind of relationships we have with our families, friends and maybe even enemies. I was trying to understand how we influence each other. Realizing that we all have our very own image of someone or something and that with every close connection we share, we also leave our traces. It can be beautiful, but it can also be toxic, and I wrote this song knowing, that I have been the person who peeled the orange, but I’ve also been the orange… I was looking for a metaphor to describe this ambivalence.
There’s a beautiful bittersweet quality to “ORANGE,” both lyrically and musically. What emotions were you trying to capture when you first started writing the song?
To be honest, when I’m writing songs, I usually don’t have an exact plan or goal that I want to achieve. I try to let myself dive into the current feelings, into the topic that has been on my mind and that I wanted to talk about, I try to go into the sounds, into the music and with that the emotions come pretty naturally. Of course, when we start doing the detail work in the studio we always say that we want to find the “fitting dress” for the song but the emotions and the intention has to be there already at this point.
Your music brings together folk and soul with indie-pop elements and the freedom of electronic production. How do you decide which sounds belong in a song, and what does each genre bring to your musical identity?
So far I’ve always worked with my dear friend Dino Brandao who is an absolute wonder-human. He has many instruments in his studio and an incredible love for experimenting with sounds and textures. That’s where we both meet and that’s also why we work so well together. When we work on my music, we usually don’t know, where we end up. I have my ideas and sketches but I’m also very curious to hear what he thinks about a certain song idea. When looking at the process of the music, there is often more than one version of the same song. But of course, we also have some pieces where it is very clear from the beginning, that it’s just a stripped down vocal-guitar track that should feel very close to your ears like someone is inside your head, like it’s your thoughts…
Following NOT CRAZY and YOUNG BONES, this new single seems to turn your attention outward toward relationships and the strange forces that exist between people. Has your songwriting perspective changed as you’ve moved from those earlier releases to “ORANGE”?
It was a very natural thing to do. I’m inspired by life, by the people around me, by the things I experience. I’ve been on tour a lot in the past 2 years and I’ve met many people, I’ve missed many people, I’ve created new relationships and I’ve lost some. To think about all of that came very naturally. I’m usually trying to understand things better through my music, it’s a bit like a translator to me sometimes.
How do you balance vulnerability with playfulness when you’re writing and performing?
Oh, that is a good question and I’m not sure if I master this tricky thing already. Haha. I try to be as honest and true with myself and the audience as I can be. This can be very scary, and I sometimes feel incredibly vulnerable but it’s also where I feel most connected to the listeners. But you might have to ask me in a few years again. I might know better by then.
“ORANGE” is getting a limited 300-copy 7-inch vinyl release, with a DJ Real Madrid remix appearing on the B-side. What does releasing music physically mean to you in an era where so much of our listening happens digitally?
To me it is so precious to hold something we’ve been working on for so long with all our passion in my hands. To know: We did this! We can touch it, we can use it, we can share it. I love listening to vinyls. It feels very different from listening to music online. It is more of a conscious decision. When the album is over, it stops. There is not just a random song coming next. The order is clear and made by the artist and there is a reason for it. You have to be present with the music in some way… I could go on and on about that but as you can see: I LOVE VINYLS! Haha.
The remix arrives later in October and will give the song another life through a completely different interpretation. What excites you most about hearing another artist take something you created and reshape it into their own musical language?
I think it’s amazing. There is an unlimited amount of possibilities what this song could sound like and I love hearing other visions of it. Also giving it out of my hands into hands of a good friend whom I trust, to see where it goes feels somehow very liberating and fun.
As a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, how involved are you in the different stages of bringing a song like “ORANGE” to life, from the initial idea through the arrangement, instrumentation, and final production?
I’m there from the beginning to the very end. I’m there always. It’s my baby.
With “ORANGE” opening this next chapter, what can listeners expect from Mel D moving forward, and are there particular sounds, themes, or ideas you’re excited to explore next?
I don’t want to spoil too much but I can promise that we’ve been working a lot, pouring our hearts and creativity out and I hope that many people will join this adventure in one or the other way
