Melanie Pain
Melanie Pain is set to hit the road again in the UK next month ahead of the release of her new album Bye Bye Manchester later in the years.
We caught up with Melanie to chat about the upcoming album, writing in Manchester and what lies ahead.
- You are going to be releasing you new album Bye Bye Manchester later this year so what can we expect from the new collection of tracks?
It is a much more personal record as I have written all of the songs myself this time around - the writing of the album was done over a six month period. For me it is really more intense and more who I am right now. There are little references to the eighties and it is a bit more electric pop.
But for me it is up to date and it is really what I wanted to do right now. It’s a fresh pop sound but with this vintage melancholic vibe as well.
- You have slightly touched on my next question really some people will be coming to your music for the first time with this record so would you describe your sound?
I would describe it as pop music in French - I do sing in English as well - but it is a bit of electro, retro, vintage and pop and a bit of French.
- There are some indie influences in there as well as some folk and pop so how did you find yourself going down this path in terms of sound as it is quite an eclectic sound?
I didn’t really plan anything I just went to write this album in Manchester and I didn’t take any music with me just books.
So I think it sounds exactly how I made it as I was really mixing all of the references that I had been listening to over the last fifteen years and trying to write some songs with some vintage instruments. I am trying to find my way of writing pop songs, I guess. So it is not really planned.
I am really proud of this album because it is the first time that I have written everything and it was a surprise and I was like ‘oh my god I can write songs’. At this stage I cannot really say where everything comes from as I am always surprised about writing.
- You spent a lot of time in Manchester writing this new album so how did you find your time in the city? And how did the city influence your music?
That is why I called by album Bye Bye Manchester as I think I could have been anywhere else - I just needed to be out of Paris and out of my hometown. Manchester is great because it has all these stories about famous British bands and being in the UK is always special for me as I get really excited.
I am always so glad to speak English and listen to English people and go to the pub at 5pm (laughs). I think it gave me this new environment that I needed to find out who I was and what I wanted to write.
Definitely the UK was great and Manchester was even greater but when I came back to Paris I just thought ‘ok I just needed a place to go’ and the whole album was about going away from your home town and find out who you are when you are really far from home.
- The album is going to be released later this year but how have you found early responses to the record both here in the UK and oversees?
I am really happy with the response to far as people find the sound interesting and people have lots of questions about it. I think the title and all the lyrics and atmosphere brings questions to people and I feel that that is really a great start as people are like ‘why does it sound like this?’ ‘Why is it called Bye Bye Manchester?’
So I think that that is a good start for me as people get hooked to the sound and to the stories - even if they don’t fully understand all of the lyrics.
I find it very interesting how people… for example I have this song Bye Bye Manchester but it is sung in French and people can just understand some works like ‘nostalgia’ and ‘whiskey’ and ‘Bye Bye Manchester’ and they all have a story about this song without knowing exactly what I say.
I feel that everyone is quite curious about this album and I am very happy with that first response.
- Albin De La Simone has served as producer on this record so how did that collaboration come about?
I met him in Tibet and I saw a performance that did with Vanessa Paradis - he wrote the whole acoustic set for her. I was completely amazed by the show and I went to see him and said ‘I really like what you have done for Vanessa Paradis and I t really think I need you for my new tracks’ - he said yes.
So I went to Manchester and was sending him some things while I was over here. When I came back I put the songs on for him and he said ‘yes, we can do something really good with this’. So that is really how it went.
- He has worked with the likes of Iggy Pop and Vanessa Paradis as you have mentioned so how did you find working with him? And what did his experience bring to your record?
He is really amazing because he spent a lot of time finding out what I wanted and what I didn’t want - so he really listens to the artist that he is working with.
Most of the time I spent with him was about him asking me all of these questions ‘why did you write this?’ and ‘why did you use these chords?’ - he just asked me so many questions about every single song.
After some time doing that he knew exactly what it was that I wanted. I really liked that approach because sometimes you work with producers and they just want to work to their recipe and nothing else where as he is really trying to understand who you are and what you want and propose ideas that really fit into your plan.
I found it really amazing to work with him because we had spent so much time talking about the music that when we got into the studio in Paris everything was alright and it was easy - there were no fights and no struggle it was just really natural. So I loved working with him and I am going to work with him some more later this year.
- You released your debut album My Name back in 2009 so how do you feel you have developed as both a musician and a song-writer between that record and this new one?
It is day and night and everything is so different. The first album was called My Name and it was full of questions and doubt because I became a singer a little bit by accident.
People were coming to me and offering me these great songs and I was not really in control of what I was doing.
So at the time I was really excited but at the same time I was really wondering ‘what am I doing here?’ and ‘who am I?’
This second album is the complete opposite as I took the time to really discover that I was a musician - even though I don’t know how to play music - and I was a songwriter even though I hadn’t written any songs before.
It is really a great step for my as Bye Bye Manchester is really a start for me as both a musician and a writer and a singer as I do sing quite differently on this album.
The first album was about me becoming a singer and not being very sure about it and the second album is about knowing that I am a singer but I also am a composer with my own musical sound. It was a very big step for me.
- You will also be touring the UK to support the release of the album so what can we expect from those shows?
It is going to be a lot of fun. I use to do acoustic gigs that saw me talk a lot and telling stories as well as singing. This time around is going to be the same except it won’t be acoustic and it is going to be a bit more rock and roll and much more synthesiser.
So it is going to be really rich in terms of instrumentals but still allowing me to tell stories and be really interactive. I really want to meet English people and tell them about my songs and see how they react, I really can’t wait.
We are kicking off the tour in Manchester and I can’t wait to say ‘hello Manchester this is Bye Bye Manchester’.
- How much do you enjoy performing in the UK? And how do UK audience compare to others?
I recently toured in Australia and I found the same pleasure that I have to tour in the UK as the audiences are really active and they are reacting and talking; if they don’t like it you know straight away and if they like it you know straight away as well.
They are really straightforward audiences compared to French audiences that are really snobbish and really hard to manage because you never know if they like it or not.
But in England you are in the middle of a song and people will just come and offer you a beer - it is really easy. Audiences step in the venue and they are ready to have fun and I really like that.
- So where did you love of music start? What music did you grow up listening to and how has that influenced your own music?
I was listening to the Beatles and trying to sing in English when I was about five or six, I think. So I was listening to my dad’s records which were full of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
But my first big shock in music was when I listened to The Smiths for the very first time and I could actually understand the lyrics. I was completely in love with Morrissey for five or six years and I was completely obsessed.
So that way my first really big influence as I stayed on The Smiths before I moved on to The Pixies, PJ Harvey and the grunge scene of the nineties.
But I would always go back to The Smiths because I found the lyrics so cynical and so funny and so right. I still listen to a lot of Nick Cave and PJ Harvey and a lot of the indie/rock artists.
- Finally what is next for you?
I will be heading to Berlin tomorrow; my album is already out in Germany so I have got a lot of promo and gigs in Germany throughout March. And then into April I will be heading to the UK for some more shows. Into the summer I also have a few festivals.
So this year is going to be a lot of touring for me but I am still trying to write songs as I am so glad that I managed to do it for this album - I want to go on a write a hundred songs. So touring and writing is what is next for me really.
Melanie Pain’s new EP ‘Just A Girl’ is released on 29th April through Fierce Panda, Melanie will be touring across the UK from 9th April – 14th April