“Moody Beach is a play on words, I like to let people fill in the gaps on where it comes from.”
Meet Moody Beach, the songwriting project of Sydney’s Melissah Marie. If you’ve been one of the many fanatics eating up the dreamy shoegaze resurgence 2017 has enjoyed, this one’s sure to prick up the ears.
Weaving rich vocal tapestries against a twisting backdrop of warped fretwork, Moody Beach has become a potent new beacon for dreamy Australian rock.
With just two lead-in singles to the name, there was a palpable hype in the air for the unveiling of Moody Beach’s self-titled EP which dropped back in August. Once we had the chance to wrap our ears around it, we were floored.
It stood tall as one of Sydney’s stronger releases through 2017, effortlessly riding the fuzzed-out zeitgeist which has captured our touring circuit. Old mate Henry Rollins has even become a known fan.
For Melissah, this led to no shortage of live appearances.
“Yeah, we’re happy the EP has had such a generous reception from listeners and critics. We’ve been real busy playing a string of live shows and community stations have added us to their high rotation playlists for which I’m really grateful.”
“Four months seems like ages ago now. We’re looking forward to new stuff in 2018.”
The year has been a rapid ascension to say the least, seeing Moody Beach hitting stages with NOIRE, The Courtneys and Sloan Peterson, amongst others.
But with such a heady touring schedule always comes the joy of ironing out your band’s kinks.
“For live shows Moody Beach plays as a band; in the last few months we’ve played over 20 shows in Brisbane and Sydney.”
“Our live show develops a little more with every gig which has pushed us to give that pop side of the songs a slightly darker edge. It’s how I’ve always envisioned Moody Beach evolving.”
Winding down the year with appearances at Happy Mag’s own Issue 6 Launch as well as High-tails’ album launch show, it seems there’s no slowing down in Moody town.
Yet opportunities for writing time should never be missed, and Melissah assured us that a few new surprises are yet to be unveiled.
“For the rest of the year we’re focused on new tunes, playing more shows in Melbourne and Sydney and working on potential collaborations with some Moody friends in America.”
“There’s always plenty of new material in our backlog. We’ve been wheeling out a few new songs in some of our live shows lately and have a bunch we’re playing around with off camera at the moment. Moody forecast is a little darker, more shoegaze. I’m excited about it.”
Safe to say, we’re excited too. With a faultless catalogue already up in the air, we’ll be keeping an eye out come 2018 for whatever Moody Beach swings our way.
As is tradition in these parts, we finished up our chat with Melissah by asking what made her happy.
“Making music. Meeting people who care about the arts and are passionate about supporting artists and events which help our creative community grow.”
“I’m so moved by the amount of passion and effort that goes into keeping our music and arts culture going. To be able to share in that and connect with people because of it is such a gift.”
We’ll be hosting Moody Beach amongst some serious Sydney talent this Saturday at the Happy Mag Issue 6 Launch. Grab all the details on the Facebook event, and in case you weren’t convinced, take a dose of truth from Melissah:
“Happy Mag does it so well. It’s a privilege to be invited to play Underproof – and such a pleasure to be involved. Can’t wait.”
Lineup
Aela Kae
Tuppaware Party
Moody Beach
NEIGHBOURHOOD VOID
Hunch
Hedge Fund
Plus a very special Secret Headliner
All I Do and Vanilla are both entrants into the 4ZZZ Hot 100 of 2017. Be a pal, sling Moody Beach a vote here.
