Born and raised in Montreal, Mel Yelle moved to Toronto to pursue her music career further after the completion of a music production and sound design program. Better known by her alter ego Melotika, the indie pop artist has been making waves in the music scene since 2016. After years of headbanging at festivals and dancing in night clubs, Melotika took her songwriting and sound design projects to Toronto to record New Wave music. Her fusion of rich, smokey vocals and sultry electro beats set her apart in today’s indie pop scene. With her EP “Unaware” out now and a brand new music video for her single “Joy Ride”, Melotika is the one to watch.
Melotika’s brand new single “Joy Ride” is an intense and genre-bending new track. The avant-garde piece blends pop rock and industrial electro music. Melotika out her powerful message on display through her seasoned lyricism. The overall message of “Joy Ride” is to embrace your individuality and find comfort in being different. The empowering indie anthem is easy to vibe along to. Melotika’s powerhouse vocals are sultry, unique and hypnotizing. The brand new music video for “Joy Ride” features Melotika painted head to toe in silver! She looks like a superhero and a representation of strength and motivation. Throughout the video, Melotika dances with confidence and ease as she spreads her message of originality. We love the industrial setting that matches perfectly with the overall gritty sound arrangements. This track and video put Melotika on the map in a big way and we can’t wait to see what she does next!
Stream “Joy Ride” here, check out the music video below and keep scrolling for our exclusive interview!
Hi Mel! Welcome to BuzzMusic! Can you dive into the details of the lyrics in “Joy Ride”? What emotions did you channel when writing it?
The original lyrics of this song was meant to be over a trip-hop project that never ended up following through. At the time while writing, I got into this really eerie, mysterious and dark mood after coming out of a near death experience. (Here in Ontario, Canada, my partner and I got into a dangerous car accident in June 2018). We survived of course, and no further damages were made other than a mild concussion. For months after that experience my mind was a tornado. I thought about life, expectations, our roles in society, and all the pressures we go through in order to please loved ones, family, and society in general. When I wrote this song primarily, I got into the mood I was feeling, and the words kind of just slipped out naturally with nothing planned.
The trip-hop tune never ended up following through due to change of circumstance. From there, I took the demo and brought it to a friend of mine Adam Van Ameringen who is a producer here in Toronto. I explained to him how much I connected with the melody and lyrics and wanted to turn this over into a brand new song that would be my next Melotika single. The idea I had in mind for this track was creating an avant-garde composition blending the genres of pop rock and industrial music. Adam has a diverse musical taste along with myself, and together having a passion for sound design, we went over different sound textures and just started creating in the studio. Adam brilliantly added his electric guitar which really made the sound big! We reconstructed the tune several times and I ended up sitting on the song for weeks rewriting new choruses until I was finally happy with it.
The brand new single "Joy Ride" by Melotika is meant to be creative, strange and wild. Overall, the lyrics of the song is about conquering being an outsider and being different. This song is about "fighting the fight against the self and the world" while empowering the listener.
After the car accident I had a mini awakening: I just needed to be a little more true to myself and let that flow into my projects.
We love the video! Where was it filmed? Why did you choose that location?
We filmed the video around Cherry Beach and Polson Pier here in Toronto. This location was decided because after selecting the costume concept, I thought an industrial bright setting would be perfect to film a spacey new wave song! The studio where the song was recorded and produced in was nearby, I just sort of felt the vibe here. There seems to be a lot of energy around that area musici wise having Rebel night club around, and a mixture of industrial settings and nature. A lot of the scenery reminded me of being on planet Mars or the Moon - and big spaceships and drone like devices in the back! The idea was to do a sci-fi 70’s throwback. Fred Yurichuck was the cinematographer for this project.
We have to know, how long did the makeup take for the shoot?!
I was late for my own video shoot because the makeover took longer than expected! 4 hours I believe. Toronto makeup artist Erin Sweeney was the mastermind behind this. I brought to her this idea of spray painting my body, and getting a 70’s type, David Bowie throwback, androgonous look and creating cartoon-like screaming mouths on the palms of both hands. It was a total success. I remember having the longest shower of my life afterwards! The point of this look was to give out the impression of a human transitioning into an Extraterrestrial and being in limbo. Groovy and weird all around.
What do you think sets you apart from other indie pop artists?
There is this awesome music blogger from New Jersey, Tina Romano that I have been in touch with now for months. I will have to quote her words a little bit for this one! I believe one thing that would set me apart from other indie pop artists is that I do not shy away from speaking my mind about personal topics. A previous song off my debut EP "Don't Believe (You Speak)" touched on breaking free from emotional abuse. "Bittersweet Reality" is a tune with a sense of bitter resignation as I sing about the conflict between our reality and the self-image we project to the world. My concepts and topics are deep and can make one feel uncomfortable at the same time feel relatable. We are all human, life is not always peaches and cream, money and glitter. One more thing that sets me apart would be that I am notorious for not following the “rules” of the music industry. It has always been difficult to break into the well-connected boys club here in the music scene. I happen to tour often with my boyfriend, who is an alternative hip hop artist in Toronto Krosst Out. Often you can see me perform pop music at hip hop shows and rock shows.
What’s next for Melotika?
As an independent artist it is necessary to also work on the marketing side of music. This is what I will be working on for the rest of the summer: networking and promoting the new single! I will get some new shows happening in the near future.I am very much inspired to take some of my songs and get them produced and create a concept EP.
Stay connected!
www.instagram.com/melotikamusic
www.facebook.com/melotika