Blending soul with dance, the latest single from Sydney trio mel.wav indicates a shift in their sound, from four-to-the-floor beats to something a bit more tender, teetering on the edge of trap. Tigue, Mel and Dylan joined Ify on Up For It to discuss inspiration, beginnings and dabbling in jazz.
Initially forming as a music ministry youth group in 2014/15, mel.wav was properly developed after a post-lockdown meetup alongside the Neppean and a quick recording session at Dylan’s mini home studio. ‘Lost Again’ started as a jam between the three, initially taking the form of a jazz piece.
“We got too ahead of ourselves…we played it back, we're like, oh my God, that's not good at all. Then Dylan just sent through this file in the group chat, he's like, ‘Hey, guys, I mixed it up just a bit, let us know your thoughts.’ And he just switched it to actually what it is now, ‘Lost Again’.”
For mel.wav, storytelling, spontaneity and immediacy remain at the forefront of their writing, melding with the feelings and experiences of each member at that moment. The trio look to acts like Toro y Moi in engaging in this active practice of creating difference between projects, resulting in what they call a ‘never quite the same sound.’
“With ‘Space For Me’ it was quite funny because, yeah, it was a four-on-the-floor type track to start off with, which always happens to the songs that we make, we always have a direction and we just drift away from it, just depending on Mel's songwriting … we've never really delved into that trap beat type style, and it was fun, it was fun to play with autotune.”
Their single ‘Misty’, released earlier this year, also indicates a point of growth for mel.wav, working alongside Reg Azwar and Jesse Campos on their first music video – another point ticked off a bucket list in forming a cohesive and intentional vision.
“It was our first time kind of in front of the camera and actually doing something…we'd usually make Spotify canvases in the park with our phones but actually going to a production where there was a crew was pretty daunting at first,” they said.
Listen back to mel.wav’s conversation with Ify on Up For It where they talk about all things album art, recent gigs and dream performance.
Words by Rhea Thomas