We Chat to Soul Sister Duo Melonyx All About Their Debut Album ‘Soul Glow'

How did you meet and start making music in the first place?
Nadia: We met as teens going to an after school performing arts club. A little later down the line, we were both supporting each other, watching each other at open mic gigs. We started to get a few promoters ask us to do gigs individually. We had our ups and downs, as you do sometimes as artists, and we kept turning gigs down. Then, Parisa from Acoustickle was like, ‘will you do a gig together?’ and that's how we started singing together. At that time, we were just singing our individual songs, doing backing vocals for each other, and then doing covers together. It all grew from there.

How has being part of that Nottingham scene shaped you as performers and artists?
Nadia: Our EP and our debut album Soul Glow were both heavily produced by Joe Buhdha and the Can't Stop Won't Stop team of producers that he works with. We've been on the scene for quite a while, because we had all those years previous to Melonyx doing separate things. Parisa was definitely a support when we were coming into the scene, Rastarella, Tommy Farmyard, Adam Pickering, Sounddhism… and that's just to name a few! The scene is so rich, I think everybody's just inspiring everybody all the time. The Elementz has also been a big part of our sound as Melonyx because of the beats that he makes, the use of sampling, his knowledge of all the music that's come before us in the different subgenres of black music, whether that's Hip Hop, soul, funk… we've grown up with various influences in our household. So, I think it just gelled together to make a sound that you'll hopefully start to recognise as Melonyx.

What was the process of putting your debut album Soul Glow together?
Nadia: I didn't know that the songs from the EP would be on there. To be honest, that was something that the label put forward, just as a way to draw attention back to those songs. I don't think we particularly felt we were ready for an album, we just approached it in the way we would usually make music, so it was just a case of getting in the studio and listening to the beats and thinking about what we want to write about, which has kind of become our usual approach. I think a theme just naturally started to emerge around - self care, self love, development, affirmations… I think the album is quite indicative of the journey that we went on when we were making it.

What are your own personal highlights of the album?
Nadia: I think there's a lot of moods in the album and I think how I'm feeling indicates what I gravitate to at the time. Plenty is always up there. That's one of my favourites, just because I love the message of it. That for me is the self acceptance anthem. Butterfly as well, because for me that's probably some of my most honest writing.
Georgia: I like them all for different reasons. But I always said that Made to Suffer is my most honest writing, from personal experience, and then At The Door because I love that we were able to inject that Lover’s Rock influence. I think it's a nice way for us to have touched on the subject of love. We have so many other things to talk about, other than romantic relationships. But everybody wants a bit of romantic love and that song encapsulates that.

You both speak about writing very honest lyrics, how do you approach that?
Georgia: I think we probably have slightly different approaches to writing. But I think for me I'm often led by what the melody makes me feel. I think it's definitely collaborative, we try to share as we're going along and see how these parts fit together, and how the story continues. What would you say, Nadia?
Nadia: I'm very keen to get my words out as a writer. Sometimes, that doesn't always make for the best first draft, so I tend to do a lot of rewriting. But then the second time around, I start to think, ‘what am I actually feeling, what do I want to convey?’ I think Georgia is very good at tapping into the emotional side of things, lyrically. 

The track Melanin Queens stood out to me on first listen. What’s the story behind that one?
Georgia: We got the hook for that one quite early. I think we were just having lots of conversations about our experiences as black women and being overlooked, especially in our younger years, and how long it can take to feel comfortable in your own skin, despite having a family that loves you, just because of societal pressure and westernised beauty standards. Sometimes, you can't even really explain why you feel less than or othered. You've got all of this language that we didn't have when we were in school. I know we used to speak about discrimination, but not necessarily about being othered or microaggressions, colourism and hair textureism, and all these other things. We're women, but we're also black, so it's layered. We had lots of conversations about that. We just wanted to write something that was a celebration of how we're both very proud of who we are, and also an anthem to people who are still feeling how we did. So, that song was kind of supposed to touch on all of that in a way that wasn't heavy, but more affirming. What I think is nice about it is we've had lots of interactions with girls that don't look like us, and men too, just saying how they think this song is special and they still connect to the meaning behind the message, even if it isn't necessarily aimed at them. Obviously, it's really special when we see black women who love the song, that's probably the most special thing. But it's also nice to see how many people outside of that bracket can acknowledge that something like that is needed, and sing along with us and celebrate what we were trying to portray in that song. 

I also wanted to touch on the Soul Selection Show that you host on Kemet FM. How do you go about curating that and picking what music to showcase?
Nadia: I was looking for different ways to tap into creativity and music. And one of my friends is a DJ on the station and was looking for a female co-presenter for his show and I went on there with him. And we started doing his show together. And then the radio manager, Andrew Campbell, said ‘oh, so when are you starting your show?’ I was like, what show? He said, ‘I want you to fill in on a Tuesday evening, seven to nine.’ I asked if I could do it with someone, and then I asked Georgia, so Melonyx could have our own show and plug our music! It was not just an opportunity to platform to showcase our music on the platform, but also shed light on music that wouldn't necessarily usually get mainstream radio play, people who we are privy to because of being in the scene and seeing who's coming up - not just people who are coming up, but people who might even be up already but they're in like a niche. Because even though R&B, soul music is quite popular, it's still kind of boxed sometimes I would say, especially UK R&B and soul. So it was our opportunity to especially showcase UK soul and R&B and then we started to get guests to interview when it felt naturally possible to do so, like Jah Digga, Saffron Gray, J Littles, and Alex Mighten. Just who we like and who we can get access to!

I also wanted to touch on Melonyx’s live show, how has performing been since you put the album out?
Nadia: It's been good. We put the album out in July and obviously that's the start of festival season. So, we've gone into these spaces not really expecting anybody to know who we are or what the music is, and that's fair enough. But then when you get a good reception based on those things as well, that's a nice feeling. So hopefully next year, when we do festivals and stuff, then we'll have a few more people in the crowd, who might be able to sing along with the songs and stuff, but it's just been nice to be so booked and busy, we've had a really good run since the beginning of the year, we've been gigging nonstop since February, we've managed to keep things rolling.

What have you got coming up for the remainder of 2023?
Georgia: We’ve got an interesting gig coming up in November supporting Sleaford Mods in Birmingham at the O2 Academy. When they asked us, we were mind-boggled. We weren’t entirely sure that their fans would want to hear our music, but we thought you know what, we're gonna do it anyway. I guess we'll just see whether they're receptive to what we're gonna bring, because I'm not going to lie, I'm not necessarily convinced. But it was nice to be asked, and they've been really lovely. It’s probably going to be a little bit of a challenge as well, not that other things aren't, but I think it's always interesting to go into spaces and do a style that's not exactly what people are there to hear, maybe looking quite opposite from who you're supporting. So, I think it's gonna be an interesting space to find ourselves in, and I'm quite looking forward to seeing how it goes down. It will be lovely to meet them as well, because they're very much doing amazing right now and they’re Nottingham legends, so it's nice that they're so open, welcoming, and up for us supporting them.

@melonyxmusic