[00:00:00] Jordan: Welcome to the Song Saloon. I'm your host and resident singer songwriter, Jordan Smith Reynolds. Today I'm meeting with a fantastic artist and one of my frequent collaborators, Meljii. Melji writes music for recreational readers. Her music contains clever, playful, verbose lyrics over a unique blend of funky indie rock grooves with jazz influenced harmonies.

Aside from being a songwriter, Melji is a music school trained session player specializing in bass, guitar, and guitar like instruments. She has lived and traveled all over the world as a Navy brat and also someone who just gets bored easily, having lived in Japan for four years and Spain for one.

[00:00:43] Meljii: Hey Jordan, thanks for having me.

[00:00:45] Jordan: Hey, thanks for being here. We're looking at your song frog and toad today, which is an homage to the frog and toad children's books. Yes. And you said that your song frog and toad is a celebration of autumn, friendship, and the art of noticing, which I thought was such a great summary. So I had to say it verbatim here.

Yeah. Where did this song come from?

[00:01:09] Meljii: So I wrote this song on the first vacation I took, if you can really call it that, because I was kind of traveling out there to like, still work. But the first trip I took after I moved to L. A. last summer was, yeah, in the fall. I met up with a good friend of mine, John, who's actually a musical theater composer, and we had both just been grinding away on our respective music scenes for like, the entire, I don't know, last couple months.

And we were like, this is gonna be our break. We're gonna stop working and we're gonna enjoy life and like, touch some grass and see some leaves. And that's exactly what we did. We took a road trip through New England in like, Peak to late autumn, stopping by a bunch of, like, roadside stands to try random little pastries and, like, checking out rivers and cows and stuff.

It was great. It was exactly, kind of, what we needed.

[00:02:05] Jordan: Yeah. And, and where was that in New England?

[00:02:09] Meljii: We started in upstate New York. We went up to Maine and then we hit a bunch of other places on the way back down, including one of my friend's farms in Massachusetts.

[00:02:21] Jordan: So cool. Yeah. I love New England so much. And that, that time of year is just magical there. So that, that's really cool. I love that. Let's dive right into the song and then we can, we can talk more about it. 

[00:02:35] Meljii: Sounds good. 

[00:02:36] Jordan: (performance) All right. Thank 

[00:04:55] Meljii: Thank you.

[00:04:56] Jordan: Yes. That was wonderful. Man, I love the imagery you paint in that song. It was, yeah, it was It sounds so great with just the acoustic guitar too. 

[00:05:04] Meljii: I tried not to add much production wise. I just wanted it to stay exactly the way it sounds like when I sing it around a campfire.

[00:05:11] Jordan: mhm. And that's what it's about, is like, you know, being with friends in kind of an intimate campfire situation. So, 

[00:05:17] Meljii: yeah, exactly. 

[00:05:19] Jordan: think that does fit it really nicely. Man, nutmeg scented bric a brac. I really love that line too. It feels very New England y.

[00:05:27] Meljii: You know, every single line in that song was like something we actually did or came across.

[00:05:33] Jordan: Yeah.

[00:05:34] Meljii: Yeah, like literally every single line. I was writing down in my notes app like everything we did and taking a bunch of pictures and literally after the trip, I was just like Processing everything and I just went through all the the album the notes.

Yeah.

[00:05:49] Jordan: That's awesome. Do you have I haven't deep dived on this song in your, like, social media posts and stuff around it. Do you have, like, video content with kind of like documenting your trip with the song?

[00:05:59] Meljii: Yeah, I do actually

[00:06:01] Jordan: I need to check that out.

[00:06:02] Meljii: Yeah, it's just found footage, I guess.

[00:06:05] Jordan: Yeah. Do you have it organized in like a, an official music video kind of setting or is it basically in the 

[00:06:11] Meljii: yet. Not yet. It's just kind of like TikTok style where it's really just stuff from my camera roll, but definitely planning to shoot more, maybe something more official soon since it's that season again.

[00:06:23] Jordan: Mmhmm. Yeah. Mmhmm

Mm hmm. Awesome. Thank you. Very cool. oh, and I also really love the lyrics that teach me how to skip a rock. I don't get the hang of it. I do all bangers, never skips. That's, that's pretty funny.

[00:06:34] Meljii: Thank you. Yeah, I'm really bad at skipping rocks. I kind of just lob them like a granny shot into the lake.

[00:06:43] Jordan: Never skips. All bangers. That's pretty good And that's something I love about your songwriting and something that I hope as people come to appreciate your music and go check it out that they can explore is just the focus on on lyrics that have wordplay and Yeah, it feels like you're smiling as you're singing like the whole song which Which I really like I appreciate that in your songwriting Mm

[00:07:06] Meljii: Thank you. Yeah, I, I mean, I do I think I just goof around a lot in general, like in life, and it comes through in my songwriting. I, I, I like reading things like that. I like listening to things like that, like, you know, kind of playful stuff like Shel Silverstein, 

[00:07:24] Jordan: Mm 

[00:07:25] Meljii: or like, even the, even like Childish Gambino zingers.

[00:07:29] Jordan: Yeah.

[00:07:30] Meljii: just the kind of writing I like.

[00:07:31] Jordan: Huh. Yeah. So let's, let's talk about a few more of those influences. You said Shel Silverstein, Childish Gambino. When you're reading, is it mostly like poetry kind of based stuff or is it like novels and things like that, that you appreciate that kind of voice in?

[00:07:48] Meljii: Um, I read a lot of fiction. I'm kind of just reading fiction all the time. Actually, it's kind of funny to be talking about this now, because literally this this is the start of week four of The Artist's Way for me. Which is the Media Deprivation Week. And so, when I read that that was like the assignment for this week, I was like, Oh no, and I scrambled to finish the last of like the Maya Angelou book that I've been reading.

[00:08:12] Jordan: Uh huh. 

[00:08:13] Meljii: yeah, no, I, I love reading. I read all the time. My favorite book ever is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A, a close second would probably be like Catch 22.

Yeah, they're all just like, very rambling. absurd books that sort of like create a universe and then make fun of the entire thing.

[00:08:35] Jordan: very cool. I don't think I've ever read. No, I haven't read Hitchhiker's Guide yet. I've just seen the the movie version of it So you recommend?

[00:08:44] Meljii: Yeah, I, I gotta say the, the movie of Hitchhikers is the best film adaptation of a book that I've ever come across. And it's, it's a five book trilogy as, as the author likes to call it.

[00:08:58] Jordan: the five book trilogy. and what was the other book you mentioned a Catch 22?

[00:09:03] Meljii: Yeah, Catch 22.

[00:09:05] Jordan: Okay, cool. So lots of reading influences. What other influences have you had? Musically, I know you're, you jump around quite a bit to different instruments and you're helping out on a lot of other musicians projects doing guitar and bass.

I thought you were a bass player when I met you because you've done like so much bass playing and other things that I've seen. So yeah, how'd that come about?

[00:09:31] Meljii: I think a lot of bass players kind of come to the instrument the same way, which is like, oh your bass player quits. So yeah. There were just too many guitarists available. Like, I, I think I was playing in like something super duper random, like this like hot jazz trio with a couple of guitarists, friends of mine from, you know, music school.

And yeah we had a bass player, he disappeared. Don't remember what happened, but I decided it was easier to just buy a bass and figure it out than to, like, find another bassist. And it worked out pretty well, I think.

[00:10:08] Jordan: Yeah. And then you get hired as a bassist for all these other projects as well.

[00:10:13] Meljii: yeah, but it's certainly not, like, Once you kind of get, like, deep enough into it, it's, it becomes a manifestation of, like, your personality. You know, which instrument you gravitate towards. Bass is a supporting role. And you kind of have to like, yeah, like being behind the scenes and like shaping things in a certain way that doesn't necessarily equal like being in the spotlight.

Yeah, I found it to be a good fit for like where I want to be a lot of the time, just the role that a bassist plays in the band.

[00:10:45] Jordan: Right. Yeah. And so you come from a music school background. Were you writing throughout school as well? 

[00:10:53] Meljii: That's, that's an interesting question, because yes and no. I was writing for, like, you know, our assignments, essentially. I was not very, like, in touch with my songwriting at the time. I was very much trying to, like, force myself, like, like a square peg in a round hole into the role of being, you know, a very technical, jazz, like, instrumentalist.

And it took a really long time for me to admit I just don't like that stuff.

[00:11:22] Jordan: Yeah.

[00:11:22] Meljii: low key a little whiplashy.

[00:11:24] Jordan: Huh. Yep. Got to love that. That teacher abuse they call training. I've, I've had some of that experience with classical coming from my classical background for vocal at least. At least relating to what you're saying about, you know, trying really hard to fit something that just didn't quite work. I love the challenge of singing classically and that the, the technical challenge of that. But yeah, I just love songwriting and contemporary styles of, of singing too much to, to really dedicate everything that I needed to, to succeed in a classical way. And I also think there's, you know, there's a talent component, like you're, Instruments are built a certain way that that lends itself better to classical stuff. You can argue that passion really can mold you into what you want as well. But I had a friend that was like in high school singing like full classical tenor, like, and I could hear it sounded like at least a college level classical tenor at that point, and a very, very, very good one. And I was just like, Oh, that's, that's what you need to have to like continue and like really make something happen in classical. At least that 

[00:12:39] Meljii: a certain physical advantage.

[00:12:43] Jordan: I think so. I think like just, yeah, body structure and everything, like, you know, people can be Set to be a bass singer, like have all the low notes kind of, and that's just kind of physiological. You have access to those things. I, I think there is to some extent some of that that plays into helping you sing in different styles better.

And you can, I think you can work really hard to do well in some of them, but you might just be quicker to jump 

[00:13:11] Meljii: that's that's interesting. Now, I, I I kind of try to combat that a lot with, like, my, my guitar students because I get, I get the excuse a lot of, like, oh no, I can't do this, my hands are just too small, or the opposite, I have sausage fingers, I couldn't possibly play the ukulele. And I just feel like it's, it's always, at least with guitar, it's just a matter of what you get used to.

Weirdly enough, I feel kind of like, what you were saying about, well, it, you know, when your voice is your, wait, what? When your body is your instrument as a vocalist, yeah, there are like certain things that are just kind of like built in. I feel like that's a little bit of what I was getting at earlier with the whole like, certain personalities gravitate towards certain roles in the band thing.

[00:13:57] Jordan: Mm hmm.

[00:13:59] Meljii: Like, that's the part that's a little bit, like, pre assigned to you.

[00:14:03] Jordan: Yeah. Yeah, it's so interesting because the body is the voice that really does change things because like, you know, maybe your body is set up to be more of a cello but

[00:14:14] Meljii: Hmm.

[00:14:15] Jordan: There's also like heavy metal cellists that do really cool things and use the instrument in weird ways. But so yeah, you could, I think you can mold what you have to fit basically whatever you're passionate about, but to some extent you, you are the instrument that you are.

[00:14:31] Meljii: Yeah.

[00:14:33] Jordan: If that makes any sense.

[00:14:35] Meljii: Snaps.

[00:14:36] Jordan: Bringing it back to your music. You said you, you weren't so focused on songwriting in your music school, and you've also played in a lot of supportive role based things. What came first? Your, your passion for more songwriting stuff or more of these gigs where you're doing more supporting role stuff?

Outside of college.

[00:14:59] Meljii: So the songwriting definitely came first. I started playing guitar pretty young like, I don't know, 10 or 12. 12 is when I, like, really got serious, and I, like, stopped all my other hobbies and just put, like, my entire like focus into playing guitar like every spare second I had and sometimes like time that I was supposed to spend on other things I would just be in my room practicing guitar but songwriting came pretty quickly after that.

So like, I don't know, I would just write, and write, and write, and like, I never got tired of it. And I think that the instrumentalist thing was only ever meant to be a detour, to be, like, you know, okay, like, I'll learn a theory or whatever for four years, to be eventually in service to my songwriting and composition.

[00:15:48] Jordan: Mm hmm. That's great. And how has it served you as a songwriter, doing all that technical work?

[00:15:55] Meljii: Well, now when I hear something in my head, I can just pick up the guitar, and now, like, play it exactly. The obstacle of expressing my ideas on my instrument is much smaller than it used to be. Like, there's less of a barrier, I guess, between me and my instrument. Or, rather, me and the expression of my thoughts.

[00:16:17] Jordan: Yes. Yes. I think that is one of the best benefits of being technically trained. And something that, you know, there, there are people that are a little nervous about learning theory. Do you know these, these folks that are like, they're like worried that it'll fight like the, the inspiration that comes to them.

Mm hmm. And like that is the trick, as you become more and more trained, you do want to figure out how to stay inspired and keep the magic component in your songwriting. So I do think that is important. But I think you summed that up really well. At its best, technique should be helping you with your expression.

You have the idea in your head and you can translate that to something that is in the physical world 

[00:16:58] Meljii: Yeah, yeah, totally. It's... I don't know, dude. I feel like, after a while, you kind of circle back around to thinking stuff is magic again, even if you do know how it works. I mean, like... I love, like, the Beatles, and for a long time I thought I had to like really complex stuff. Like I wasn't allowed to like stuff that was just kind of like 1, 4, 5, 6.

And now I've circled back around to like, dude, who cares, you know? It sounds good. It's tasty. It makes my headaches go away. Like this is the reason I fell in love with music in the first place. And so I probably listen now to more Green Day than I ever did.

[00:17:37] Jordan: Oh, yeah? 

[00:17:39] Meljii: Yeah. I mean, guitar was like my instrument of choice for a reason.

[00:17:43] Jordan: Mm hmm. Yeah, so were you getting into more like, kind of prog rock stuff when you were figuring out guitar before college? Or was it more jazz oriented even before?

[00:17:56] Meljii: Before college, yeah, it was, it was a lot of rock. I mean, I, I love like Linkin Park. Yeah, I played a lot of Blink 182, Green Day. OK Go, Apples and Stereo, Rise Against, a lot of punk.

[00:18:11] Jordan: Yeah, yeah, rise against. That brought me back for a minute.

[00:18:14] Meljii: Yeah, they're so sick. A

lot of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtrack, basically.

[00:18:20] Jordan: good. Yes, essential listening. That's awesome. And so lyrically you're influenced a lot by your reading. And musically you have this rich technical background that you've worked with. Where do you see your project going, Melji?

So you have this, this really folksy song that came out and you have Propeller Hat before then. Yeah. Where do you see the project going? Do you see it encompassing a lot of different genres depending on where you're at in your songwriting journey and how you're feeling? Or yeah, do you have a set structure?

planned 

[00:18:53] Meljii: Yeah, that is the question with, like, an ever evolving answer. But I'm happy to say there is a semblance of an answer. Yeah, it's been kind of strange, like, finding my sound. After having released things and then, you know, maybe feeling like, Oh, this isn't really what I sound like anymore, but it's, it's still out there.

But yeah, I played a couple of shows recently with a trio just under my name, but yeah, I have a fantastic guitarist and bassist or wait, I'm the guitarist, bassist and drummer who just. Are like, totally musically on the same wavelength as me, and also like, personality wise, so I feel like, you know, That energy is a big part of what I want from the project.

Basically we're, like, I'm finding my sound, and I feel like I'm closer to it than ever. So, the goal with the project is to yeah, keep playing shows now that I know what I want them to sound like. And put out an EP sometime next year.

[00:19:54] Jordan: Wonderful. Yeah. If you were to slap some genres on your music, like for the EP, what would you throw at it?

[00:20:06] Meljii: Kind of bassline, indie rock, indie pop, but definitely with like those kind of rambling, like Great American Songbook esque chord progressions that I liked so much in jazz school. The kind of music that I really like is like, Okay, go. Apples in stereo type stuff.

[00:20:31] Jordan: Apples in Stereo, I'm not as familiar with. Is that that's a band, Apples in Stereo?

[00:20:37] Meljii: Yeah, they're, they're a weird little indie band. They did some stuff for the Powerpuff Girls. They might have been on like, the soundtrack to, you know, one of those like, Juno adjacent type films. They're very much a band that, I don't know if they want this, but the fandom definitely wants people to be like, is that a band?

[00:20:56] Jordan: Yeah,

[00:20:57] Meljii: Yeah,

[00:20:58] Jordan: that's fun. So is it kind of like what do you say they might be Giants is like a similar Style type of thing or 

[00:21:05] Meljii: I'm not really familiar with them. I feel like I should be.

[00:21:08] Jordan: they might be Giants. They do They did the Malcolm in the Middle theme song But they've also done their own music besides that 

[00:21:16] Meljii: Oh, I really like that song. Yeah, that theme song's a banger.

[00:21:21] Jordan: And also the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song. for little kids. So like they got range. 

[00:21:27] Meljii: Cool. Multitudes.

[00:21:29] Jordan: yes. Okay. I'll have to check them out. OK GO does some really cool stuff too. I love what they do with video work too. It's yeah, it's unreal. The, the ideas they come up with and like, they just keep coming up with them too.

It's that's

[00:21:44] Meljii: so fun.

[00:21:45] Jordan: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And what, what projects are you working on right now? So you have your own music, but you're also collaborating with quite a few LA artists. Do you have anything exciting you're working on in that side of things 

[00:22:01] Meljii: hmm. Well, I do play bass and mandolin for our very own Jordan Smith Reynolds

[00:22:07] Jordan: That's what I was waiting for. So, okay, good. Yeah. No, no. Thank you so much. Yeah. I love playing music with you. We actually just played At writer's block or you played mandolin and that was super fun But yeah, totally wasn't fishing for for that. But yeah, are there any other projects You're working with that have that have been fun

[00:22:28] Meljii: Um, Since I've been here, I've done a couple musical theater things and that was like a, a big part of what I played when I was in San Diego, which is where I moved here from. I don't know, I, it's funny, yeah. Whenever anyone asks me, like, oh, what do you listen to or who do you play with, I forget every musical engagement I've ever been a part of.

I just, I play with a lot of people. I don't know, it's cool, I have fun.

[00:22:54] Jordan: that's fair, especially as a gigging musician Have you ever thought about doing musical theater as well? Is that an interest of yours to 

pursue 

[00:23:04] Meljii: Oh, you mean like, like singing and acting kind of thing?

[00:23:07] Jordan: I was thinking more like composing, like writing music for musical theater.

[00:23:12] Meljii: that, yes. Composing for theater, I, I love like, writing as part of a story. And so, I think it'd be, yeah, like super duper fun. But more so in the, in the songwriting capacity, not so much like orchestration. 

Or any of the more yeah, complex thing, instrumental things. It's more just. You know, the basic song structure and lyrics part.

[00:23:36] Jordan: Yeah. The nice part about that, I think is more than ever. I feel like those jobs have become more separate. Like musical theater, it's about the songwriters doing their thing and writing the songs and then bringing on arrangers. Like, what comes to mind is Lin Manuel Miranda and Alex Lacamoire like, those are usually separate roles.

And I know Alex Lacamoire has done a ton of projects now, a ton of different musical theater things, kind of starting from that relationship, if I remember right. I might be getting that wrong, but I'm sure it didn't hurt his opportunities for work after doing Hamilton. 

[00:24:11] Meljii: No, for sure. And I actually, I love Lin Manuel Miranda's, like, stuff. I think it's, I don't know. Like, I, I want his job.

[00:24:19] Jordan: yeah, his, his job is pretty incredible. Doing musical theater stuff and also just all his work he's done in film.

[00:24:26] Meljii: Oh, man. Disney? Like, I, I would love to write for Disney.

[00:24:31] Jordan: yeah, doing like original kind of movies with them and lyrics, that sort of thing. You'd be into that.

[00:24:37] Meljii: Dude, that is the dream. That's, like, yeah. That's the dream job.

Someday. 

[00:24:44] Jordan: Yeah. If you had to choose in that position, doing more of a lyric focused role or more of a composition if you had to, do you know which one you would want to go for?

[00:24:57] Meljii: Hmm, that is really tough. I would, I would probably say lyrics. It's, it's the making them kind of silly, but also like, rhythmically, subject wise, like, appropriate. Like, yeah, I, I think, I think the words part would be the more fun part out of the two.

[00:25:14] Jordan: Cool. Yeah. There's so many cool children programs too, on like Netflix and all these other ones that have come up that have lyric writing opportunities too. That would be really sweet to see you working on something like that. 

[00:25:29] Meljii: Yeah, yeah, that would be really fun. Like working a, writing for a kid's show or something similar.

[00:25:35] Jordan: Yeah. I don't know how to go about getting one of those gigs, but I do think that'd be really sweet.

[00:25:41] Meljii: Maybe one of the viewers will send something in.

[00:25:43] Jordan: Yes, please do. If you have a, if you have a show lined up and you want a composer, lyricist, call Melji!

Nelgie. 

[00:25:51] Meljii: Yeah, if you're a cartoonist who just happens to be watching this,

[00:25:54] Jordan: Yeah.

[00:25:55] Meljii: hit me up.

[00:25:57] Jordan: Wonderful. where can people find you online? If they want to hear more of your music and if they want to keep up on shows and things like that you have coming up.

[00:26:07] Meljii: Well um, my music is on all the usual streaming platforms, Spotify and Apple Music and such. If you want to just kind of see what I'm up to and where I'm playing next, including, you know, in a session capacity supporting other artists just follow me on Instagram, @meljiimusic

melgiemusic. 

[00:26:23] Jordan: @meljiimusic. That's your music. Awesome. And you mentioned that you have an EP coming out next year to be determined when, but that's, that's the goal. 

[00:26:34] Meljii: Yeah, it, it's coming, you know concrete details to be decided and then to be announced, but yep, it'll all be out there on Instagram

[00:26:44] Jordan: do you know, is Frog and Toad, is that going to be part of the EP package, the songs you've already released, or is this going to be all new material? 

[00:26:52] Meljii: I'm thinking it's gonna be all new material, because it's going to be majority electric. Frog and Toad, as far as I know, was a little bottle episode. But who knows? You know, maybe there'll be more folky stuff and it'll kind of like, there'll be some unity there.

[00:27:09] Jordan: Yeah. You know, talking about how you had that kind of punk rock on accident experience with your with your show, did we talk about it on the podcast or was that before? I 

[00:27:19] Meljii: I think that was, I think it was a little before.

[00:27:21] Jordan: was before. Okay. We talked about how you just played a show and how some of the two amps were a little hot and was it was causing it to just distort a little bit more than you were used to in practice getting a little punk flair Frog and Toad could sound pretty cool as like a punk cover.

I was just thinking with that kind of descending chord progression, that could be kind of fun.

[00:27:47] Meljii: Whoa. Whoa. I never thought about that. Yeah, like a straight ahead, like, that'd

[00:27:51] Jordan: Yeah.

[00:27:52] Meljii: be kind of sick. Okay, I'm going to try that out. I'm going to try that out when we get off this call.

[00:27:57] Jordan: Sweet. If you, if that happens, please do share because I would love to hear that, that 

version too. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for being on today. Really excited for folks to check out your music and I'm excited to listen to this song all fall.

[00:28:14] Meljii: Yeah, dude, thanks for having me. This was really cool to talk about. A lot of the stuff that we already talk about whenever we hang and play, so.

[00:28:22] Jordan: Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Awesome. Thanks so much.

[00:28:26] Meljii: Yeah, dude, thank you.

[00:28:28] Jordan: All right. I'll see ya.

[00:28:29] Meljii: See ya.

[00:28:30] Jordan: Bye.