Dawn Melanie Talks To Fanbase Music Magazine, About Her Upcoming Album ‘There And Then’, Playing With The Band The  Name On The Drum & Overcoming Stage Fright

Interviewed by Duzzy Clayton 

Intro

One of my favourite female vocalists namely Dawn Melanie is back with her latest album which is set to drop on the 25th January 2025, I have been a fan of Dawn since her EP called ‘Be The Light’ released a few years ago, I catch up with this awesome unique singer to find out what she has been up to since that EP and it turns out she has been up to quite a lot. 

During my intervierw with her I find out she has struggled with stage fright and I ask how she over came that.

Dawn Melanie is also involved in a lot of creatative things like Painting, Tattooing, Flow Dancing and is also involved with the Festival Splashy Fen 

We chat about all this and more.

Enjoy The Read

 

 

 

 

Interview

 

Hi Dawn, welcome back to Fanbase Music Magazine, the last time we featured you, you were releasing your EP, Be The Light, can you tell us what you have been up to musically since then?

So much has happened since I released that EP, I had already recorded all of my next album (what would become There and Then) at the time I released Be The Light. The tracks for There and Then still needed mixing and mastering and so I released Be The Light in the interim. That was 2022, I continued to write and compose new content and so now in 2024, as I have been building up to the release of the There and Then Album, I have enough music ready to record another 3 albums. The style of the music continues to shift and evolve, and like any good art I hope my life experiences are making it better.

Can you remind us where you are from and what got you into music?

I’m from KZN South Africa, and I think when I was a kid music got into me, rather than me getting into music. I have composed lyrics and melodies for as long as I can remember, and knew even at the age of 10 that I wanted to be a musician. I had some pretty extreme stage fright to overcome, and that slowed me down, but didn’t stop me. By the time I started actively performing and releasing my music I was already in my late 20s but I had a solid body of original work already developed. As I enter my 9th year as a professional musician I have more than 60 original pieces and I am finally mastering the greatest challenge any musician can face… marketing the music.

 

You mentioned you had to work through a lot of stage fright when you first started out. How did you overcome this and what did you find helped with getting through it or is this something you still deal with today
The stage fright was pretty crippling (full on shaking, ear ringing, cant see the audience, can’t hear a note kind of stage fright) it very nearly stopped me performing altogether, but I really wanted to share my music with the world so I knew if I didn’t overcome it, I would have to live with having let myself down for the rest of my life. Someone asked how I’d feel if I heard someone else playing my songs and it hurt to imagine not doing it myself.
I spent a year doing karaoke, every week, and it got easier, I didn’t have to hold or play my guitar so I could focus on just singing and not freaking out, everyone else was usually pretty drunk and most often sounded worse than I did so that helped with confidence, and then on my birthday that year an old school friend shared a grainy video of 9 year old me singing my first solo in a school play ( this happened to be the moment I had first experienced stage fright, the moment that had haunted me ever since) and I was able to see that little me had actually sounded good, I hadn’t been out of key or to soft or any of the things I’d imagined at the time, I hadn’t flopped it, and suddenly I realised the stage fright had been all in my head to begin with, not at all what everyone else heard. That night at karaoke I owned the mic, everyone just requested songs and left me to sing, and I never did karaoke again, in fact I never even performed a cover after that, I launched into sharing my music whole heartedly ever since. I developed a stage persona by accident as part of the process of performing (as I think all musicians do) its a version of me that only comes out behind a mic, and that also helped to feel comfortable and confident on stage.
After covid when I got back on stage after ages of not performing live I felt a bit of that same anxiety but I pushed through it and after a few shows my stage persona was back in full force and I felt comfortable again.

 

As well as being an amazing inspiring musician, you are also involved in a number of creative things, can you tell us what else you do and what got you into doing all those things?

I am a diverse creative, I do everything from visual art ( in a variety of mediums, from paintings through to tattoos, and in a style that is as eclectic as my music, ranging from portraiture through to surrealism), I am a Dancer specializing in ‘flow’ and fire dancing, I am a poet and now an author (I’m currently working on a series of illustrated books) and then I creat decor art for festivals, which often pushes me into creating sculptures and creative lighting installations (such as giant glowing mushrooms, or lit up Dandelion lanterns)

Ten year old me had a list of things I wanted to be, I’m making sure I do them all. I love to explore my creative potential and the only factor in how much I can do, is time.

When I think about who you sound like, and although you are your own artist with your own unique sound, I do get a hint of Janice Joplin in your music, is she someone who has influenced you and who are some of your other favourite musicians that influence you?

What a compliment! Janis Joplin was such a powerful musician and woman and really changed the face and sound of music. I suppose I am like her in the sense that I challenge the norms and am passionate about holding onto my originality and forging my own path musically. As far as other influences and favourite musicians, I was influenced by traditional celtic Irish and scottish folk music, which makes alot of my music very bardic and story telling in nature as well as gives some of it a very medieval celtic sound. I was also influenced by amazing lyricists such as Bob Dylan, Dessa (an amazing artist from the USA who though very different from me in style is a huge inspiration as a lyricist), and I love blues and rock, so I feel that also shows up in my sound too.

My favourite musicians range from Dessa, Xavier Rudd, The Name On The Drum, Drowsy Maggie, Jack Mantis, Regina Spektor, Lin Manuel Miranda, and John Craigie through to Disturbed and Seether.

Okay, let’s talk about your latest album dropping in January, namely, There And Then, having been lucky enough to hear some of the songs on the album, you seem to be going for and achieving a very celtic sound, can you tell us what made you want to go that route and genre?

I grew up on celtic folk, and it comes out heavily in my music, mixed in with something I feel is a bit of blues and rock. The There and Then Album has alot of it on it (though not all as I continue to write new works in this same genre) Many of the songs on this album are some of my older pieces and as they all had a sound that felt old, otherworldly and almost medieval I grouped them together to form this album.

How did you come to the album title?

Hear and Now was my first album and it was more African and maskandi in sound, more light and up lifting, where as There and Then is darker and comes more from my ancestral roots (scottish, Irish and German) rather than my birth roots here in Africa. The title followed on from the first album but references both the ‘old’ medieval celtic sound of the tracks, my ancestry which coloured the sound and feel of The songs and the fact that some of the songs reference myths and legends from around the world.

 

 

Where was the album recorded and who worked on it?

The album was recorded at Storyline Recording Studio in Monteseel, which is owned and run by Ben and Nat Bruzas from The Name On The Drum. They feature on my first album, my EP and There and Then. They also have both taken turns at performing as part of my band on stage these past few year, with Ben currently filling that roll. The album also features my friend and musical savant Skippy Kubheka, who plays mandolin on two of the tracks, and my drummer Dusty Froise on the djembe drum.

What was the recording process like with this album, were there any differences compared to what you have recorded before?

Each time I record it gets better. I get more used to working in studio and my understanding of how a song can be developed within that space grows. I love what Ben and Nat bring to the music and how they push me to expand the sound of a song. We got really creative with some of these making a whole bunch of folly sounds to build into certain tracks for ambience, such as creaking doors, rustling leaves and we even recorded a thunder storm which came over while we were recording (it had perfectly well timed rumbles of thunder)

As mentioned before, you often jam with the members of The Name On The Drum, what do they bring to your music and live performances?

Ben and Nat really build my songs up from the skeletons I start with to full and diverse prices, the have always expanded on what I hear and I love what they add into each track. Nat and I performed live as a duet for about two years, and then when my drummer Dusty returned to live performance, Ben stepped in on lead guitar, backing vocals and harmonica. It’s a blessing to play with them, they are so ridiculously skilled and are some of the few musicians who have managed to works with my eccentric style and rhythmic timing and actually make it better,

 

 

How many tracks are on the album?

This is a ten track album, and honestly it could probably have had one or two more on it, but I felt ten was already pretty full.

My favourite single so far off the album is Fortune Teller, can you tell us what that song is about?

Fortune Teller has a beautiful mystical sound and story. It tells the tale of a man journeying the world to find his place in it, as we all do, following the path laid out in the stars, questioning destiny and fate and where it’s all going. It references throwing the bones, and flipping the tarot cards to get a glimpse of the path laid out ahead, and yet still having the freedom to choose whether you follow fate or create your own.

I tried to create vivid imagery though both the sound of the melody and the lyrics, to really put pictures in the listeners mind.

 

 

 

 

 

You are a big part of Splashy Fen, can you tell us what is your involment and what we can expect at the next Splashy Event?

I create the art and decor for the treehouse stage, which is one of 6 areas at the festival. I have been doing this since 2017, and I’d like to think that it is one of the most unique and creative areas at the festival. My job ranges from creating extravagant lighting installations and art pieces to fire dancing and cosplay (we also have a whole crew of performers who dress up and dance, stilt walk, fire dance and basically behave like a roving circus throughout the 5 day event)

Each year Splashy strives to expand the aesthetic of the festival and to include and ever more diverse range of music and activities in its festival line up, so you can do everything from catching some of the best live performances around to yoga and hiking.

The past few years the organisers begun to ask for more original content from all the acts at the festival which means that they are encouraging musicians to play their own content as well as making sure that what you get to hear at Splashy fen in unique, and special, not just what you would hear on an average Friday night at any bar or venue.

They are also very motivated to be a clean green festival and so focus on reusing and recycling keeping the festival clean and environmentally conscious.

Do you have any other events coming up that you can tell us about?

I’m performing at Connexion new year festival, at the new Groove Floor, which is the new live performance stage they have included in the event. The line up is incredible featuring some of the best artist from South Africa.

I shall also be head lining at the Pagan Freedom Festival in May in KZN

I perform regularly throughout the year at other festivals and venues, so be sure to follow me on social media to stay up to date with where and when these events happen.

Thank you for doing this interview, do you have any last messages for our readers?

If you love music, and want to live in a world full of it, make sure you support those creating it by listening. Follow the artists you love and take the time to listen when they put out new work. Support podcast and magazines such as this one, and keep the music scene alive and thriving by sharing the songs you love, and if you can, by showing up at a show or two (the musician is only half the shows success, the audience is the other half, amd we love meeting you guys so come say hi).

 

To Listen To An Interview With Dawn Melanie OnThe anything Goes Podcast Click HERE

 

 

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