Alexa Melo is officially back after several years of recovering after vocal surgery to finally share her sophomore EP ‘MUTE’ which is due for release this Autumn
Her self-titled debut release achieved nearly 2 million views and over 50K followers, and Melo was lauded by critics for her powerful vocals and raw songwriting. Now Alexa is adding striking visuals to the mix, with her music video for her cover of Gnarls Barkley’s hit ‘Crazy’ and upcoming visuals for her new EP.
Here we speak exclusively to Alexa Melo to discuss her return to music, future plans and more:
Growing up who inspired your love of music?
My love of music started off from my love of singing. My family wasn’t very musical but my mom knew I loved to sing so she’d buy me these karaoke CD’s for me to sing along to. Through that, I became obsessed with old Jazz standards and torch songs sung by artists like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald… But as I got older and began to write my own songs, I fell in love with The Beatles. The Beatles changed my entire perspective on music and made me want to play guitar and be a writer.
Who are your all time musical heroes?
Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Bjork. I couldn’t live without the albums that these artists created. I have so many musical heroes but these are the ones that have stayed completely relevant to me no matter what I’m going through.
How would you describe your own sound to new listeners?
I always find questions like these a bit tough to answer. I guess I’d have them take a listen and draw their own conclusions. I grew up listening to jazz and R&B and spent my teenage-hood listening to classic rock, folk, and hip hop. Now I’ve turned my attention to more experimental indie stuff with a more electronic based production. I listen to everything and I think that filters into my music and makes it a bit hard for me to know exactly where to classify it.
When did you decide to pursue music as a career?
I decided that I wanted to pursue music as a career at 6 years old. I know it sounds crazy but that was the first time I sang on stage in front of an audience and I remember that being the day I decided that I’d always be a musician.
You have released the visual for your new cover of “Crazy”, can you talk us through making of the video?
So, I’d been working with this videographer (Daniel Garcia) who’s now one of my closest friends. We spent all of the fall and winter working on all the music videos to my upcoming EP. When we ran out of songs to work on, we were basically bored out of our minds. One day he came to me with this idea. He wanted to see if we could produce up a tripped out cover and film and edit an entire music video for it in under 48 hours. I love a good challenge so I was super excited about pulling this off. We love the song and we love trip-hop so we decided to mesh the two. The idea for the video was super simple. I’d be playing all the instruments in each room of his house. We wanted to use his roommates 10 year sons room, so we even went out and bought this tiny, children’s toy piano to play in the track itself and feature in the video. It was a crew of just the two of us making the music and the video with no budget. literally just the price of the tiny toy piano. It was just a fun experiment that got a bit carried away! I super excited that something so fun and easy turned out to be something I’m actually proud of.
How important do you think music videos are to the success of a single?
These days it’s very important. I waited on putting out my upcoming EP till I was able to make a video for all 4 songs. Making music videos has always been a huge interest of mine because growing up, I was completely enamoured with MTV. I think being able to continue to tell the story of your song through cinematography is an incredible thing and vital these days. It’s a delivery device in which your audience can first be introduced to your music and create a much stronger impact on them.
What is the main inspiration behind the project?
This particular video and cover was simply inspired by spontaneity and the urge to be creative with nothing but what we had in front of us. It was pure playfulness. Very unlike what inspires my original music. The explanation for that music is a bit heavier.
What do you hope fans take from your version “Crazy”?
I hope they simply enjoy it and more so appreciate the song itself. Since my rendition is a bit slower than the original, you can hear the lyrics a bit more. I hope people can get a new perspective on what the song is about, and its emotional content.
What are your long term career goals?
For now, judging how the music industry is these days, my goals have simplified. I want to be able to make music for a living and not have to compromise that. I just want to keep creating albums and videos and projects and have people genuinely be moved by my music and enjoy it. In the long term, whether i’m still producing my own records, producing records for others, scoring films, writing music, whatever it may be, I just want to make lots and lots of art and not have to compromise that.
Make sure you follow Alex Melo on Twitter @AlexaMelo to keep up to date with all her latest music and tour news!
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