Psychedelic rock band, Meltt, talks new album ‘Eternal Embers’

Meltt, a psychedelic rock band based out of Vancouver, takes listeners on a sonic journey with their new album. The band says that “even though [the album] deals with darker themes, it ends on a positive note. There’s always light at the end.”

I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with the guys from Meltt and had the best time talking to them!

How did you guys meet? How did the band form?

A couple of us knew each other through middle and high school and played together. We got separated in university, but still kept in touch through sending each other demos as we developed them. We decided to give it a go recording original music together during our second year of university, that’s when it really started to become ‘Meltt’.

Psychedelic rock is something that I’m just recently getting into, and I love how it sonically sounds and feels. How did you all define your sound and know that this was the sound that would be definitive of your alls music?

It has its roots in our shared influences, specifically the music that we really bond over. Music like Tame Impala or Washed Out, there’s a longer list than that, but I think that’s the music that we were all listening to at the time when we first started creating our own music. I think we are still defining our sound as we are progressing and really soaking up ‘the vibe’ and influences as we are going along. It definitely wasn’t a conscious choice, but one that we made based on what we were listening to and being impacted by at the time. 

What is your favorite part about making music? Least favorite?

Some of our favorite parts are the excitement we feel when you can really tell a song is coming together. Unlocking the missing pieces of songs is also really exciting and satisfying. And of course, the obvious answer would be getting to play shows for people. On the flip side of that, some of the harder and maybe ‘least favorite’ parts are the technical tasks, like mixing the song, and sometimes it can be really hard to finish and round out your ideas, as far as editing goes.

If you could give your younger self/ younger musician any advice, what would you say?

Experiment with your music, embrace what you gravitate towards, and if you are making something that you like, chances are when you share it with other people, there will be more out there that enjoy it too. Creating multiple things is also a big thing, never be too stingy with what you’re putting out there, you never know which idea is going to stick. And also, if you find yourself not knowing how to do something… YouTube it. 

Your new album, ‘Eternal Embers’ comes out on September 22. What was the inspiration and creative process like behind this project?

Going into this new record, we had ideas of making a brighter, more colorful record; something that felt more upbeat. These weren’t necessarily things that we stuck hard and fast to, but it was a rough idea going into it was to make things that would work well when we play live. During COVID, we were all separated and started playing around with new ideas. We experimented with new synthesizers and things like that, so when we could all finally get together, we brought some stuff in like that and it opened up a whole new world of instrument layers and a really bright and colorful sound. Themeatically, it reflected what was going on in our life at the time, so we just put those things to music. 

I also saw that you all embark out on tour on September 30. What are some things that you love about touring?

The best part is getting to meet fans and getting the chance to talk to them. Hearing what the music has done for them, and vice versa, is a really special thing. To be able to engage with people who are that passionate and know that much about the music is kind of wild sometimes. It’s one thing to read comments online, but to actually talk to someone in person and have them tell you what your music has meant to them is so special and unique. Another part is when we are on stage playing and getting the crowd’s reaction, and it could be a city that’s 2,000 miles away from home, just hearing the reaction from people you’ve never met is so cool. 

When on the road, what is your go-to “gas station” or snacks order?
It really depends on the region, if possible, we try to stop for Mexican food. At a gas station, we definitely indulge ourselves in an ice cream sandwich or an iced coffee. A lot of times, we take great advantage of the continental breakfast at hotels too.

What are some of your favorite memories from touring/playing together?

A cool highlight recently was in San Francisco, we played for our biggest crowd to date, that wasn’t a hometown show. Some of our favorite memories aren’t onstage, but when we are exploring the new cities together and just being together as a band. When we are in the studio together also creates really fond memories for us as well because it’s always exciting laying down tracks together and cracking jokes throughout the process.

I know that “The Absent Sea” came out about a month ago, and personally I really enjoy the song. I love how ethereal and sonically pleasing the instrumentation and lyrics sound together. Can you walk me through some of the lyrical inspiration?

 It started with inspiration from the music itself. It started with us having the bare bones of the first half of the song and then we all worked together to create the big, epic jam that is the final song. A lot of times, we’ll write the melodies without words beforehand, so taking that, we start to fill it in with real words. Because of how psychedelic and tripped out the song is, it was basically us filling in the melody subconsciously and piecing it together. A big inspiration for this album was the novel Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy because it has these themes of the psychedelic, desert vibe and we tried to embody that for this album. The song walks through the nature of reality and the ending of all things and the inspiration was pulled from a lot of these different places. Of course our interpretation of the lyrics could be completely different from how other people interpret them, but we wanted it to be open for interpretation for everyone.

If you could collaborate with any artist, dead or alive, who would you all collaborate with?

Kevin Parker, or better known as Tame Impala, would be someone still alive that we would love to collaborate with. If we could collaborate with any artist that is no longer with us, it would probably have to be John Lennon.

What is one song from any artist, any generation, that you believe to be flawless?

Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, Carey by Joni Mitchell, Helplessly, Hoping by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and If You could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot are some of the ones that immediately come to mind when we think of a perfect song!

Take some time and plug and promote yourself here!

Meltt has embarked out on their North American tour, check out all of the tour dates here! Eternal Embers was released on September 22 and you can stream that here!