Interview with Melee
Pop music has become rather stale and boring over the past few decades. For those of you who are lamenting that fact, Melee have come to save the day! Not at all boring on cd, in concert, or as you'll soon find out, not boring in interviews. Hailing from Orange County California, the band sounds fresh and modern while bringing to mind classics like Elton John or even Hall And Oates! After thie\\eir indie release 'Everyday Behavior' was a surprise hit, the band was courted by every major label that's worth a damn. Signing with Warner Bros, who recently has carved out possibly the best indie rock/pop roster in the industry, Melee recently released 'Devil's And Angels', a fanastic album that is full of uplifting hooks, no whiny bs, and a positive message. I got together with vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist Chris Cron, guitarist Ricky Sans, bassist Ryan Malloy and drummer Mike Nader for what would end up being a free-for-all of an interview. They are as down to earth as a band on the brink of stardom could possibly be and don't take themselves too seriously, but the music on 'Devils And Angels' speaks for itself. Give it a listen and I think you'll find them to be a welcome change from what is currently emo-ing up your local radio stations. But first, strap yourselves in for this wild ride...
Anarchy: The lbum is out now and you guys are on tour with Bowling For Soup. I refuse to believe that there isn’t some sort of mischief or craziness going on every night given this line-up. What’s the scoop?
Ricky Sans: It’s actually been pretty low-key so far.
Chris Cron: The beginning of tours are always low-key. Their fun, but it’s the beginning of the tour and everybody is acclimating themselves to the tour. I’m sure that by the end there will be stories worth telling. Last night we had a big fireworks display in the parking lot, throwing fireworks at each other.
Anarchy: So you’re low-key? Aren’t you the guys having invisible gunfights in your video blogs?
Ryan Malloy: Not this tour. I lost my fake gun license.
Anarchy: One thing that struck me about your new album is that it seemed rather effortless. From an outsider’s view it feels like a very natural cd for you to write given your influences of 70's pop and outlooks on life. Tell me about what it was really like working on this.
Ricky: That’s definitely a feeling because it’s really poppy and sometimes people will think that it’s so thought out and how do you just pop out kind of sell out music? But this is unashamedly how we write music.
Chris: This is how we write music. We always write really poppy stuff, but it was definitely a 6 or 7 month struggle writing this record. Just song after song after song and we’d scrutinize them look at every little piece of every song. We almost had a nervous breakdown while writing the record. It doesn’t seem like that type of record you’d have a nervous breakdown to.
Anarchy: Well, it’s very different from your previous stuff. It’s a little more subtle and uplifting and when listening to it we certainly don’t get the feeling that we’re having a nervous breakdown.
Chris: (laughs) No, no no. It’s still very uplifting and very happy and we were having a good time making it, but it was our major label debut.
Ricky: Everything surrounding the record, minus the actual songs, was stressful. The only thing that was stressful about the songs was having to write so many, but song by song was straight out. All the pressure we were getting from everybody else to produce more songs, more perfect songs. That was the stressful part.
Chris: And then the more people push us, the more we raise the bar for ourselves and it kind of got to the point where we were striving for the best we could make. I think this is the best we could make at the time and I feel really good about it. Of course, for the next record we’re going to try to top this one.
Anarchy: That’s going to be hard to do since this one is so good, but you always try to top your previous work right?
Chris: Exactly
Anarchy: What was it like to make the switch over to Warner? They seem to have a really good ear for indie pop rock and are signing up some great bands and giving them better distribution.
Ricky: That’s pretty much it. It’s easier. There’s more pressure because what is at risk is greater, but there’s so many people helping you out and on the same page.
Chris: They’ve been really, really supportive of everything. Not that Hopeless wasn’t, but they’ve gone out of their way to call us and hook us up and help out. You hear all the horror stories about major labels and that you’re selling yourselves to the devil pretty much, but that’s not the case. We feel like it’s been the best fit than we‘ve ever been put in.
Anarchy: Well, you put the devil on the record!
Chris: (laughs)
Anarchy: The girls want to know this, which ones of you are the angels and who are the devils?
Chris: We all have bits and pieces of that in us.
Anarchy: So there’s not one guy who’s egging the others on to cause mayhem?
Ricky: Break some mailboxes. That’s about as hardcore as we get.
Chris: We say ideas like that, but we never actually follow through. One day your gonna hear that Melee is in the news for something.
Anarchy: Intent is like 1/3 of the law, so technically we could all be arrested right now.
Chris: Exactly
Anarchy: You talked about writing better and better pop songs. I don’t feel that there is any shame at all in being a pop band. We’ve been doing a lot of metal over the last few months on the site, so a lot of people might read this and think “a pop band?”, but being a great pop band is something to be proud of.
Chris: Metallica’s a pop band. I love Metallica
Ricky: Look at what happened to them!
Chris: I know, but The Black Album is a great album. It sold a shitload of copies.
Ricky: I’m just saying that they got chastised.
Anarchy: What drew you towards being a pop band?
Chris: We just always liked good songs
Ricky: The dancing
Chris: The word “pop’
Ricky: just like the way it sounds…”pop”
Chris: We’ve just always been into well thought out and well organized good songwriting. We listen to bands like Fountains Of Wayne, who are expert popsmiths. Every song could have been a hit and is catchy and amazing.
Anarchy: I feel the same way about this record you have out now.
Chris: Thanks
Anarchy: For instance, “Frequently Baby” sounds like a massive radio hit to me…tell me that’s the next single!
Ricky: I think the label decided to wait on that because it doesn’t sound like anything else on the cd.
Chris: No song sounds like anything else on it. When we were recording the record, our A&R guy was telling us that that was going to be the single. We put a lot of effort into writing that one to make it better. Then as soon as we turn it in he said “actually, my wife said “Built To Last” would be better”.
Anarchy: Multimillion dollar decisions being made by his wife? Kickass!
Chris: No, no, he’s actually a really smart guy.
Anarchy: Is true that his wife wrote “Beat It” for Michael Jackson?
Ryan: She actually is Michael Jackson
Anarchy: Revelations coming to light here! You talked about trying to write the perfect pop song. Your album is one great pop song after another. Is that something you can learn? Or maybe she’s born with it?
Chris: Maybe it’s Maybelline
Ricky: I read an interview with Rivers Cuomo a couple of years ago and he was trying to figure out the formula. I think that there’s definitely a formula mathematically and if you have a good understanding of what pop culture is like at that time. Sociologically, mathematically and musically you could probably piece it all together, but you also need talent. I’m not saying that’s what we did, but there is a science to it.
Chris: But there’s no 100% that this will be a hit. There are songs that you’d never think could be a hit that are. The more talent you have and the more focused you are on songwriter that he was talking about, you’ll have a better chance.
Ricky: All the songwriters who write songs for Britney Spears and whatever, they know what kind of music is popular at that time and they have the talent to do it.
Chris: And all those one-hit wonders, they obviously haven’t learned to write the perfect pop song, they just got lucky most likely.
Anarchy: Really? Because I actually think the album that “The Macarena” is on is a classic. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, dude
Chris: (laughs) and Mambo #5!
Ricky: I’ll have to rediscover that one.
Anarchy: There’s some B-sides from Right Said Fred that would blow your mind!
Ricky: I actually own that single, the dance remix, the club remix
Chris: It’s the whole album. But I guess I wouldn’t agree with what I just said. Do you know “Feeling Strangely Fine” by Semisonic?
Anarchy: Yeah
Chris: That’s an amazing song and he’s an amazing songwriter, Dan Wilson, but that group had only one hit.
Anarchy: Speaking of hits, “Built To last is the feel good hit of 2007, right?
Ricky: That’s the one we shot the video for
Anarchy: In a world where there’s 98% divorce, do you think that this song connects to people in a way that “wow, maybe there’s hope that my relationship will be the one that is going to last?
Chris: I really hope so because I think that family is a big, big part of American culture that is missing today. If there’s less divorce then there’s going to be better culture and better society.
Anarchy: You’ve done a couple of videos for that song, and I’ve been keeping up with the Melee Movie Monday, and does one of you guys have any plans to be a film-maker or video director because that stuff is great?
Chris: Ryan went to school for film.
Ryan: I went to school for a second
Chris: His cousins directed the video
Anarchy: So are you going to direct videos or maybe Transformers 2?
Ryan: Yeah, Transformers 2
Chris: We’re all into that kind of stuff. We have some ideas for videos that we want to do really well and ideas for Broadway musicals and movies but I can’t divulge that stuff.
Anarchy: Top secret?
Chris: Top secret and stupid
Anarchy: I guess it was your idea to put up a movie every Monday?
Ryan: No, it was Chris' idea.
Chris: When we all got Macs we were all like ‘wow, this Imovie is pretty cool” so we all started making videos and decided to put it up on our Myspace page every Monday.
Ricky: We wanted to exploit ourselves.
Anarchy: Speaking of exploiting yourselves, you just namedropped Mac, maybe you’ll get a new Iphone
Ricky: We try to do that in every interview. It hasn’t happened yet. One day. It only takes one.
Anarchy: The bigger you get, and you’re right there, soon Steve Jobs will be calling you to give you one!
Ricky: All the celebrity publicists said they were trying to get free Iphones for their clients and Apple said “no” to all of them. Cher couldn’t get one.
Anarchy: Cher?
Chris: That’s awesome, Cher’s huge. I’m sure people will get their assistants wait in line for days.
Mike Nader: Lindsay Lohan’s got one. She has one in her vagina
Anarchy: Along with everything else.
Mike: A Piephone
Ricky: She doesn’t even carry a purse anymore
Anarchy: You can just put everything up in there
Mike: With her herpes
Anarchy: Sometimes the interviews go out of control, and that’s a good thing!
Ricky: You can take that part out
Anarchy: If you don’t mind I’ll leave it in.
Mike: That’s what she said
Anarchy: You can’t get herpes if I’m on top
Chris: You can’t get pregnant if you’re on top.
Ryan: Remember that Mike
Chris: You’re going to need that tonite.
Anarchy: They’re all at least 17 dude, I checked.
Mike: I’m 20 so it’s okay
Ryan: (laughs) You just fully admitted it!
Mike: You have to be 18, it’s legal, right?
Chris: Quiet you, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Anarchy: You guys are about to be really huge soon
Chris: (laughs)Who told you that?
Anarchy: Well, these are great songs, and you aren’t on a small or stupid label. The label will do it’s job and get people to hear the songs, and once they do then millions of them should want to go out and buy the record. I fully expect that 6 months from now you’ll be in this same venue as a headliner and saying “remember when we spoke to that Anarchy Music loser?”
Chris: No, dude, we won’t do that
Anarchy: So what is next?
Ricky: We’re going to Japan.
Chris: We’re big in Japan, literally
Ryan: We’ve sold over 20,000 records in Japan, and we haven’t sold that many here.
Ricky: It’s only an import though.
Ryan: I don’t even believe it yet. but it’s true I don’t believe anything til I see it though..
Chris: He doesn’t believe he’s going to eat today until he sees it in front of his face.
Anarchy: What happens if you get to Japan and there’s millions of screaming Japanese fans waiting for the airplane?
Ricky: I'd probably cry
Ryan: Id believe it then
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Melee will give you something you can believe in as well! Check out the band at their Myspace page and MeleeRocks.com to be a part of the action. I want to thank the guys in the band for taking time out to talk with us, and extra special thanks to Nikki for setting this up for us. You rule!