Rapid-fire Questions
1. What have you been listening to lately?
Ian: been on a big Beatles/George Harrison kick lately, James recently turned me on to
a demo version Run of the Mill I’ve been obsessed with
James T: Cat Stevens
Chris: LA Priest, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Sam Tudor, Wake Owl
James P: LA Priest, Dope Lemon, Xenoula, Surf Hat, Night Moves, Fruit Bats, Chet
Faker
We actually made a playlist recently of a bunch stuff we’ve been into:
2. How do I become confident enough to wear sunglasses indoors?
James T: Become a UFC fighter or boxer they seem to have all the confidence in the
world for that!
3. What is the last illegal thing you did? (I promise I’m not a cop)
Ha. Nice try ;).
4. What book should I lie about reading so I sound smart in conversation?
Ian: War and Peace or Gravity’s Rainbow
5. Y’all know Nardwuar?
Ian: Not personally but we’ve met him on the street outside of record stores a few times!
Vancouver legend that man.
6. How do I become as good of an interviewer as Nardwuar?
Ian: Impossible.
7. Roast me.
Ian: You’ll never be Nardwuar.
8. Why would you say that?? (I still haven’t read your answer, but I’m assuming it
hurt my feelings.)
Ian: You asked! And hey maybe you’ll be better than Nardwuar.
9. What's your favorite solo (guitar/piano/drums/etc) of all time?
- Jimi Hendrix USA National Anthem Woodstock 1969
- Purple Rain by Prince
- Pretty much any Jerry Garcia solo
- Comfortably Numb solo
- YYZ live (Neil Peart Drum solo)
- James P: Layla by Derek and the Dominos
- James P: Pain by The War on Drugs
10. Any local Vancouver bands that you think we should check out?
Layten Kramer, Vox Rea, Noble Son, Old Man Canyon, Babe Corner, Colyn Cameron, Sam
Tudor and many more!
To start things off, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about how Meltt
formed?
James T: We’re Meltt, a Vancouver based Alternative/ Indie Psych Rock band. We formed officially in 2014 after we graduated high school. During highschool James P Chris and I (James T) played in a cover band with a couple other guys. Chris and I have known each other since kindergarten and played together since grade 6. After we graduated James P moved out to Montreal for school and Chris and I stayed in Vancouver. We continued to jam together and James would write and send us some ideas from across the country. Eventually when he came back for the summer of 2014 we decided to start writing our own music in a new band and created an EP and the rest is history!
What were you doing before forming Meltt?
James T: Chris James and I (James T) were getting through highschool and pursuing our individual teenage interests while playing together in our highschool cover band. Ian was finishing up University before he officially joined the band in late 2018 and he also had a university band he played with before joining Meltt.
After doing some research, I found out that you put out an EP in 2014 that is no
longer available to stream. I would love to know what was the name of the EP?
AND how often do you go back and revisit your older music?
James T: That EP is the aforementioned EP we made during our very first summer as a band and it was the first true original musical undertaking we embarked on. It was a huge learning experience as we wrote, recorded and mixed it all ourselves. Because of this it was a little rough around the edges and over time we believed it didn’t hold up as compared to our succeeding work. However, there is still one platform where you can find and stream it. But we’ll leave that out there for the hardcore Meltt sleuths to find out where.
Congratulations on your latest single, “Your Melody,” What was the
writing/recording process like and what were some inspirations behind this
single?
Ian: Thanks! This one started with a demo of mine that I came up with in the early days of covid isolation. I had been obsessed with funk and was messing around with some James Brown type riffs until I stumbled upon what would eventually become Your Melody. I brought a rough version of it to the guys and they helped nail down the arrangement and melodies. Once we had a solid demo we were happy with going I began writing the lyrics. The main inspirations for the lyrics were my dad’s fight with ALS and theories in physics that suggest that time is deterministic. I had come across an old picture of my dad as a kid and knowing what was in that kid's future was the spark that fueled me to write the song. That picture is the basis of the cover artfor the song.
What is the most important thing for you when it comes to creating/writing a
song?
James T: Being true to yourself and what inspires you and not seeking to make something specific but letting the music come to you naturally. We all draw on a huge variety of music for inspiration so we don’t like to put limits on what we make. We make what we’re passionate about at the time and it makes the whole process more natural.
You were at SXSW this year! What was that experience like?
Did you get to catch any cool performances and make connections?
James T: Yeah! It was the second year we’ve been to SXSW (we also attended last year 2021). We caught some cool shows like White Denim, Dumbo Gets Mad and Madison Cunningham. Last year we saw Beck do an acoustic set at ACL live, which was amazing! We made some connections with some agents and had some really cool press interviews and fun SOFAR features.
You also have an LP coming out this fall called Eternal Embers! Describe that
upcoming release in 5 words. or you can use more. It doesn’t really matter. I’m
not sure why I said five words.
James T: Diverse, colourful, uplifting, melancholy, ethereal.
Is there a song off of the upcoming release that you’re most excited for everyone
to hear?
James T: We may all have a different answer to this but for me (James T) it’d either be The Fire or When the Smoke Abates.
What are some of the inspirations behind the album?
James T: This album is a lot more sonically diverse than Swim Slowly probably because it’s a result of isolated writing brought on by the pandemic. We didn’t write as much in the room building the songs by just playing our individual instruments and so we didn’t limit the amount of instruments and layers we used. While we were isolated we all experimented heavily with new sounds, buying new synthesizers to mess around with. We explored a lot more of the synth world and that understanding added a totally new dynamic to our music. That is what makes this album such a diverse soundscape.
Besides Eternal Embers, what can we expect to see or hear from Meltt in the near
future?
James T: We have one more single coming out before the album on August 11th. We have a music festival in Drumheller on the 12th of August that we are co headlining and we also will play at Rifflandia on September 7- 9th. And then you can see us on tour across North America in the fall. We are even playing a Mexico City show for the first time!
And to wrap things up, do you have any questions for me?
How did you discover Meltt?
I found your single "Love Again" on Spotify back in 2019! That was my first introduction to your music.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!
Thanks for having us and asking some fun questions!
Listen To Meltt Here
Keep Up With Melt Here
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