Melpomene
Politics and self-expression take centre stage with the marriage of bruising musicality and tear-jerking emotions
“Sometimes I'm playing jazz fusion progressions, but through two layers of distortion. It's very different if you strip it back.”
“We started as a joke band called Mayonaise,” laughs guitarist Xochi Velasquez. “My previous band fell apart, and I just wanted to write stupid riffs.”
But for the Minneapolis-based guitarist and drummer duo, matters soon became far more serious. As politically active transgender women, Melpomene (it’s pronounced Mel-Pah-Muh-Nee) has become a vessel for vital self-expression.
“The main thesis statement that me and Lynn [Anderson, drums] are operating by is to write extreme music with an emotional element at its forefront,” Velasquez develops. “We want you to come away from a Melpomene listening experience thinking about the emotions you felt, more than ‘They played really fast.’ A lot of people cry at our concerts, and that’s what we’re going for.”
Their music, which distorts jazz chops through a perennially jagged lens, is instrumental. But Melpomene always has a story to tell. They see the world for how it is, and they have a lot to be pissed off about.
“I've been the victim of a couple of hate crimes, and after one of them, I wrote our angriest and fastest song; it's all an act of sublimation, of inner turmoil,” Velasquez explains. “So there’s always a theme to each song and we’re asking, ‘How can we convey that theme?’
“Recently, we were writing a song about transgender inequalities, but we were also seeing what’s happening in Gaza and what ICE is doing to our neighbours. The song kept growing in scope. We were constantly looking for ways to encapsulate those cataclysmic feelings.”
That constitutes a range of emotions; not just anger, and their debut album, 'A Body Is A Suggestion' does likewise. It follows a protagonist who is unhappy with their life and feels grossly uncomfortable in their own body. When they begin peel off their skin, they discover a sun in their chest and take on a new astral form. It reads like sci-fi fiction, but is grounded a much grimmer reality.
“The narrative starts with visceral and direct songs, they’re frustrated,” Velasquez relays. “Then we expand out with ambient synth parts to represent this larger-than-life, ‘I’m living in space and I eat planets’ character arc. We're trying to create stark contrasts between emotional states.”
Despite the heaviness of their sound, Lynn comes from musical theatre. Their shared loves lie elsewhere, and it pulls Melpomene into a far richer realm.
“The first music that I ever played was jazz and neo soul,” says Velasquez. “We love Bjork, Kate Bush and Caroline Polachek, and sometimes I'm playing jazz fusion progressions, but through two layers of distortion. It's very different if you strip it back.”
But, she says, it all comes back to the emotional aspect.
“Optimism is a big part of the album experience. No matter how painful life can be, the only way you're going to get to your celestial form [ostensibly a metaphor for self-acceptance] is by taking action and learning to find hope in the world.”
New singles are expected this summer, with the duo set to push their extremes even further.
- Phil Weller
PROG FILE
LINE-UP: Xochi Velasquez (guitars), Lynn Anderson (drums)
SOUNDS LIKE: Emotionally cathartic heavy music that’s equal parts spasmodic math rock and bastardized jazz fusion a la Mastodon, Animals As Leaders and Cynic
CURRENT RELEASE: 'A Body Is A Suggestion' is out now and is self-released
WEBSITE: Music | Melpomene