Melleefresh has been an avant-garde performance artist and producer in the Canadian arts scene for nearly 30 years. She is currently the President of PlayRecords (US/UK). Among the many artists with whom she has collaborated through the label are Dirty 30 aka Alixander lll, Billy Newton-Davis, Calvertron, Hoxton Whores, 40oz Profits, Gettoblaster, Jerome Robbins, MC Flipside, Boy Pussy and SpekrFreks.
In 2004, Melleefresh was looking for artists to remix a Carole Pope album and was introduced to a young DJ from Niagara Falls using the moniker deadmau5. Signing him to Play Records, Melleefresh and deadmau5 collaborated on many tracks in the label’s repertoire, including the 2008 Juno Award-nominated ‘After Hours’.
Most recently, Melleefresh opened Play Deep with Zach Brown-Smith (DJ Spydabrown). Located in London’s posh King’s Cross neighborhood, Play Deep is a 3-storey, 3-room state-of-the-art recording studio that has served as a recording venue for The Spice Girls, The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora, Wretch 32, Giggs, Emeli Sande, Canada’s Keiza, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Popcaan, among others.
We caught up with Melleefresh to talk about her latest musical projects.
Electronic Groove: Hello, Melleefresh, thank you for your time today. Where are you now? How have you handled the year so far with all that’s going on?
Melleefresh: I’m back from two months in the UK. I’ve done my 2 weeks of quarantine and I just want to go drive my purple Porsche with the turquoise interior, top-down, blasting all the new Play Records signings, and look at all the changing colors of the leaves on the trees! I can’t think of a more fun thing to do.
Electronic Groove: We know you have a brand new album coming out on your own Play Records titled ‘Invincible’. What can you tell us about the inspiration behind it and how did it come together?
Melleefresh: Around February/March with this pandemic looming, people going into lockdown, DJs moving to Twitch, and lots of live performances being just one DJ in an empty room, I decided I wanted to make some happy music. So I sat down with my BFF and co-writer Callum Magnum and we banged out a buncha track in an all-day writing session. We were laughing so hard, our sides hurt. So we knew we were on to something super-fun, poppy, electro underground, and crossover commercial.
Electronic Groove: Do you have any favorite track from it and why?
Melleefresh: I love ‘Let’s Do It Together’. I’m actually working on a concept with it right now with a hip-hop artist to make it next-level, and a little like what POWFU did with Beadadoobee’s track ‘Cup of Coffee’. On his version Deathbed.
Electronic Groove: Tell us about the title, why ‘Invincible’?
Melleefresh: ‘Invincible’ is the first track on the album. In order to keep your spirits up in this pandemic, I think you really do need to be invincible, unbeatable, indestructible, unstoppable, and next level….That’s me! The artwork is in homage to Michael Jackson’s last studio album, also titled Invincible and the use of his favorite mic Shure SM7B mic that makes your vocals sound awesome.
“To be on top of your game you need to understand the business!”
Electronic Groove: Are you a ‘Chica Mala’?
Melleefresh: I am, indeed. Always! (laughter)
Electronic Groove: Talking a bit about Play Records, what would you say is the hardest part of running it and what advice would you give to this who are venturing into the record and music business?
Melleefresh: Being a performer, singer, writer, producer, there’s a lot of creativity going on, I was definitely passionate but you need more than creativity, you need business savvy too. To be on top of your game you need to understand the business. Goin to trade shows like Midem or ADE was a good way to make connections with other talent and labels but when you get that first deal memo/contract you will need a really good music lawyer, to explain in English what the legalese means!
A distributor would be next if you’re running a label like I do Label Worx for streaming and digital download, for Vinyl and Cd’s Prime Direct Distribution, both are in the UK. When you get loads of tracks in your library for your label you will probably need a publisher too, ours is based in Nashville. And you’re in house team of a label manager, licensing manager, art director for all our graffix, logos, branding, a social media person, and a dam good accountant to keep track of royalties. All these people are good to have on hand, it’s hard to do it alone, it takes a team!
As an artist nowadays, you can self-release and manage your own sales very nicely thru Bandcamp or CD Baby (which is what I would probably do if I were starting out today.) Those places didn’t exist when I was starting out, and neither did the Internet.
Electronic Groove: What are your plans for the rest of the year? Do you feel like you had to change your approach as an artist or the direction of your label and studio due to the pandemic?
Melleefresh: I’m going to keep on collaborating long-distance, as I always have, and reaching out to some of my favorite producers to see if they’re up for a collab with me. Now I’m working with a bunch of my label mates Dj genderfluid, trashy hard house, from Toronto; Kardano in Vancouver, classy west coast housey influences, JackEL from Vegas with his future bass house rave stylez, Sara Simms on some new tech house in Toronto, Lady Chann in the UK, rap and grime. Definitely gonna shoot more greenscreen videos with Pinkee Skylark and Jason Brown. I’m venturing into unknown areas with some punk/house music with my gal pal bass player Cynthia Ross from the world-famous B Girlz, we already wrote a track together, stay tuned this will be wicked! Also, a super collab incredibly exciting with my new BFF Princess Superstar. This is one you won’t want to miss!
Electronic Groove: How do you see the industry evolving or transforming after all this craziness?
Melleefresh: Seems like everything is already so much more online with Zoom, Twitch, and Instagram Live and music is all downloadable or streamed. Virtual Reality is going to come into play in a very big way, I think. That will be the next big thing to happen and a lot of 360° video content. Maybe live performances done in individual plastic bubbles for performers and audiences. And I quote ‘Sunrise Sunset’: “The best is yet to come”. Grab yer things, let’s go, it’s time to have some fun!
Electronic Groove: Thank you so much for your time!
Melleefresh: Thanks for all your super questions. It was lovely talking to you.
Stream and buy Melleefresh latest releases here.
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