On his new album, Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then
By Frances Edwards-Hughes
Freshman year of college, they assigned me to work at the registrar’s office. Four days a week, you could find me in the basement of Jones, sitting behind the counter in the usually vacant hallway, picking up the phone when parents called with questions I didn’t know how to answer. My boss’s office was to the right of me, the door closed most of the time, with nothing but a dim light on inside and little orange shards darting out from behind her drawn blinds. Once or twice every shift, she’d come out to see what I was up to, give me a piece of paper to file, and nag me about listening to music. Check the emails if you don’t have anything to do, I remember her saying. I had these really shitty headphones that my sibling had given me in high school, and noise bled out when I wore them. You could be sitting across the room from me and hear every lyric. Slowcore music was the soundtrack to my first semester, and I’d stumbled upon “Pills (Bonus Track)” by Melaina Kol while putting together my first playlist for our college’s radio station. It was on repeat most days, perfect for in-between classes, perfect for playing out loud when my roommate wasn’t around, perfect for looking at my streetlight-cast shadow on night walks, and perfect for getting my writing out while I sat on my favorite bench to the left of the library. The lyrics were a part of me, made for me. I was 18 and I, too, wanted to be someone I wasn’t. But that was a long time ago. I don’t work that job anymore. At the start of my sophomore year, after a summer spent working outside, I knew I needed at least a window. My music taste shifted. I spent the majority of my time listening to soft, sweet-sounding folk, not giving in to old feelings. Yet three years after finding “Pills (Bonus Track),” senior year rolling around, I’m back to listening to Melaina Kol daily, this time to his new album, Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then. The album is experimental, eccentric, intimate, devastating, and, to me, hopeful—about getting better. I was lucky enough to talk with Melaina Kol and ask him about the process and intentions behind this project.
Frances: The first thing that I’d love to know, which you probably get all the time, is how your artist name came to be.
Melaina Kol: Well, I read it, and it translates to “Black Bile” in Greek. And that’s pretty edgy, but that’s what it is. I kind of just changed the spelling of it.
Frances: Is that something that you came across, or were you researching possible names?
Melaina Kol: I was into the Black Plague and reading about it, and it came up because black bile was produced through bloodletting. Doctors would bleed people to get bad blood out, and that was called black bile.
Frances: How long have you been releasing music?
Melaina Kol: I made music in high school. I would mostly just upload stuff to SoundCloud, though. I’d do recordings off my phone, and then eventually I got an interface and a mic and started doing it on the computer. I’ve always been into music; I played piano when I was younger.
Frances: At that point, were you still playing piano or had you switched to different instruments?
Melaina Kol: I started trying to teach myself guitar, doing stuff really poorly on it, you know, just trying to learn.
Frances: Is your family big into music, or was it something that you came into on your own?
Melaina Kol: No, they really aren’t. I think my mom played the clarinet in high school, but that’s as far as it goes.
Frances: At the beginning of your musical journey, which artists inspired you?
Melaina Kol: For the stuff I was making, I was really into Alex G, Teen Suicide, Coma Cinema, and Fog Lake. Those were really who I was inspired by, especially in high school.
Frances: Would you say that those bands and artists are still big inspirations for you now, or have you shifted?
Melaina Kol: I’ve shifted more now. It’s kind of hard for me to listen to anything with a guitar in it. As far as my personal listening goes, I listen to a lot of ambient and electronic stuff.
Frances: Where are you based, and what’s the music scene like?
Melaina Kol: I’m out in Nashville. When I moved here, there was seemingly nothing going on except country music, but now there are a lot of bands and a lot of younger people in bands, which is really cool. There are a lot of good house shows going on—really organic.
Frances: I’d love to hear about your new album and the buildup to it. I know it’s been a while since your last release. What were you up to in the meantime, and what was the push like to get music out again?
Melaina Kol: From the time I released my last album, I started playing with the band, and we wrote songs for that. That took a couple of years. And then for this album, I literally started last year because I thought, “Oh, do I need to release something?” But I wanted to do something different than just guitar. So I taught myself, to an extent, cello and harp. I wanted to do something in that realm, piano too, so it wasn’t just guitars. I just slowly started creating those songs.
Frances: What was it like teaching yourself those new instruments? I imagine that was a big pursuit.
Melaina Kol: Yeah, especially cello. Cello is really hard because there are no frets, and I was having a lot of trouble with the bowing technique. I kind of learned it only to the point where I could record with it. I don’t think I could sit down and play a whole song for someone.
Frances: Do you think you’ll continue playing those new instruments in future projects?
Melaina Kol: I’d like to. I want to do string arrangements and stuff. Actually, I just bought a violin, so the next thing will probably be violin.
Frances: Very cool. Where did the title of the new album come from?
Melaina Kol: The title came from an animated movie called When the Wind Blows. It’s about an old English couple during a nuclear war hunkering down in their house together. I was watching that on my phone with subtitles on, accidentally took a screenshot, and that phrase was on the screen. I thought, “Oh, that’s kind of cool.”
Frances: Is there something you hope listeners take away from the album, or a feeling you were trying to evoke?
Melaina Kol: I feel like it’s lyrically really hopeful, and I hope that comes across. A lot of the songs aren’t very lyrical at all, so I think the texture of it can come across a certain way as well. I wrote a lot of the songs in the summer, so it kind of feels like summer to me. I would say a hopeful message overall.
Frances: Is that message representative of a personal shift as well?
Melaina Kol: Yeah, definitely. While I was making the last album, I was extremely manic, taking a bunch of stuff, and kind of going insane, and I don’t feel like that now.
Frances: I’m curious about your collaborative process, both when working with featured artists and in the studio.
Melaina Kol: Yeah, the studio I went to is where my roommate works, so he was able to get us a bunch of free studio time. He’d just ask if I was free when space was open. He’s also really talented and works with MGK and stuff, so I’m really lucky. As far as collaborations go, a lot of people in my band played different instruments. Olivia was a huge part too—she did a feature on one of the songs, and then I asked if I could sample her voice across the rest of the album. So that’s where a lot of the vocal sounds come from.
Frances: How did the collaboration with Olivia come to be?
Melaina Kol: We met through playing shows together, and she mentioned she’d love to work on something. We’ve actually been working on stuff together for two or three years now, though none of it is out yet. I did some work on one of her songs last year, and we have an electronic project coming out hopefully someday.
Frances: What does the live setup look like for the new album?
Melaina Kol: Basically, I’m transcribing everything to guitar to the best of our ability, because some of this stuff is kind of hard to tackle. There are some songs we probably won’t ever play live, but we figured out most of them on guitar. It sounds a little different, but similar.
Frances: Are you planning to play some shows soon? Any new projects you’re working on?
Melaina Kol: I’m doing a tour in California with Tex Petrello and Fish Hunt. As far as albums go, the full-band album I mentioned is almost done recording. It’s just taking us forever, but it should be out as soon as our label lets us.
Frances: Do you have a personal favorite track off the album?
Melaina Kol: Probably the opening one, “Bleeder.” It was a struggle to play cello, so I’m really proud of that one.
Frances: Do you feel like there’s anything else about the album that you would want listeners to know?
Melaina Kol: I’d want people to know that it was really fun to make.
Frances: Do you see yourself continuing to focus on music?
Melaina Kol: Yeah, definitely. I’m sitting on a lot of stuff and trying to put it out. Some of it I’ll probably put out under another project name, but yeah, I think the future is bright.
Frances: I love it; I think so too. I appreciate you taking the time. Your songs get a lot of play on our station, for sure.
Melaina Kol: That’s very cool. Thanks for making it happen.
Check out Melaina Kol’s new album, Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then, released by Julia’s War Recordings. The nine-track album runs 29 minutes and is available on all major streaming platforms. Follow him on Instagram at @Melaina_Kol for updates.
Photos by Rory Bolinger