Blessed Are The Obsessed: Mending Melissa – ‘Harmony’ Review + Interview

Since the recent release of their debut single Harmony, Sydney band Mending Melissa has gained a lot…and I mean a lot of attention. for those of you who frequent the band members only social network Fandalism you would have witnessed the video clip received unprecedented abouts of views, something to the tune of 6,000 in 4 days and if you ever check out the international site IndieCharts.com you may have noticed Harmony sitting in the top 10 for a while now.

Having listened to the track multiple times I struggle to find just one reason behind all love its received, it could be the powerful yet graceful vocals, the hard guitar or the simple yet effective drum fills – or maybe its the way it all just seems to blend together perfectly. The track is a little bit heavy, a little bit pop and a little big proggy which really means theres something for everyone. The moods and the tones of the song are vast and distinct which suggests a serious amount of time has been put into the writing and recording stages and as much as you get a kick out of the low-fi going around these days, nothing’s better than when a track just simple sounds right. A personal favourite would have to be the pseudo-breakdown, very unexpected and demonstrates the bands ability to draw on other sounds to make their sound totally theirs.

I caught up with the delightful front woman Melissa Romao for a bit of a chat

Blessed Are The Obsessed: What’s your name and what’s your role in the band?
Melissa Romao: Melissa Romao – singer/songwriter

BATO: How did this all get started? Tell us the tale!
MR: In 2004 Cron (guitarist/songwriter/producer) and I met in South Africa where we are both from, that’s where we started writing together. Many songs later, we had both relocated to Australia, and hooked up again in Sydney in 2009 and formed the current line-up.

BATO: What’s been your favourite moment of being in the band so far?
MR: Definitely filming and editing our video for “Harmony.” It was loads of fun learning how to actually do it all and then creating it from scratch by myself! The filming was great, too, except for getting soaked in that cold rock pool!

BATO: The Harmony clip has received so much love online! What do you think has given it such a viral quality?
MR: I suppose people probably enjoy the contrast between the story-telling, dark, eerie verses mixed in with the light and positive choruses with their sudden flashes of colour and nature – the creek we played in is pretty beautiful! I think the clip really tells the story of the song and everyone can probably relate to the feeling at some point in their lives.

BATO: What’s the story behind the track?
MR: It’s about you losing someone(in any way) and finding it incredibly hard to cope with, almost to the point of giving up. And having someone who cares about you or perhaps even your own “inner-voice” telling you that even though you may have lost someone you care a lot about it shouldn’t be the end of your happiness, even when it hurts so so much and seems so hopeless! There’s just so much great stuff out there to discover and great people to meet who will, in turn, begin filling your life up again if you’ll let them.

BATO: When can we expect to see more from Mending Melissa?
MR: Our EP should be ready sometime around the middle of this year! We’ll be keeping our fans updated via Facebook/Twitter/website etc.

BATO: Who would be your dream band to play with and why?
MR: Tough question! Each one of us would have a totally different answer for that! For me personally, I’d probably say Incubus is one of the main bands I’d love to play with. They just have such great songs and play so well live.