R and B Money.
We are.
Than take Valanti. We are the authority and ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tank, I'm Valentine and this it's the Army Money Podcast, the a thort on all things R and B. Stays of this ship.
Because it's probably for It's probably sh if you stay up too.
Ladies. Came right up at the strip club. You're damn right, and I know it kills you. Ladies and gentlemen. Nothing but talent, beauty and grace on the pot today. Give it up, melody.
Yeah.
Last we've been saying we're gonna do this.
Listen, I've been at your house.
I just randomly walk up to her, like, how.
Come you have been on the podcast? I was like, we're coming.
You have the nigga house man chilling, drinking, kids playing.
I'm like, I agree, it's harder to get like our personal friends on the podcast.
What is that about? I don't I don't know, I don't know you know what I think, But I think I know you were waiting.
It was I was waiting.
You wanted to connect it to to some cool ship. You know what. Let me, let me, let me, let me roll out. Come on, because because I give out because I want to. I want to roll.
We don't usually follow no rules, but he gonna go ahead and get it.
No, no, no, because because because this is this is the beginning of the pod. They're tuned in right now, right now, right now, right now. You know what I'm saying. If they don't stay on for the next hour and a half, two hours, we got them right now. Okay, singles Say Yes and I Choose.
You Yes new singles.
Just give me a little bit about those two records.
Oh Say Yes is like my artful offering. It is a completely live song produced by Dre Harris ThunderCats playing bass, Charlie Barrell guitar, Chris Dave on drums. Sir Co wrote this song singing backgrounds. I mean this is like I feel music lovers like gonna be their favorite song, Like they just can appreciate what it is. And the truth is the song is a seven minute song, but what we released is only four minutes. Oh yeah, we want. I wanted to give. First of all, the song is
about saying yes to love. It's about stepping over fear. It's about being really vulnerable, hard in hand. But the mood and the energy of the vibe because it was a live session. It's just so sexy that it was like, you want to you want to do something in seven minutes, keep going going, So whatever anybody wants to do in seven minutes when they listen to say yes, get it done. I love that you count listen, you can Okay, you got to say yes in seven minutes, So I really
love say yes. It's such a vibe. It's such a just a beautiful, I think, vulnerable story. And I wrote it about, you know, being in the space of when I first started dating my husband and we were we were doing this dance of we love each other, but we're scared, we're both out of relationships and what do we want to do and so we have to say yes. And so I also feel like it's a manifestation song because we had to get to our life by saying yes that we are now and then I choose you
is just fun. It's just that it's for the lovers. Again. I wanted to make a song that people could play at their weddings. But it's like Lover's Rock Waiting in Vain by Bob Marley vibe and it's about the empowerment of choice and what it is and what it means to choose someone you know, to make the choice, to choose love, to choose yourself, to choose to show up how you need to in that relationship through all the
whatever it is. So you know, it's like, I choose you to me is just such a powerful statement every time I've ever heard that. When I think about it. Ryan Leslie wrote a song called I Choose You, and it was always one of my favorite things, and I actually said it in my wedding vows. So I turned it into a song and it's something that people could dance to and rock to and smoke to or whatever. It's just a vibe.
Just look at you out here making real life music memory. Yes, that's what it should be.
But that's what it should be. But you know what the thing is is that I think that it would be a travesty if I just came out after all this time, not putting on music and was singing about some shit that people were like, that's not her life.
People know my life, you know, people have seen, they've asked, they've wondered, they've supported me through different these different iterations of myself from podcasting to motherhood, to being a woman, to transitioning into motherhood, all the things, like people have been with me on that I'm now a wife, I'm a business woman, I'm an entrepreneur and still an artist
and a musician. So I think it's only honest for people to get insight, true authentic insight into the feelings and the experiences that have been happening all this time.
And I think there's a there is an entertainment part of what this is, but I think the movie of it all is your life, you know what I mean, the sitcom of it all, it is your life, which, ultimately, if we think about the things that have entertained us the most, it it's always been family based for us. It always been the Huxables, It's always been Fresh Prince of bel Air, It's always been Martin, It's always where It's like, it's life.
It's life, you know what I mean. See Like, I'm also just in a very positive space in my life, and love is to me just the ultimate connector. It is the ultimate energy, It's the ultimate feeling, and so I just want to inject more of that into the world right now, you know, Like that's that I feel. I have a responsibility to do and I feel like
I've done that in different ways with other songs. They've been heartbreak songs or you know, like really like pleading ballads, and that helps people understand love in a different way. But this project and these songs particularly, I really wanted to inject love and high vibration and have people smile when they hear it and send it to people when they hear it. So that's sound bath Oh yeah, okay, we be sound bathing.
One time they invited me to the sound Bad.
That's actually good. You know you know what people say that like no, because I'm telling you, when I first started.
They left me though everybody left.
They're respecting, they're respecting the grounding.
They said, you know what cooked, because you know what.
The thing is is that that's how you wake up on a place. But you know what, there is something really beautiful about that because your body is just telling you like you've actually released and relaxed.
I don't.
Canepa listen if we stop talking right now for five minutes.
You know, I'm not narcalyptic, but I get comfortable, like I'm I'm I live in comfort.
Don't go to the movies, movies.
Do you dream Gone? Do you dream?
Yeah? Okay, he goes straight to R E. M Fast. I love He's gone. You don't got to worry about it about melon.
I'm from the hood. I think everybody that do sh is a dophie. I don't funk with nothing.
I'm like, you do what?
Oh nigga? You?
Oh my god? No, I mean I love that for you.
Sleeping is It's really tough for a lot of people. Yes, yeah, so now it is absolutely again. Today is is today? The release date of No.
The two songs are already out. Okay, two songs are out, Yes, but there are two songs ahead of a six song EP that's coming out at the top of the year, Beautiful Yes. And the AP is also called say Yes.
I think like I mean, and we've had this conversation before. I think, like what you do, how you articulate it, like the energy of it all is is so needed. And I say this a lot because I got this from from one of one of my friends, Jason. He was just like, when when the really talented people, when the really great and amazing people take breaks, that's that's
when the imbalance happens. And for the people for the young people who are growing up with these gifts and these talents and need something or someone to hang on to, someone to help inspire and guide their way. When we're not present, they fall victim to the other side. And nothing wrong with whatever that is over there. I respect it. You know, whatever you gotta do to get off the shelf and get out the good or live whatever dream
you're trying to live, I respect it. But there's something about our calling that is different to people who are like us. And just hearing you talk knowing your talent, you know what I mean, Like, there's a there's a fucking difference like your your your vibration and your energy is connected to something so amazing that we just we just don't need no Melanie Fiona breaks.
Melanie Fiona needed some breaks.
And I respect it and I respect it on you know.
What it is is that I think and I appreciate you for those kind words, Thank you so much, because I feel that in order for me to truly live in my greatest purpose, I needed to protect myself and I needed to refocus, and I needed to ask myself what do I want my life to look like? And I think that that's something that as artists we don't sometimes give ourselves permission to do because we're so focused on making a living, so we forget that like our
life is actually the thing. Our life's purpose and our life's work is to take our whole life. So sometimes we take time. And I've been saying this a lot of people because like i've been now that I'm back in like the promo run circle, a lot of artists are coming to me, like new artists, younger artists, and they're like, so happy you're back putting out music and you know, and I'll be like, how are things going
for you? And they're like, yeah, you know, I just I'm trying to find I got to work on this next project. And I'll say, you know, I was like, take you time. It's yours to take, you know, it's yours to take. And too often we just feel like we're on this demand of time and if we're not in it, then we're out of it. And it's like there's a I think for me, and I'll speak for myself, it's that I've always felt timeless. I've never felt trendy or current or like you know, too old or too young.
My spirit has always felt like I've always just been in my right time, and just as long as I'm being true to who I am and what I want to do, then there'll always be a place for it, you know. And I think the expectations of starting and having a really strong foundation, you know, having a success as far as what it is, numbers wise or accolades, and I've experienced that and I recognized that that's a blessing as well, Like it's also afforded me the choice to decide how I want to shape my life.
You know.
So maybe if I didn't achieve some of the things that I had, I might still be like I gotta, I gotta. But when I got there and I realized there was more to my well being and more that I had to offer than I had to really ask myself, like what do I want my life to look like?
You know?
So I won't be taking any more breaks as.
Far as take your time just the tickets. I just know the people are watching it, you know what.
And that's why I wanted to put out two singles out the gate, because it had been a while and I wanted to give you know, just not just And that's the beautiful thing about music and just the landscape of music right now, like there's no rules and I'm independent and I can and I can do that. You know, so so of your company love Link Link, Love Link Music. It's my my children's middle names, Hi Love and Cameron Lincoln. So love Link music.
That sounds like that sounds like a piece of jewelry for sure. That is it.
Do you know what?
You better manifest it because because jewelry is in my creative wheelhouse, love Link it is. It is. Oh my gosh, listen you guys. This is just I love it. I'm so happy. And by the way, like I've just been in a very powerful, energetic season of my life. So I receive everything as affirmations. I receive everything is confirmation and divine. So the fact that you're saying that when I'm in this season of already in creation and ideation of that is just like yeah, yeah, here we are.
We are Yeah, so.
Oh we get comfortable, Hannah, let me adjust.
Okay, when did when did someone say or when did you realize that you had something different?
Mm hmmm. I think I realized it when I was four years old.
You realized it when you were for explain that.
So when I said, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said I wanted to be a singing nurse. And I have carried that very cute title for the majority of my life, thinking what a cute idea. And it was only until I really started to recognize how I was impacting people through healing when I was putting out music, that I realized, Oh, my four year old self, she already knew what I was supposed to be. She already knew that I was supposed to be this blend of music and healing in
this person. She said it, and I've written it in books as a child, my parents told me, family members and every time I used to say that growing up, like what did you want to be? Did you always know you want to be a singer? And I was like, yeah, when I was little, I used to say I want
to be a singing nurse. But then I realized it when I first started putting out music, and it kills me came out, and that to me was like, oh, this has already been written for you, and your four year old self knew this about you.
Had you already been singing like in church or just so.
So I grew up immigrant parents, Guyanese household. My parents are from the Caribbean. My dad played guitar. He used to sing in a band on the weekends and evenings like this was a thing. So I grew up with music in the house. But my dad also worked the day job. My dad and my mom worked full time jobs. And I didn't grow up in the industry or even grow up singing in church like I didn't.
But the music was in that.
But the music was in the house, you know. But the idea of becoming a professional singer, especially coming from Toronto, like that wasn't a thing that we saw, you know, we knew about it, but we didn't see it from where we were. We knew America and we knew the world. But in Canada, like as a kid growing up, like we knew Celine Dion and then eventually we would go on and then in R and B you would see Glenn Lewis and you'd see Deborah Cox and Tamia and
then you're like, oh, wait a second. But growing up as a little girl, like I knew I wanted to sing, but I didn't know how I was going to get there, you know. I didn't know how I was going to get there. But I was also really active in a lot of things. I played sports. I loved school. Oh I played basketball, I played volleyball, track and field, cross county free. I kept myself busy. My mom and dad called me Dion Diannis. I would just come home and
don't ask for permission. I just be like I joined the volleyball team, and mom would be like, well, how are you gonna like who's going to take you?
Like who?
I joined every team I could. I was a very very active child as far as like wanting to try things, very precocious, very outgoing, you know. But when it came to singing, I was so shy. Like I knew I could sing, and everybody knew I could sing. But when you have the family function, melody come sick. I would make everyone turn around.
That that direct something about that direct contest just not cool? Look away, yeah, look.
Don't look at me. Don't look at me, and I would look up and I didn't want to be looked at. It was really interesting to think about that because now performing is like my favorite thing, like give put me on stage, please, But I didn't want to be looked at, which is really interesting. So you know, going through the process of like teenage years. And then even when I was a teenager, I'd gone through some like really hard things.
Around twelve thirteen, I'd lost like my best friend to a car accident, we moved, my grandmother passed away, like there was a lot of life changes, and I felt like at that time, my light went like this, and I kind of became a different shell of myself. And so when I started high school and you had the opportunity to choose music or art, I chose art, and I didn't do music. And it's almost like this thing that I didn't I wasn't sharing anymore. I wasn't singing.
No one really knew when I first started high school that I could sing like I did the play, and it was kind of like, eh, like maybe maybe. And then it was only until like my senior year when I started to ask myself what do I want to do with my life? And then I was like, you're a singer, Melanie, Like you're good at sports, you're smart, you could do all the but you're a singer, Like that's the thing you do better than anything, So why not why hide that? Like, why not bring that into
actually who you are? And why not that be the thing that everybody really knows about you, because that's who you are, like the singing nurse. You know, you've known this about yourself. Why hide this part of yourself? So then I started to sing that I was in the talent show, and then I started showing more publicly that I can sing, and then that led me to kind of getting into the music industry.
But and then in Toronto, are not just Toronto, but in.
Canada, isn't there something set up for the arts as far as like the.
Government, so there is, there's funding that you can get. There's grants, like but you have to apply and you have to get chosen, and you have to you know, you have to do that. And like I was at that time as a teenager, like I wasn't even thinking about pursuing a career. Okay, you know, I really wasn't. Like I was just like, okay, like I'm gonna I'm gonna own that I that I can sing. So when I say that, like I kind of stepped away from it.
I it wasn't my whole identity where you know, some people are like Oh she was singing her whole life, church and in all things. You know. So so when I actually got into the music industry, I was just out of high school and I had joined the Gold Group in Toronto, and.
You got to get in a group started.
Did it really happened if hit us with the name us, with the name Exquisite? Yeah, yeah, just xx come on, come on dash to you.
Yeah, quiz quiz like that.
So that's how we got started. And it's fun.
Did it come along with a bankhead bounce?
You know? Did it kind of came along with like a little bogel. We were like a little pop army group. But it was funny because that introduction for me too was like I never saw myself being in a group, but I had the opportunity to get into a studio and I was I was like, I've never been in a studio, like eighteen years old. Yeah, let's go.
I want to go into this point.
You had never sang never in the never never And Okay for the people that don't understand what that is, yeah, give them the difference from like you know, you singing at school, you singing around the house, this, this, that and the other to the moment you're getting that studio, you get that playback and you get to hear yourself.
Oh yeah, you get to hear yourself. And then also you sing it over and over and over and over again because you didn't.
I mean in the old days.
Yeah, no, I don't know.
Now they just be yeah, whatever whatever come out, we keep it.
You know.
It's so funny.
I can fix that, you know what.
God bless technology. But I really I'm still one of those people that's like, no, I feel like I could get it better. I still do. I don't want to rely on it too hard, but that but that's the truth is like getting into the studio, that was the first time I got to hear myself on radio, like on record, so so you know, and then also to being in a girl group dynamic. Now I'm hearing myself compared to other voices. How does my voice blend, how do we blend together? What does my voice bring to
a song when it comes on a record. So it really started to teach me a lot about my particular voice as opposed to just being a singer. You're a good singer, you can sing really well, you love what you used, didn't me too, but you sing really well harmonies, you gotta jail. And then also you know, just learning about the business with sisters or like who became sisters. I mean one of the girls I'm still very very close friends with, And it was like it was like
training camp. It was like you know, boot camp basically, and I quickly learned that I just wasn't going to be in the group. The business around that whole situation was just terrible and it just fell apart quickly, and you know, we never went on to do anything. We had, Like the one song that came out, we did local success in Toronto, did a little television show up there.
It was cool.
But that really gave me the the introduction to I think people then in the industry paying attention to me as a singer. And then that's what led me to then meet my at the time would become my manager, who was from the States, who knew somebody in the music industry in Toronto. And then that's how I crossed the border. After that, that's how I left home, and that's how I started to establish my career. And then I came out here and then I started working.
So how did you mean you had across the border.
Oh, I had to cross the border. Yes, so I'm from Toronto.
Were you saying I need to I need to go there, Yes, in order to really figure this out.
O coming to America.
It's coming to America. Yeah, I mean this is a story that if you talk to most Canadian artists that are successful outside of Canada, this is that was always the goal back then, you know, like to leave to get noticed and achieve success and establishment in the United States. Like this was the mecca of that, you know, all R and B, all hip hop. We didn't have b et growing up, Like we didn't have MTV. We had much music, you know, so it's very much music. I'd music,
much music, which I don't even think exists anymore. It's like it's you know, it's interesting. And then especially for
R and B, what are we talking about. I remember being a kid and we used to get WBLK for Buffalo, which was the R and B station, and you could only get it in the car, so we would listen to That's how we got R and B. And then there was like the college stations that were starting to you know, the DJs would come and run their own sets and then That's how we got And I had a brother who was seven years older than me, so he gave me a lot of music education because he
was in the clubs when I was listening to Disney, you know, So it was it was different. But going to the States, that was that was it like you gotta flight, you gotta go, you gotta take a meeting, you know. I got to meet people that I dreamed of hearing. But like just getting into the studio that was crazy. But again, the boot camp of the girls group really helped me not be completely lost and it helped me. It was the stepping stone to prepare for
the American music industry. So yeah, so it was and I know, we got away from.
The you know, you were coming across.
The border, yees. So I came across the border and then I came across and then it was like, all right, what's your sound? And I was like, a sound, I'm a voice, there's a sound we have to do. So the first producer that I ended up getting in with was Super Dupes, and Dupes at the time was a part of a sound called Black Chinese, which was a reggae collect just completely reggae collective and I started there because being Caribbean, of Caribbean background, coming from Toronto, that's
my juice. That's what I know. R and B, like this fusion of R and B and reggae, and so that's where I started. And I started as an artist named Siren. Huh yes, and that was my first artist name, Siren. Yeah, but it's like a it's like a play on symphony. Siren is my homeboy that was in Toronto at the time. He was a rapper and he gave me that and he used to call me Symphony. And then Siren came along with the Sirens and they're the vocalists, and so
that's how that you like that. Then I found out it was a porn star and I had to change that name.
So then that's probably why he liked it. I wasn't gonna say nothing.
I didn't know it spoke to you though, would you say about like the cards? And then did you say something that just in the.
Very young brand? But yeah, So so I started making music with with in like his house, and again it was very intimate and I learned a lot again about singing and we were creating music. And then I got in with Mike City and that early early, and then I got in with Mike City and Mike's City was it was like studying under a master. Then I realized I didn't know shit. Like then I was like, oh,
I got to learn a lot. I have to learn a lot, and Mike taught me a lot and we created some amazing records and Mike's City when I first got brought to him, Mike City said to me he was listening to me singing because we were like chopping it up at first, and then you know, you have that meeting and then they're like, all right, let me hear you say something, right, So then I sang something and Mike City just stopped and he goes, damn, you could sing. I don't know what I was expected to
hear you sing. And he's like, but you know what's really special about you mail? He says your tone. And that was the first time I understood why I loved artists like India Ari and Sam Cook, Gladys Knight.
Tone.
There's a tone, and so Whitney, I mean, Whitney Houston to me is the sweetest tone. So so when Mike City said that, then again I came back to the singing nurse. Who are you? What are you going to be? What is your voice? What do you? What do you represent? And then I was like, you got you got a tone, so don't worry about anything else. Your tone is your identity. Stay that.
So that's but you don't have a you don't have a deal or anything.
You just you're going to make am.
I'm going to make demos, going to make demos. And in that time too, and in that time too, like I can't even forget. I'm there's so much I went through in that time, like started working with the underdogs, even in that time too, being that the underdog is a Harvey Harvey over there taking me in and singing backgrounds on like movie scores and using my voice in that way, and meeting James Fontler Roy for the first time, you know, and being like, you're incredible. You're an incredible person.
And I want to share this story too because I always I always want to say this because James font Lore to me is just the goat. According to this podcast, I'm the coldest motherfuckers ever live. There will be what did he say? There will be a chill in the air after I'm gone. One of the hardest lines that's ever been said. But truly I met James in that time too, and you know, you know what James said to me, and it never never left me. He said, he said, I don't want to write like one of
the biggest songs in history. And this is before he had any like big cuts, this is before no air, this is before all of that. And he was like, I want to write one of the biggest songs ever. Now. We were right across the street from that studio, that wing Spot, you know that wing Spot used to be across from that, and we were eating and he was like, yeah, I want to write one of the biggest songs. And I was like, He's like, I want to write a song like his biggest happen be birthday. I want people
everywhere in the world to sing my song. And I just remember being like they will, Like I just saw the greatness in James Fauntleroy just at Knubie coming into the game, being like what and he was just so kind and so sweet, and I was like, oh my God, like your your greatness. So like I was around a lot of amazing people from from the Underdog's Dupes and and Mike's city and theot these times when I didn't have a deal, and this is how I'm being introduced
to the music industry. Like I was just so happy to be there. Yeah, so happy to be there. You know, all of this is happening in La. All this is happening in LA. And then and then I and then I pivoted to New York.
First.
I came to LA first, Okay, because it would seem like it would make more sense to go to New York first.
Yeah, because my team at the time was based in LA. And so actually when I first, very very very first left La Toronto, I went to Oakland. I went to the Bay Area because my manager at the time she was from Oakland and so she kind of dropped me off there and was like, Hey, you're going to go into like artists development, and so I was taking dance classes. I was really working on like body movement and performance.
Like I was learning about all the things that goes in which is a dying art these days.
Yeah, but it's the reason why you're still here.
Yeah, shout out, shout out to the real ones. So that's what I'm saying. Like there was a lot of development in finding where I was going to, Where was my creative team, Where did my voice live? What songs
that I want to sing? And I remember I remember sitting on the floor in a hotel room with my manager at the time, and we were sitting there and we were taking these meetings, and there was like this disconnect from people not really knowing what to do with me vocally or production wise or whatever, like labels, like what do we do? What do we do? And then it was when I went to New York and then I linked up with Andrea Markin and that's where the
sonic that became the amazing, amazing legendary. May she rest in Paradise forever?
Am?
I mean that I get very emotional thinking about her because I finally found someone who understood me and knew what to do with my voice. And again I was just so grateful to be under someone so gifted and talented. And she was also Guyanese and she was in New York, and we understood each other. She had a big voice like me, She could sing and write anything, so she really took me under her wing. And then I felt like I had found my musical collaborator. And that's the
birth of it kills me. And that's the birth of the whole first album, The Bridge, And you know, she understood what it was, that what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a big voice, but I was a young girl and I wanted to not be labeled into one box and I wanted to bridge genres. And I grew up listening to Sam Cook and Lauren Hill and so I wanted to wrap and do throwback retro mixed with R and B and hit like I Want. And she just got it and she understood it, and
that's really what the first album was about. It was called The Bridge because there were so many different sonics on there, bridging genres, bridging time, eras, bridging you know, conversations, and it was just it was a really important time. So that was a lot of late nights in the studio.
Are you living in New York at this point?
No, I'm still living in Toronto. I'm still living in Toronto, and I'm just going back in and living sleeping on my uncle's couch and hotels when there's a budget for it, or like at.
The point you signed, Wait, so you you did it kills me before you signed?
So I did it kills me. Before I signed Oh wow, yes, yeah, I was signed to a production company.
Yeah, the production company, the managers, they knew a lot of.
People, they really, they really did. And you know, and shout out to Jay Brown too, he was a part of that, because he was a part of that. He's the one who brought me to Mike Mike City, you know. So there was there was a lot of people who and and that's one of the reasons why my mom was, like my Guyanese mother who never let me do anything, was like, I guess I'm gonna let you go explore
what this looks like, you know. And I think about that even too, Like my parents only knew anything about education, you know, Like, what do you mean you're going to pursue music. I mean, my dad artist hard artist at heart for sure, but you know, the idea of pursuing a career in music, Like for my family, I'm the first to even think about that, right. It's my parents didn't have a television growing up, you know what I mean.
So like that's that's that's a crazy thing. So you know, even now, going back to my parents giving me the permission and the grace to go knowing that they were probably terrified to let me do that, you know, and put all your eggs in this basket of music and what does that mean?
You know?
And by the way, this is the craziest part. I was doing college at the same time.
You actually did go to school.
I did go to school. I was doing college at the Saint So after the Girl Group, I said to my parents, if it didn't work out, I was going to go to college. So I started college. And then during college is when I met my production management company. And then I left And so then I was going back and forth and doing all these things during breaks or like summers or like whatever. I had some time.
And how long is that process from leaving Toronto still in school, but then getting your deal.
It was about four years? About four years? Yeah, four years.
This whole time you're still living and I'm still living at home.
Yeah, I'm still living at home.
You know.
When I came to the States, I would crash at my manager's house or like I had family in New York. I would crash with them. And then you know, when I started shopping, we got it kills me, recorded it kills me, and we were like, all right, it's time, it's time to go, time to go for the d and uh. And we took those songs and we went into these meetings, and I took a bunch of meetings and played it Kills Me for a bunch of labels, and a lot of them did not know.
Next question, next question.
They didn't know, they didn't see it, they didn't know. And then I was in there singing that song too, so it's not like, can you really do this? No, I'm singing it, so you know. It was I think a lot of the feedback and not even I think I know because they said it. They were like, you don't like you. These songs feel too grown for you, like too old for you, Like you're like R and B like big Ballad, Like why do you want to do that when you could be more of a pop art?
And I was like, because I'm a singer, you're too talented. I'm a sing because I want to sing. I want to sing, Like why I don't want to not sing? I want to sing. I want to Like do you know who I used to fall asleep to?
Is?
I used to listen to Whitney Hugh. I used to dream about having a voice like that what Like, So now I get it kills me? And I'm like, I'm finally singing to the capacity in the range that I know I can, and you're telling me that I shouldn't. And it was just so disappointing. It was really heartbreaking until I met Steve Rifkin and I walked into SRC Records and we played it Kills Me, and he played it kills Me thirteen times in that meeting, thirteen times
back to Beck to Beck. He was so excited. He was so excited, and he just said, oh no, you can't leave. I have a showcase tomorrow. You need to be in it. He was doing a showcase for his New Towns because SRC had just started and it was cra Acon was on the label. Tammy Chin who else Chantelle French Montana was like a part of that whole, Like it was like a hole. It was crazy. Asher Roth like this was like a you know, and Steve
came from hip hop. So now I'm walking in as this R and B girl into this you know, hip hop label, and I'm like, what am I going to do here? But he got it. He had the passion, He had the the yes like yes, yes, yes, we're doing this, and he didn't let me leave and I stayed that weekend and he gave me a contract that weekend. He had the paperwork sent over and he was like, I want you to make the album that you want to make. He said, go make it. He said, go
make it. And then we finished making the Bridge. And that's how we finished making the Bridge shout out, you know, still doing it too, like you know, and Steve just was so supportive, like everything that we wanted to do. Like Steve was like, yeah, let's go. You need to go on this tour. Okay, cool, you know, like all the things. But you know, one funny fact is after I got my record deal and I went back home, I got stuck in Canada and I couldn't come back
to the state. Well not, I overstayed it because now, like I had been going back and forth, you know, I wasn't working technically, you know, so now look at this. So now I'm going to immigration to go back and they're like what are you going to do? And I'm like, oh, I'm going to finish my album and they're like your album and I'm like yeah, and they're like, you're a recording artist. And I was like, yeah, like I got a record deal. And they were like, where's your visa?
I was like, what what do you mean, cat? I was like, I got a visa, I got a mastercre No.
They they were like, you have a recording, you have a contract, like you you are, you're your your intention is to make money. We can't let you into this country. You have a contract. And I was like, but like I was traveling with my documents, Like I was like, no, I'm legitimate, like I.
They were like, I just didn't.
I didn't know. I didn't know, and no one really knew at the time. And so then I was stuck in Canada for eight months no, while my visa was getting cleared.
Yeah it's eight months months.
So all you had to do, though is just be like I'm just going yeah, but you know, I could have I could have said that, but if at that reason they had then like because if there was press or anything that had gotten released and they had found it, then I'd have been really really so they you know. So so that also then was like momental momental momentum, and it was like oh, slow down again, slow down, So you know, it was it was an interesting time, but we ended up getting the work visa. Then became
an Alien of Extraordinary Ability on a O one. I love that title forever. Yeah, that's what A one is, an Alien of extraordinary ability. So back to what you were asking, that was another time somebody said you're extraordinary. The government told me alien of extraordinary ability. But you know, it was a whole bunch of petitioning and like people had to be like, yeah, we vouch for her, the label, all that's stuff. So no, it was a eight eight months, eight months.
Eight months. I mean, somebody just needs to look on the desk and is harmless. So the goddamn paper it was.
It was a lot of surprise.
It was.
It wasn't listen, it's immigration, as we know, a hot topic these days, it is, for sure. So so yeah, so you know, so then I got my visa and then I was down here and then it was just like all right, let's go, let's go finish the album, finish the bridge.
And so for that eight months though you're not recording, you're not doing you just know home.
I'm home, I'm recording in my closet.
You got your little jail, b.
I had my little jail bid. Yeah, have you got a little.
Money in your pocket though too? Because you got your you got.
A couple of dollars, a couple of dollars, a couple of dollars.
You didn't move out, stayed stay in parents house.
Now do people know, like you know, people know, like in your commune, your circle knowed, you know, you got to you kind of you kind of popping down and they did.
But I'm still living at my mama's house, so like you know, it's like but also you have to remember I'm Canadian, so like it's very very humble, very like yeah, like at that time, it's nice, Oh my god, I got got money. I was paying off debts. That's what I did with my money because I was responsible. Okay I was. I'm not and that is why we were both. That is why you are you and you are great for being you.
Debts the strip club.
I am a young woman in my early twenties. Like in my parents' house, they are immigrants, remember, Like there was no flashing, Like there was nothing I was flashing, but I was recording in my closet and because I had actually put out, I had put out a reggae song called Somebody come get me first. It's like a single off of like a one off that was on like reggae gold and no I was, no I was.
So they put it out under siren because because uh, that's how I recorded it, and it was so not not that sor sion Tank knows a different siren.
Now, okay, I don't know who that is.
I don't know who that is. Sorry to that woman, now you curious, don't do it.
Don't do it.
But yes, there was a song. And so what I was doing in that time was I was recording doub plates in my in my closet for all the reggae sounds and all the you were cooking. I was cooking with my clothes being the sound. It was wild. There's wild times. But yeah, then I got stuck and then I came out to the stage. Year this is two thousand and eight.
Oh wow, okay, yeah, so.
You are already out of the second group that we didn't mention the Oh.
It wasn't really a group. Everybody loves this story, but it's not really replied. Go ahead, because everybody asked the love it. It's a good sound bite.
Yeah, you're like a fake group.
I was in a fake group. I was in a collective, a collective collective. I was in a collective with with Drake. Okay, guys, let's let's get it out there, because it's all over the good and anyways. But yeah, this was before he was rapping. This was before I had a deal. And my manager, my manager at the time, like we had all connected again, remember the people that I told you that and then my manager throw they had all connected
us with a bunch of people. And then I had met Drake when he was just on television but was embarking into rap. And so we would do these little live performances at this like supper club in Toronto.
And but never recording anything.
Never recorded anything, just live. We'd cover songs, we'd perform our own records, like some of the songs that I was recording and demoing, and that's what I was doing in the States. I would practice some of those songs, singing them live. And there was another vocalist in there by the name of Voice, and then a keyboard player named d Ten who still plays it goes on tour
with with Drake. But it was a really beautiful time because for me, I felt like I had known of the cardinal officials, you know what I mean, like those Yeah, Julie Black's like Socrates and Chocolate Air and these dudes in Toronto, and then of course Deborah Cox and to me and all the Canadians that had come before me. But I didn't have my own like crew, okay outside
of the girl group when we first started. But that time was just really beautiful to meet other artists in the city that were just so talented and clearly talented because he's gone on to become who he is, So you know, again, that's a really another another story. It's crazy. I always forget there's so many really beautiful stories in the chapters until people ask, you know. And that was a part of that too. So you know, we never we we have always had visions of going to and
that was before the Mike Citi era era. That was right going into the Mike City era. So that was that was a really like educational time, like a really fun time just to perform live in the city.
And are you performing R and B stuff? Are you performing more dance?
No, I'm performing R and B. I'm performing R and B. So when I worked with Dopps, that was just what we were creating the song, like had R and B had reggae vibes, but I was still singing R and B melodies, you know, but the music had reggae vites. But yeah, the R and B songs, I was covering songs. I used to sing fantasias and of the Geto truth is that one. I love that song. And we used
to just cover cover songs. It was like it was like we were entertainment basically for the Yes, exactly, exactly exactly so that it was it was a good time. It was a good time, sacred time.
So and it kills me.
The first single, so give It.
To Me Right, is actually the first give Yeah, that was the song. I did that with Andrew and Martin as well, and that one was sampled the Zombies Time of the season. It's the time. This seas doom, Doom, Doom, and there was like that baseline was really popular at that time because there was an artist out of the UK named Duffy that came out and she was also in the same thing, and Amy Winehouse was a huge
inspiration and like this was that time of music. So give It to Me Right came out and that was the first single and then It Kills Me followed after and then It Kills Me came out and that was really like the the Rocket that was the hit. Yeah, that was the one.
At this point, you in America? You living here now?
Yes?
No, No, I'm still back and forth, like I'm still back and forth like before. Okay, so yeah, like it was La. It was New York, Toronto, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So like I always was going back and forth for years. I was going back and forth even once the record took off. Even once the record took Once the record took off, then I was gone everywhere. Then I was just out of a suitcase. I was on the rock, but I would always go back home to Toronto. That was always home.
Who's your first tour with?
My first tour was Kanye West and Kanye Glow in the Dark yep. Oh, it was so fun was Dark Tours. I was on the European leg of the Glow in the Dark tour.
Yeah.
And that's your first time on any form of a tour at all?
Arenas of course arenas. Yeah, it was. It was quite so.
How was your stage setup?
This is amazing?
Okay.
My stage setup was a three piece band and two background singers with an iPod run the ox play the tracks have the bad play on top. And that was our set. Yep, that was our set and we oh the iPod you remember I remember what time?
Yeah?
Yeah, box chord right like, and I'm the Oh, I'm the one of many openers. It was me. Kid Cutty was on their consequence, mister Hudson, the Roots. Yeah it was. It was good. The Roots were actually on tour, so they didn't do every every city, but yeah, me, Kid Cutty, mister Hudson, Yay, it was. And I was the only female artist. It was the only female artist. And then I'm R and B like this in this space, so I'm bringing a different energy. So I knew every night you gotta win.
You gotta win, you gotta win the crowd over.
You don't get an opportunity to lose. Like this, You're being introduced to Kanye's audience. First of all, Kanye was one of my favorite artists at the time, Like just I was in awe like a true fan. So I get on that stage every night and I just knew that that preparing for that tour taught me so much about the art of performance, because get out there and win them over every time. You don't get this might if this is your only time, get out there. And
I don't care how long you got. You got fifteen minutes, you got twenty minutes. You better give it everything cook, and I mean back to back. You gotta have a cover in there. You got to let people know that, like you, you're here. And so it was good. I was doing well every single night. And then it was the last show of the tour and then in Versi Arena in Paris and we're playing and the iPod is rested on some sort of monitor or bass and it jumps and skips and the track cuts out in Versy Arena,
thousands of people, it's like fifteen thousand people. I'm like, oh, you trained for it. So what do I start doing? I start singing a cappella? Oh yeah, I start singing killing me softly a cappella while they fix that shit behind me.
What future more about you?
Oh no, he's playing.
We're here, Melanie. You've You've come all away from Canada to bless us with your gifts as a singing nurse. Sounded weird at first, but now I got it. My mind just plays tricks on me. Sister siren. Amen, we will not search yet, you will.
Don't do it.
But now that people want to know the music that has touched you, that have influenced you to become the artist and singer and entrepreneur that you are, called that shore.
Where we gone?
Top five? Your top five, Top five, your top five.
O Pas singers, Burreathy songs. We got to know, Pa thought you go, you're on the shoe.
Let everybody know your tap tip, Yes, your tap f.
Oh such a chocolate. That more good? That that was incredible. That was I couldn't even have imagined it would have been that great in person.
To see what happened when you start rapping.
Wow, okay, okay, that was that was amazing.
Your Top five R and B.
Singers, Top five R and B singers, Stevie Wonder, I like that, Sam Cook.
Yeah, yeah, music, so child, I love music, so music.
So Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston and Lauren Hill.
Yes, it's a great.
List, Hilly.
It's great, high level vocals, viby and singing with a purpose.
Yeah, yeah, I found I'm following you.
I'm following you.
But wait, I really I really was my top c because I mean I said it was hard because Whitney. In my mind, you know, Whitney, She's kind of in a category of her own, right, Like it's like pop. You know when you say singers, now when you say like artists, it's a little different. Because truly, in my top five artists, I'm gonna put Brandy in there because brand is Brandy. Brandy, Brandy vocally is one of my favorite artist.
What is the thing they put it when you got in America?
What kind of an alien of extraordinary ability?
That is?
She is a resident? She is a citizen of extraordinary one hundred? Got it right there, Brandy?
Got it?
Brandy?
Yet, that's fine?
Okay?
Top six?
That your top five R and B songs.
This one I wasn't prepared for Top five R and B songs. A Song for You by Donnie Hathaway.
Yep, kick it off a head and kick it off.
I'm gonna go. I'm overjoyed by Stevie Wonder.
My Castle of Love.
Those the music and that could just make me cry every time every time.
Hm hmm.
Let me dig deep into my well of songs that I love to sing. This is this is tough songs are tough for me. Brandy, It's uh. I think now I'm drawing a blank, but I can hear it in my mind. Is uh is it when you touch me?
Yes?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, mm hmm, my Mama, I'm gonna go with killing me softly because it's Lauren. I'm going with my artists, you know what I'm saying. And then.
Mm hmm, it's.
Gonna be Anita, Baker, raptor.
Waiting I was. It's like the brick however you were doing. Yeah, whatever you were doing, you were tapping into something. You know.
I have to go into a place. It's emotional for me, So I think about the songs, how I like to sing them, or where they take me to, where's the place I am? And I just remember listening to Anita with my mom playing it in the house on Saturday mornings and just thinking like, oh.
It is that a feeling?
Yeah?
It is one hundred.
Yeah. I like that list. Love it great. You approved, we're celebrating it's all champions and yeah, we like that list.
Build your Vulturon, your super r and b artists. Who are you going to get the vocal from the performance style from the styling from and the passion of the artists to make your super R and B artist. What one vocal are you going to grab?
The one vocal I'm going to grab is I'm gonna grab Mic.
I knew when you started breathing you were going to because like that was a breath that said, I'm going to go, I'm going to the moon with this breath.
Yeah, I'm going to grab mic. That's the voice the moon.
I'm nice.
Here we go.
Performance style, oh, performance style on.
Stage, how they do it?
Mm hmm.
This is very very tough Bruno mars Ha.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Bruno be cooking, tough on be cooking.
He's tough on stage, you know what I mean.
He's and he told you he ain't scared to get about here and do what he does.
He's business pres underrated dancer. Yes he's it's not spoken about. They don't talk about it. That boy can dag.
He really comes from the school.
He went through the nice high level, nice performer. Yeah, fire show style of the artist, the drip Eric m hmm, gonna dance.
And all them.
Anything is possible involved right them closed, You're.
Right, you're right. I'm not going my voice Bruno performance.
I could even interchange that. I could I could interchange. I could do Bruno voice and Mike stage. It could be either or to be honest.
Well, yeah, dudes.
Close closes it.
And the passion of the artist, the.
Heart of the artist, Stevie Wonder a heart of gold. Yes, it's very passionate that man is still out here doing God's work, God's work, his life's purpose work. After everything that he has accomplished, he still gets out there with so much love in his heart. That is something that I don't think that we see and feel enough of. He's dedicated to it, and.
You know it's different like I just he just Busher brought him out on this tour here in l A. And he started singing, just him this piano, and I was like, Tank, you're not going to break down crying people, chill out. I was talking, let it out.
Everyone would understand.
Everyone, It's cool, Stevie. And and we're at the in the v I P like high rise section, like all eyes on us.
They would they wouldn't understand.
They would have been like Tank over there crying and saying, you know, jealousy people people. It was. It was still amazing it was still spiritual, it was still connected, it was it was yeah, yeah, do.
You know that. Stevie Wonder once said I was in I was with him, and he once said, I listened to my own music. He says, I listened to my own music when I need to feel God. He said, because everything that I've ever created has come from God. Because I don't have the gift of vision, so I only know this conversation with God and these gifts. So I listened to myself when I need to feel close to God. Like that's why the passion and heart of
that person needs is needed in the world. Like, yeah, it can only be gottee Stevie Steveland.
He said, ReBs in this guy, Oh, can we.
Go back and talk about songs again?
God could have only given him that vision. Hello, he yet he didn't see no the turgical dances.
Hello, get out of the tank.
Okay, get.
Stevie go kick ass.
Y'all got meat, y'all got thing. It's a thing.
People come up to me and tell me it's a thing.
Don't you drag me.
Don't drag me into the Stevie looking at the tank.
Stop Hello, mom, Yeah, I'm not gonna go into the depths of hell.
Here.
I'm just gonna stay right here. Yep, call you after.
I ain't saying no nxs. Hey, I ain't saying no nat I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names.
Who was.
What you did? Don't say? She ain't saying no names.
He Yep, we're here now, We're here now.
We had a very very important part of the show, Wow, will you tell us a story? Funny or fucked up? Are funny and fucked up? The only rule to the game, okay, is you can't say no name.
Okay, it's a little fucked up. Not gonna lie a little fucked up. I was on a flight and I was sitting next to someone where we were discussing the event that we were just coming from, and we were talking about a particular person who I knew that I wasn't feeling at the time because I had once known this person very well and felt connected to this person, but a short few years later didn't feel connected to
them anymore. And as we were having this conversation and this person was expressing their thoughts on this person as well, we didn't realize that there was a family member of the person that we were talking about sitting sitting behind us, right behind Oh this is great, right behind this. Yeah, so there was a confrontation.
Mmmm no, oh okay, yeah, yeah, person says, so what you say they stood on business? But did I?
Yeah, I'm very sorry you had to overhear that conversation. But I do feel this way about this person, and I'm I am. The only thing I'm apologizing for is that you overheard it. And I'm really sorry that that happened. I should have been more mindful about where I was. And that was that. And then I saw that person a few years later and hadn't seen them for many years in between, and and that person looked like they
wanted to talk to me. And I was just like peace and love, got nothing and love for you and just kept it moving. And now that is a far distant memory in our in our mass.
Yeah, it was.
It was.
It was uncomfortable.
That is great. It was uncomfortable conversation mid flight.
Oh no, it was in the airport after.
Waited waited because they needed some space because also because the.
Yeah, they waited, they waited, they waited, they waited.
What was she saying in.
Two a y that's that's where I know I was in to Yeah, yeah, to see I was in the I was in the aisle. Yeah it was. And I knew the family member so that it's not like I didn't know that they were there. Ah, it was great, Yeah it was. It was. It's great now, it wasn't great at the time. I don't like I don't like drama, you know, and so I don't.
You weren't doing it for drama.
I wasn't doing it for drum.
It's hard to be it's hard to know that that that person is right.
But you know what it did. It was back to my lessons of watch your mouth truly because you don't know where you are and you don't know who's around or who knows who. And that was a valuable lesson and I think that's a valuable lesson for anybody. But sometimes you just be talking. You're just like good it is. You don't really but if it's how you truly feel, it is it is.
But I and it was a warranted conversation between you and whoever else.
Yes, yes, we were having you know, we were having a.
It's kind of a privilege.
It was like an opinion. It was like more of like.
An kind of a privileged conversation in a sense.
Not if I bought three c that part and they talked about my cousin, I'm gonna tap you on your shoulder and we get off display I'm not.
Oh, I'm definitely I'm not because because but.
That but that's but that's it now, I know no, But you know what the thing is though, it's because I knew the person.
I know the person knew I thought you knew who they were, Okay, so.
They came up to me and were like, that's how you feel, like yeah, Like I was just really surprised, like I I you know, I I've always thought so highly of you, and I was surprised, and I was like, hey, look I understand why you feel that way. I get it. And I was like, but I'm like, I'm really sorry that you overheard that conversation. I should have been more mindful about where I was. And I was like, I'm sure that was hurtful to hear. I'm so that was
hurtful to hear. That's what I said, because you don't want to hear anybody talking about anybody about your people like that, Like I wasn't saying anything crazy. It was really just my own experience about how, like I said, I was once connected to this person, then how I felt very disconnected to this person based off of their actions. So you know it was not accepted.
Yeah that's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. He was going in too. And this mother, let me tell you it was.
You know what it was. It was It was. It was just it was. It was a conversation of tastes and we were on the same tas if.
Y'all were on the same page, you can imagine that. Yeah, I'm saying you you too. It was going up. Give me nothing, give me the jack and coke.
The thing is I really like when they did that, you know what I'm saying, Like that was whack. They could have done that best.
That one time it gets it gets it gets excited that well, Melanie, we have always valued your gifts, your presence, your friendship, your family, our family. We've been doing that a long time, and we are grateful for the opportunity, too to do a deep dive into where all of this comes from and then why it is the way it is. And we're happy, Number one that you're good and then we're happy number two that you're back.
Yeah, good and back. I like that.
We we're really excited about.
That, like like you sing man, thank you. Thanks.
That's exciting.
Yeah that listen, that means a lot from from this room specifically.
That's exciting.
Thank you, Thank you, guys.
That keeps uh. You know, I'm I'm I'm always keeping score. I'm always keeping score. You on you on our side, You're on our Teamron, you know, you know, you know, you know what it is. You know what it is, and we just appreciate you. We support you and whatever you need from us, you always know that.
Thank you and thank you guys for creating this space. This is really important, really really important. Thank you. Thank you for holding space. Thank you for holding the time, because I told you I was coming, I was coming, and now I'm here and I'll be back for sure. Thank you guys.
Ladies and gentlemen, Money is Tank Valentine and this is the Army Money Podcast, the authority on all things R and B. We have been bathing, sound and fall asleep and true therapy is taken place. Ladies and gentlemen, She's back, Melanie Fiona.
Thank you guys, R and B Money is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show, and you can connect with us on social media at Jay Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com or slash R and B Money