Melanie Edwards the mixer

If you haven’t heard of Melanie Edwards yet, don’t worry, you will before long. This smart, gorgeous, hilarious, and poetic singer-songwriter has been rocking it out in clubs all over NYC for the last few years. Now, she’s put an insane amount of work and love into her first album, Between the Binary.

Like any project we develop and create, there is a holistic process involved that makes us grow as individuals and as a collective culture. Here, Melanie describes her own holistic reality of birthing an album, all while attempting to stay sane.

Living Holistically: What was it like to put together an album from scratch? It sounds like you basically orchestrated the whole thing by yourself.

Melanie Edwards: That’s a great question. First of all it was as simple and as difficult as having an open canvas, within any art form. For example, like having a lot of ingredients in the cupboard and saying, ‘right, ok, i’m gonna make this ________ kind of casserole.” I wrote the majority of these songs back in 2006, so the real challenge has been pulling these kids up by their bootstraps and birthing them in a way that sounds fresh, like I wrote them yesterday. It’s also significant to point out that writing and performing songs is a paradoxical feat, because you are always channeling your past mental albums and projecting them in the present, for instance, the people in the songs are very distant, maybe not even in your life anymore, however, you’re singing about them like these moments happened mere minutes ago.

There were several challenges, pros and cons, in putting this together. The project really involved getting the right team of people together, who I trusted very much. I trusted chief engineer, co-producer and mixer Tom Pastro with interpreting my heart, and conceptual designer, visual expert and lifelong creative soulmate, Christopher Pecoraro with reading my mind. What a burden that was on them! In addition, there are some extraordinary musicians featured on the album, which really flushed out parts of the songs, providing a new journey for the pieces to take shape.

A lot of the process involved living without fear of the result and trusting instincts. I’d recorded albums before, demos and small projects, but this was a virgin experience in making a debut solo record. There are a lot of intangibles, but, like any artist within their medium of choice, you have to dig deep within your own spirituality and convictions to channel the other side, constantly searching for clues. That’s the only real way to survive in invisible, uncharted territory. I will always remember trying to fundraise for the album and a 20 dollar bill flew on my foot, in the wind – signs like that are critical when you’re leaving a life of stability, to pursue a calling, you literally have to believe and listen to the wind!

LH: Can you tell me about the meaning of the title, Between the Binary? Does the meaning show up in any particular song?

Working it out on stage

ME: Well, Between the Binary revealed itself to me after reading a book on postmodernism. It just clicked. Basically the book preached about binary codings, in a series of 0’s and 1’s, and how everything pulsates on an electrical series of ‘on’ and ‘off’ notated by these foundational equations. This mathematical way of assessment drove me crazy, because as soon as you’ve defined something, it no longer has that mystique, that magic, and it becomes a commodity, a tangible work that’s up for grabs…all very black and white. Therefore, it occurred to me that art forms are what exists ‘between the binary’ and acts as inarticulated truths, the subtext of the reality. As an artist, particularly a singer/songwriter, it’s important for me to try and catch the pieces of the quizzes in life, sort it together and express the subtext of the situations, in their truest forms, before they’re manipulated and boiled down to binary codings of blue and red, democratic or republican, chocolate or vanilla.

Therefore, I think the concept shows up in all the songs, because each piece is a representation of my truth, as a constant truth seeker, like a mental archeologist looking for thoughts in the raw, I’m hoping they all rest somewhere between the binary. However, Laboratorium is literally about the challenges we face everyday, in our lives, trying to sort out our own constitutions and boundaries. It seems like as soon as we have the answers, something else falls out with weight somewhere else, and you’re scurrying around trying to find the answer to that chaos, so the truth is elusive and ever seductive, without a real answer. And we have to be ok and calm, realizing that everything just is, and to just be.

LH: I’m interested in hearing a bit about both your songwriting and producing process. There are a lot of people out there that don’t know where to begin with either – what inspired you? What kept you going when you would rather jump out the window?

ME: HAHA! Jumping out the window was really enticing at some points. The songwriting process is my absolute favorite part of the whole journey. Like the introduction to a new baby, it’s so much fun. They come to me at times when you least expect. Sometimes I’ll be shaving my legs and all of a sudden the entire song has come to me, other times, I’m on the subway and a phrase will touch me somehow, and I’ll scratch it down in my notebook and then find a hook when I’m home with the keyboard or violin.

I was inspired by my friends, family and fans, who were the ones who came to me after live gigs or wrote me notes, encouraging me and telling me how much the songs meant to them. They literally asked me to record an album, and even though this isn’t a full length LP, it’s still a small sample of the song-kids that the fans seem to enjoy most, with the addition of Daniel’s Lane and Laboratorium, both of which have never been played live with a full band, in this type of arrangement.

LH: I love how “laboratories” and “laboratorium” find their way into your lyrics and name. Obviously, you “cooked up” all of these songs, digging deep for lyrics and mixing them together, but is there a deeper meaning behind the word?

ME: Clearly I’m a singer/songwriter, but, I mostly define myself as a musical scientist, constantly testing chord structures, wordplays, subtexts and colors within my own laboratory. For instance, how does the color blue sound on a rainy day? And how do we demonstrate fire red via musical notation? Things like this are how I work within my own lab, which I recently developed, conveniently called Melanie Edwards Laboratories. This is a place where I can test a series of challenges or questions, and pontificate the conclusions, except I’m using my keyboard and violin as a microscope to further engage in these life obstacles and inquiries to derive some sort of result.

Pondering new lyrics

For instance, instead of a charted data graph of findings, like NASA would construct, my findings are via musical constructions. The thing is, nothing is ever conclusive, we never really know the answers, but I can record the results of these intellectual tests to capture one moment, at one time, in a series of moments, to reflect my authentic visions, my own personal truth and the memories I have in that one, original block of time. Afterall, time is the only commodity not up for sale and it’s crucial to make good use of it, so to have a recording of those unfiltered pieces, in a way, acts as the purest form of art, as nothing can be replicated again like that spontaneous portal of a time lapse.

LH: I heard it was you and a bunch of guys that put the album together. What was that experience like, and do you think that more “maleness” showed up on the album than you intended, or were you able to keep that authentic feminine quality?

ME: I had a lover once tell me that I am confined by men. I guess that’s true in some ways, in others not so much. It’s real, I was the only female in this project, from all the musicians, to the conceptual designers, to the project managers. The experience was really fascinating in so many ways, a real testament to gender studies.

Listen to a snippet of “Laboratorium” off Melanie’s new album:

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Don’t get me wrong, I adore men, I love the way they work on a technical level, especially, very no nonsense-like and not a lot of room for overly emotional cat fights. And I wouldn’t have trusted any other people to have brought this album to fruition. But, were there challenges? Indeed, but like with any project, you have to quickly assess how to communicate in the right way to get the goal accomplished.

I had to fight hard to let go of being a ’southern woman’ about things and often times get in the grit and flex feminine muscle that hadn’t been challenged in that way before, while balancing the graceful approach, to keep the songs true to myself and to being a woman. However, there’s something to be said about having a plethora of men at the helm, because they were each able to balance parts of the projects that could become overly female, so that the yin and yang of everything, from audio to concept, were kept in a nice balance.

Gearing up for a performance

LH: I think most people would be interested to hear how you have built your career in NYC. Building an audience and a following is not a simply feat, especially in a city with so many magnificent underground artists.

ME: It was a slow and steady progression. I moved to NYC from Austin, Texas approx 5 years ago, with my violin and a crappy keyboard. Although I’d performed my whole life, this was a new beast, because, just as you said, there are millions and trillions of talented indie artists flooding this city. I’ve had to dig deep within myself asking for the universe to grant me a lot of patience, time to create and dedication to the art form, because living in NYC as an artist is nearly impossible.

The quality of life is ridiculous, you’re paying for a shoebox studio and you need to have the time to create your work, but also find a way to pay for your rent. It’s a puzzle that often has pieces missing and you have to sacrifice so much to maintain your internal truth. You have to give up normal routines, friends, family and absolutely everything has to take a second seat to this pursuit, and it can be really intense, lonely, complex and downright depressing at times. However, I can’t take the credit for a lot of my success and career, simply because it’s all not up to me. I’m just a conduit to the other side, merely fulfilling a universal contract. My fans and friends have been the extension of that contract, acting as the oxygen to keep the system fluid and whole, because without this great network of support, the whole ecosystem would crumble.

LH: What are you plans for taking your album out to the masses? Where can people find your CD/MP3?

ME: I’m looking into touring late summer 2010, to promote the EP, which can be found on most major distribution sites, like Itunes and Amazon. Also, all the album information and upcoming tours will be listed on the website, melanieedwardslabs.com.

To learn more about Melanie, check out her site, Melanie Edwards Laboratories. To purchase her CD, hop on over to CD Baby.