The Melmacs give you top notch PowerPop-Punk, combining jab jab guitars with a jub jub keyboard, pow pow drums and a boom boom bass that will butter your parsnips! A terrific potpouri, very nice, very evil, stabbing you in the back, blowing out your earwax, rising the sun with it‘s bare hands. Helmets and slippers required – Welcome to Planet Melmac!“ (In case you can't tell, these guys are German and wrote their own press release apparently, just joking, this is a fun interview though, for real!)
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
Max: The Melmacs formed on a hot summer night in November 2017. We were hanging out and goofing around with the idea of forming a band. Somehow we made it to the rehearsal room and started covering a few songs from bands we liked. We started with songs that featured a very deep voice because our singer Bimmi didn't know how to sing at first, but after a while she became more confident in what she was doing. She was also the one who brought her ferocious Roland keyboard to our rehearsal lair to spice up our sloppy music. As soon as we were done with a few songs, we invited some lovely schmucks to listen to the stuff we were cooking up, and that was when our bass player Remo joined us.
Bimmi: Our band name was chosen by our shaggy manager Alf, who wanted to honour his exploded home planet with it.
Alf: Hey Rhonda!!! If you're reading this! Please come and pick up my band and me, yeah?
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
Max: Connie, Remo and Me played in a band together before, but it's better to keep it a well-kept family secret what it was called. (No gatekeeping here, but in retrospect it was lousy music by a couple of young bloody freaks).
Remo used to play guitar in a band called Strg+Z, who we shared the stage with last year. Their style is very captivating! Listen to them and shake your head to their punk/wave sound!
Max: Some of us had the opportunity to start making music at an early age, some didn't but nevertheless we all have music in our bones since childhood. Whether we were shaking our butts to "Dj Bobo" in the sandbox in the 90s or subtly nodding our heads to "Eminem", discovering rock music from the German Democratic Republic in our parents' record collections or later going crazy for "Die Ärzte" - things really took off when we were 13 or 14. The first „rock“ instruments were bought to emulate the „heroes“, although we didn't really achieve anything more than annoying our parents with crooked sounds. Then, at some point, the first band experiences and then, at a later point, The Melmacs. Only Bimmi's path was a little different.
Bimmi: Things started early for me at the Bautzen District Music School. I played the Itsy-Bitsy Spider song on the flute, then I had piano lessons for years until I wanted to learn drums. But that didn't work out due to my weird neighbours. Many friends were in punk bands and played guitar, bass and drums. I sat in front of my bookshelf and my keyboard, which nobody needed in punk at the time. At concerts, I just played music in the audience until my voice was hoarse. It took some time till I was convinced to try to sing in a band.
Max: And we are very happy you tried it out!
First concert that you ever went to?
Max: Hmmm, I certainly went to a few concerts when I was a kindergarten kid, but I can't remember one in particular. The first concert I remember was when my dad took me to a Motörhead show when I was 12, it was a pretty sick experience back then. We were in the front row, my dad had his arms around me to protect me from the pogo dancers. Haha, it was loud! Either this concert or a Bonnie Tyler concert in a small town somewhere in East Germany, I don't know which was first!
Bimmi: I smuggled myself into the Chemiefabrik in Dresden for my first concert. I went there secretly by train, three local punk bands were playing. That same year, I went to a concert by the band DIE ÄRZTE, who are probably the most classic funpunk band you can get into the scene with here. And ok, I almost went to see the Rolling Stones. But just before that, of course, Keith Richards fell off a palm tree and the tour was cancelled. I financed it mostly by collecting bottle deposits. You get 25 cents for most plastic bottles here if you take them back to the supermarket. That didn't pay for my Stones ticket, but it did pay for a few secret tours to Dresden and Leipzig haha.
Connie: I can't remember the very first concert, there were too many local shows. but the first big concert was in Dresden in 2006, when the backyard babies played
What's your writing process like/What other artists or songs inspire your music?
Max: Someone has an idea, maybe a vocal line or a riff on bass or guitar. Then I try to do some kind of pre-production, get a rough feel for how the song should be, and usually send it to Bimmi, with whom I always play songwriting ping-pong. "What do you think of this?", "I had to change this, what do you think?", "Let's put an organ solo in here", "This part is boring, let's throw it out and try something else". When we're done with that, we show our Frankenstein to Remo and Connie, who always come up with their ideas to give the songs their own spin. There are a lot of artist I love and feel inspired by! I always do go trough phases, whats super cool today might not be able to float my boat a day later. I’m a very mood based writer and I’m constantly trying to improve my guitar writing. It’s mind boggling how some artist are able to write music that stays the same over their whole career. Nothing bad to say about it though, I just couldn’t do that! I’m just going with the flow not restricting myself too much. Sure I won’t release a Jazz album - at least not any time soon haha.
Bimmi: That's a question I find difficult to answer. I'm always doing something, and I'm sure it's subconsciously inspired by my 362 favourite bands, but more by the mood those bands put me in. I don't have any direct role models and just go for it. I get about 15 ideas a day popping into my head and some of them I forget after 3 seconds. The ones I still have in my head after half an hour I sing into my phone, which at first sounds like I'm trying to beatbox after drinking 8 Gin and tonic. After that, I usually try to throw something together on the organ and sing along to it in fantasy language so you get a better idea of the song. After that, I look for comparative pieces to show Max how it should go in terms of drive and mood." I have 568 of these snippets on my phone and most of them come to me when I actually have 26 other things to do.
Nevertheless, here is a list of some influences:
Biters - Well, the Biters were a love that struck like lightning!
The Hellacopters - There's always something nice to steal from these guys!
Caesars - What a crazy vibe! A perfect mix between melancholy and euphoria. They are proof that you can travel millions of miles with the guitar as a "texture giving element"!
Abba - Well ... I guess we don't have to tell you anything about them.
Baboon Show - THESE GUITAR ARANGEMENTS!
The Speedways - Powerpop heaven! Oh, and Adrian is one of those poor guys who gets asked when we're not sure if our English is correct. Haha Thanks Adrian!!!!
Thin Lizzy - vibe, voice and guitar licks for daaaaaaays! There's something special about old Philo pouring his heart out and singing.
Rudi - The whole Belfast punk scene of the 70s is a real diamond treasure. Check out the film "Good Vibrations". <3
L.A. Witch - Moooooood! Sade Sanchez's guitar playing is so gritty and twangy, Let's drown in that reverb!
Praying Mantis - Heavy metal has always been a big one in our musical ball park. Praying Mantis are the perfect mix of hard rocking and power popping!
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
Max: Ha! You really got us with that one! Well, I'm a sound engineer myself and I love recording MILLIONS! of overdubs, but we can only play one guitar live and we don't want to go that "half-playback way", so Remo always reminds me to keep it simpler when I'm climbing the tower of Def Leppard guitar productions. I don't mind if it's completely different live, as long as the voice convinces me and the hooks are the same.
Bimmi: I would add that live is of course a different thing, because we really put a lot of energy into it, there is more pressure in the music and we also let ourselves be carried away by the audience and our gigs are therefore energetically a different thing, but we also don't intend to sound 100 per cent like we do on record.
Has the band toured? What has the touring experience been, best shows? worst shows?
Bimmi: We totally like to hang out after concerts and get to know people better. For us, the title of "best show" doesn't depend on the size of the venue or the number of people, but rather on the environment: how does the audience accept us, do people get carried away, do we have fun after the show, how is the crew, are the other bands fun, etc.? For us it's important that we feel comfortable on a social level and that everyone appreciates each other and has fun. Those are usually the best shows. We were on the road a few times, but never really on tour. The longest leg we had was 3 shows in a row. We usually always meet great people on the road who are very grateful and generous. Thank you to everyone who has hosted us in the past and will continue to do so in the future! <3
Max: We’d love to play some more shows outside of germany in the future! Mixing holidays and playing in a band sounds like a crazy thing!
What's up next for the band?
Max: Playing shows, some festivals over the summer, writing and recording new songs - lets see?!
Bimmi: And always enough Pizza and Pets to pet in the backstage!
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