Collaboration and Creativity in Dawn Melanie's Musical Evolution

What happens when a talented singer-songwriter decides to take the reins of their musical journey? Join us as we welcome Dawn Melanie, a gifted artist from KZN, who reveals her transformation from a hopeful musician to an empowered independent artist. Dawn's journey involves the release of two albums, an EP, and multiple singles, highlighting the trials and triumphs of marketing music independently. Her candid experiences shed light on the complex dance between creativity and the demands of social media, as well as the decision to hire a PR agency. Learn firsthand about the dedication needed to stay afloat in the digital age and the unexpected challenges of promoting one’s art.

Dawn Melanie’s music is a rich tapestry woven from diverse cultural influences, and she invites us into this world through her albums "Here and Now" and "There and Then." The former embraces an African Maskandi folk vibe, offering a vibrant exploration of themes rooted in the present, while the latter delves into the darker, introspective corners of myth and folklore with its Celtic and jazzy blues textures. Dawn opens up about her creative inspirations, showing how her cultural background and life experiences shape her work. Her music becomes a mirror reflecting universal human journeys, from the intensity of teenage angst to the serenity of self-discovery, resonating with listeners at various stages of life.

Collaboration has been a cornerstone of Dawn's evolution as an artist. Through partnerships with talented musicians, including Ben and Nat from Storyline Recording Studios, Dawn has expanded her musical horizons, adding layers of creative sound design and vocal harmonies to her work. She offers a heartfelt reflection on the importance of choosing the right collaborators, illustrating how these partnerships have elevated her music beyond its original scope. The episode concludes with a discussion on the art of accepting compliments, as Dawn shares her personal journey of learning to appreciate positive feedback despite the innate tendency to focus on imperfections. This insightful conversation promises to inspire musicians and listeners alike to embrace the evolving world of music with gratitude and anticipation.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Artistic Challenges in the Digital Era
• 5:35 Exploring Folklore and Musical Roots
• 14:35 The Power of Musical Collaboration
• 22:34 Accepting Compliments

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:46

So yeah, introduce yourself and what it is you do.

Speaker 2: 0:49

So my name is Dawn Melanie and I am a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist and artist from KZN. That's the brief description.

Speaker 1: 1:00

Yeah, and you were actually one of the very first artists that we ever had on Sledge Underground. You're one of the very first artists that we had on the show. I went back and looked at the history of it and I think you were like episode number 57 of like in 2018 and I mean we're on something like episode 400 and something now. So it's been a while. Like I assume a lot has changed in the last four. No, it's been nearly six years since you were last on here and, yeah, you've got a new album that's come out and you want to talk about about that today. That came out.

Speaker 2: 1:33

It was yesterday, I believe, on the 25th of January yeah, yeah, so much has happened between that last interview and now. Um that last interview, I was kind of, at that moment in time, big into cannabis rights activism and making art on the roof of a cafe in Hillcrest and doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things. And then the last six years has kind of pushed me more and more to focus on my music, which has been great. I've released two albums, including the one that came out yesterday, and I've released an EP and a couple of singles in between. So lots of recording and lots of making music and just loads of marketing. Learning how to market music oh my, that's a whole other ballgame.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Yeah, that's a whole other business in its own right. I think a lot of people who even want to get into making music don't realize how big of a time like consumer that is and how much energy it takes and just time it takes trying to market yourself and the skills that you have to learn to do it it's.

Speaker 2: 2:39

It can be horrifying, to be honest yeah, a little bit insane actually, and having really launched into doing the marketing of this album myself the last ep that I released I paid someone to do the marketing like a pr agency, and it was great. It was significantly less stressful and easier on me as an artist. It definitely gave me more time to just carry on making music while someone else did all the legwork of the marketing. But obviously it cost like it costs a lot of money to do it that way. Um, so this time around I was like it's fine, I don't, it costs a lot of money to do it that way.

Speaker 2: 3:11

Um, so this time around I was like it's fine, I don't have that much money, I'm gonna do it all by myself. Um, which has been actually a really empowering experience and I feel really good about it. But wow, it's been really like a lot of work and I would recommend any artist who has the money just hire a PR agency to do it for you honestly. But if you don't have the money, just get stuck in. But you have to really throw yourself in like wholeheartedly into doing it. If you're going to do it, do it properly or don't do it, you know like Naz and I were actually having a conversation about this.

Speaker 1: 3:44

It's weird that, like, I'm actually in the process of scripting a video at the moment on, like you know, the effects that social media has on being an artist and, uh, it's more about like this does being. Does social media take the art out of being an artist? It's, it tackles a lot of those subjects where, like you know, at the end of the day, if you don't like doing this type of thing, there are people whose job it is to do that, and if you don't have the money, it's just an unfortunate reality of what it is you're trying to do and that can be really disheartening to some people, but it's just, unfortunately, a fact of it yeah, you know, I think that social media definitely does kind of take the art out of being an artist.

Speaker 2: 4:25

It certainly pushes most artists out of their comfort zone.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Um, you know, like we, we tend to sit at home and jam on our guitars and write our songs and do our thing and then we go out onto stage and our stage persona comes out on stage and we're out there, we shine bright and then we go back into our little bubbles and continue, kind of introspectively, making music and art.

Speaker 2: 4:49

And social media forces you out daily out of your little creative bubble and it breaks you out of that every day into having to do a little bit of marketing and a little bit of, like, content creation, and that's not an easy thing for an artist and it does kind of break your flow a bit, which is not productive when it comes to creating music. So, yeah, it's definitely. It's good in some ways because there's a whole world you can access and everyone has the same kind of ability to access that amount of marketing potential. But it isn't so good for actual creative production. You know, to get to get you out of your flow and into social media is not really the world you want to be in when you're creating no, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 5:36

And then, like, looking at the, the album, one that's just come out now is called there and then and I know you, the previous album that you released was, uh, here and now.

Speaker 2: 5:45

I'm assuming they're like a continuation of each other, like when, so when I released here and now, I joked that the next album should be called there and then. And then I thought about it and I was like that's actually great. So I came up with a plan for three albums when I released here and now and there and then is the second of the three albums, and at the time I'd kind of looked at the body of work that I had and I'd broke it down into three chunks and thought, okay, cool, that gives me like three albums full albums worth of music. Now I have a lot more than that. So I'm now at the point where I've got to start planning album like four, five and six to try and catalog and just keep all this, this work that I've kind of created, going out into the world. But there and Then was already like fully formed in my head when I recorded here and Now, and here and Now was all of the like lighthearted, more kind of African miscundi, folk, vibe stuff. It was very optimistic, it was right when I was starting out in my music career and it was the stuff that I had written at that point in time and it was heavily influenced by the guys I was working with at the time. So like Nibs Frontis Bay, guy Buttrey so it was kind of Guy featured on two of the tracks and it was a very African piece of work. And then there and then a lot of those tracks I'd written already.

Speaker 2: 7:15

There's a lot on the album that's also new. It's kind of a 50-50 balance between tracks that I'd written as a teenager almost, or at least a young adult, and tracks that I'd written in the last sort of six years and it was all of the deeper, darker, more cultic kind of jazzy blues, um stuff that I'd kind of kept as part of my, my catalog. It was my roots really, and where my musical roots really lies in kind of more cultic folk, more like alternative progressive folk. So it's definitely a much darker album. It takes you on a journey through like myth and legend and folklore and fairy tale and through my life as well. A lot of that is metaphors for my life experiences. But I do kind of talk about myths and legends the lyrics refer to, you know, tales of like odin and tales of sort of the pied piper, of hamelin and so like. It does draw on cultural myth and legend from around the world.

Speaker 1: 8:21

So it is a cool album, very celtic very, very dark and very interesting I think, like my, my main question is is what drew you towards the more like folklore and the Celtic and the Muscandi side of things because Muscandi is obviously like a very like traditional I want to say also like very based in, like South African folklore and and what drew you towards those sort of aspects of that music that made you want to create that type of music?

Speaker 2: 8:52

Yeah, I was always drawn to folklore and mythology from around the world.

Speaker 2: 8:56

I was raised on Celtic folk music.

Speaker 2: 8:59

My mom's side of the family was all Irish and Scottish in origin and my dad's side of the family was German in origin and I was obviously being raised in Africa, was German in origin and I was obviously being raised in Africa.

Speaker 2: 9:11

So I was drawn to African folklore too and I was exploring mythology from around the world and different mystery traditions to try and find where I fitted in the world. And I realized that, you know, even though those stories have been told for centuries, they're still so relevant to every single human being's journey that we all go through that journey of like self-discovery. So I feel like mythology is still so much a part of who we are as a people. It's how we have evolved culturally, you know, and from a musical perspective, there's a common ground between all tribal music from around the world. If you look at, like the rhythmic timing of Muscandi and African folk music, if you look at the rhythmic timing of Muscandi and African folk music and you look at the rhythmic timing of Celtic folk music, there's definitely a common ground, even though you'd never think so off the bat if you just listened to them independently you would never automatically say but when you start playing them as a musician you do find that there's definitely connections.

Speaker 1: 10:07

No, absolutely, having listened to a bit of folk and stuff and then obviously, like it's a lot of it comes down to like those time signatures. It's very like sort of tribal, it's very, and I I agree with you that's something that sort of connects us across the world because there's always those sort of similarities that draw back to our histories. So I find that interesting and like I also like how you explain that it's you trying to find your place in the world and that I think that is a challenge that a lot of people, whether it's consciously or unconsciously, they struggle with is to figure out where they belong, where they fit into this big like mess of a puzzle that we that we call life. So I like that explanation.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Thanks, and I feel like music is obviously a huge part. Music and art is a huge part of how we discover ourselves and that's why music is such a powerful thing. When you're growing up and you're that angry teenager, it's like there's something cathartic about listening to like some like heavy metal or some like alternative rock, like something that allows you to really raw a little bit and as you kind of get into softer pieces of your life or you go through like loss or heartbreak, you find yourself listening to stuff that's sort of more like mellow and more like deep, heartfelt kind of sounds and frequencies. And so I think the music is very connected to how we discover ourselves as people and for me, I personally was always trying, I think, to create like some alternative rock and I just never quite got there and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't quite get myself to be like raw enough to go into like full-on like alternative rock, and at the same time there's a lot of darkness in me, I suppose, as much as I'm a really optimistic person.

Speaker 1: 11:57

No, I get you, I get you like it would be the same for me is that I am predominantly an alternative rock and metal musician and creating that type of music. It wouldn't come from as natural a place for me. It would be a little bit harder for me to make that type of music. It wouldn't come from as natural a place for me. It would be a little bit harder for me to make that type of music because it's not something that would resonate with it. How do I say? Just my natural sort of leanings, I guess yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 12:22

I think that you know, I might one day find myself able to create something totally different from what I'm doing now. I mean, I suppose that's. The goal as a musician is to allow your music to continually evolve and change as you do, and collaboration helps that. You know, if you collaborate with other musicians it breaks you out of your box and it stretches you as a musician. So you start to do things you perhaps couldn't do on your own. So I think collaboration is great for breaking you out of your genre. But at the moment I've got such a large body of my own original work that I'm going to be busy for a while just kind of cataloging that and recording it and releasing it. And a lot of it is still very heavily Celtic folk kind of infused, and that's definitely where my roots will come from. Even if I do start one day creating something more kind of heavy and alternative, I think that it'll still have some Celtic mythology mixed in there.

Speaker 1: 13:22

It's interesting when you talk about collaborations. I see that you collaborated with Skippy on this album.

Speaker 2: 13:29

Yeah, skippy, it's so funny Every single time any of us see him or call him up onto stage. We all kind of do this, like Skippy, and he's such an amazing musician. And that collaboration actually came about because he was working in Marshall's Music in the Midlands and I'd written a song and I happened to go into the shop the one day like right after I'd written the song and I was just jamming on one of the guitars and he kind of picked up a mandolin and started jamming with me and we had this epic jam session in marshall's music and I walked out of there going I now have to go buy a mandolin so skippy can feature on this album and record that song with the mandolin. And that's basically what I did. And so Skippy can feature on this album and record that song with the mandolin. And that's basically what I did. And so Skippy then ended up featuring on a few of the tracks, playing the mandolin for me on this album and he and I.

Speaker 2: 14:19

He's actually been on stage with me a few times at Splashy the last two years. He's played with me Also. He's been my mandolin player for those two sets and yeah, it's been amazing. And player for those two sets and yeah it's. It's been amazing. And then I've also now done some vocal stuff for him on some of the stuff he's working on. So it's cool. We're kind of all sharing our talents and collaborating with each other and I think it's just such an amazing musical community that we've got going now.

Speaker 1: 14:44

He's a wildly talented musician that lad like and he's just such a genuinely nice person like. All of my interactions with him have been absolutely great and like going back to again.

Speaker 2: 14:55

He's just an absolutely fantastic musician in general yeah, he's a bit of a savant, eh, I mean, and he's so humble like, just super, super humble as a human being, and every single time I say to him like surely by now you know how good you are, and he kind of goes, goes, like, oh, you know it's like, but it's just such an honor to work with you guys and I'm like jeepers, skippy, like dude, the honor is kind of all ours.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Yeah, no, that sounds like him based on like the few conversations that I've had with him, and that definitely sounds like something he would say.

Speaker 2: 15:29

I've been fortunate actually to collaborate with the guys from the name on the drum they have. They've recorded all of the work that I've put out there for me in their studio. They've got a studio called storyline recording studios and they have sessioned on every single piece of music I've put out there and Nat has been the sound engineer who's done all the mixing and the mastering and you know they've been like a massive part of helping me to broaden what I do. Because when I started recording with them I kind of I'd been offered but from a few people like come and record in my studio and I kind of had been putting it off. And then I said to Ben, I want to come record with you guys, and I'm so glad that I did because they were able to take what I was doing and say to me, yeah, but what if we, you know, make some like foley sounds and add in some crunching leaves or record some crickets or, like you know, they really just broke me out of the box.

Speaker 2: 16:24

They were able to kind of push me to find vocal harmonies that I wouldn't have done on my own and they really helped me to broaden and fill out what I was doing. And then they've both, obviously over the last six years, ended up featuring in my band and playing with me on stage, and Ben is currently my lead guitarist and he does a lot of vocal harmony stuff with me on stage and he's pretty much on stage with me now permanently. Um, so it's, it's great. They've really helped me to expand my sound. So I think collaboration is like essential. You've got to collaborate. It really helps you to become more than you ever thought you could be.

Speaker 1: 17:00

But, especially when it comes to recording and getting your music out there, it really helps to have someone because essentially what they're doing for you is they're producing, and it really helps that there's someone who understands your music as well, as sees the same vision or is able to expand on your vision for the music, them be a part of that and, knowing the name on the drums music and the type of guys that they are, that's kind of like the perfect space to be in where they, yes, their music is a bit different to yours but it also how do I say it? It interlocks fairly well. So their input and their contributions just seem like a natural sort of flow into it.

Speaker 2: 17:45

Yeah, very much so. I mean, their music is different from mine definitely, which is why we're still distinctly two separate acts, even though we do perform together. They perform with me a lot. We're still two very different bands, but they definitely were exactly the right people to work with to help me grow and develop.

Speaker 2: 18:05

I think, collaboration, as I said, is super important, but you are right, it's important that you choose wisely who you collaborate with. You know I do like to have fun and play around and jam with whoever wants to jam, because you never know what's going to happen. But at the same time, when you're really looking at seriously recording and creating the work that you're going to put out into the world professionally, you do have to think about who it is that's really going to help that grow in the best way.

Speaker 1: 18:33

No, absolutely. It is a big part of it, because I've seen a lot of artists where their music just doesn't sound quite right sound quite right, and that's not necessarily their fault or the producer's fault.

Speaker 2: 18:49

it's just that clash between how the the person recording them envisions how it should sound and how they actually sound, and finding that balance is really like it can be a stroke of luck sometimes absolutely, and I think one of the keys that tell you that you've got it right is if you are recording with someone in studio and everything you're doing just makes you more and more excited about what you're doing, it's probably you're probably on the right track.

Speaker 1: 19:14

Absolutely. It reminds me of an experience that I had. There used to be a studio in Santon, in Santon City, called Anti-Motion Studios and it was run by a guy named David Hrevlar. In Sandton City called Anti-Motion Studios and it was run by a guy named David Hrevlar and I remember like he, he did a lot of work. He recorded man as Machine. He recorded um. If I'm not mistaken, he recorded Crash Car Burn.

Speaker 1: 19:34

At one point and I remember hearing this guy's music and the band that I was in at the time. I was like this this dude would be perfect. And I remember making a plan to just scrounge as much money together as possible to record two songs of this guy and we had an absolute blast spending the few days with this guy recording these two songs and I still look back at it. And you know, musicians can be really critical of their old work. They can look back at their older stuff and be like, oh, I really could have done this better. But even now, look back at it and it's nearly 10 years later and I'm still extremely proud of how that music turned out and it was largely due to his, his input and his ability to pick up on about how we we should sound, and the the contributions that he made to the music was just absolutely mind-blowing.

Speaker 2: 20:26

I mean that's such an amazing thing to be able to look back at your past work and still feel that huge amount of pride and satisfaction with what you created and, like you said, if you found the right people to work with, it really just makes the music kind of live forever. It gives it that staying power because it's got that magic in it.

Speaker 1: 20:46

Absolutely. And where can people find you? Where can people find your music at this point?

Speaker 2: 20:52

So pretty much everywhere it's on all available streaming services, though I do tend to encourage people to go to Bandcamp if possible, because Bandcamp is obviously more artist-friendly financially than the other streaming services tend to be. But it really is out there anywhere and as long as people are listening, that is support. So to me. You know, I know these days we all kind of moan about Spotify and about all the different streaming services and what we kind of get paid or don't get paid from those services, but really at the end of the day, if people are listening, that is what counts. So yeah, I mean, obviously go to band cam first if you can, but otherwise just listen. It doesn't matter where you listen, just listen, and you can find it everywhere.

Speaker 2: 21:35

So search for dawn melanie and it'll all pop up. The first album is here, and now the ep is called be the light. The second album is called there and then and it's an amazing diverse range of music. So there's kind of something in there, I think, for everyone, and I've had people from all walks of life come up and tell me like, wow, I didn't expect to like that, but I love it. You know, I've had like dudes who are just metal all the way, and then they come up to me afterwards and they go. I really love what you do and that's always a wonderful thing, so I really do think that there's something there for everyone.

Speaker 1: 22:08

As a musician, that's always a wonderful compliment. Also, I found that I never know how to act when someone says something like that to me. I just become really awkward and just be like oh, thanks, man, or I go to the. I messed up a lot. There's, I think, a musician's favorite line I made so many mistakes, dude, but thank you.

Speaker 2: 22:25

Yeah, we're all so self-depreciating, Come on man. But I know the feeling. I mean, we do critique ourselves harsher than anyone else ever would. And, as everyone always says, when a musician says that no one else knows the mistakes you made, you know, and that's true, they don't. They don't really know and listen to your music that well, when you kind of made a bit of a bum chord or like, put in a note that shouldn't be there, they, when you kind of made a bit of a bum chord or like, put in a note that shouldn't be there, they didn't really pick that up. But um, I know it's. It's really hard to take a compliment. I think that artists in general find it so hard to take take the good. You know, we we tend to like easily accept the bad and it's not easy to accept the good as much. So it's definitely a learning curve. Got to learn to take a compliment, man.

Speaker 1: 23:14

Yeah, absolutely. And Dawn, thank you so much for taking the time on this Sunday to have a chat with me. I know that the internet gods haven't exactly been on our side for the last two days. I'm really glad I got to have a chat with you.

Speaker 2: 23:30

Thank you so much, and also thank you for taking the time and for adjusting accordingly, as the internet gods kind of struck us here, there and everywhere. I really appreciate it so much. I've been looking forward to this interview, so I'm very glad that we've had a chance to chat.