Scenes are for kids.

“Nobody said true love comes easy,” sing The Melodrones over an unfolding mini symphony of guitars, bells and mellotron in their latest single ‘Nobody Said’. It’s a stern caveat that nicely juxtaposes the uplifting Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys feel of the track, as if it’s telling us life sucks while also saying keep your chin up. Maybe that’s the reason why it’s one of our favourite tracks of 2020, the year where optimism has routinely been tested.

For the Inner West quartet, fronted by Rik Saunders and Mel Marie, the past 12 months has been something of a breakthrough (if you believe in breakthroughs). They’ve played their first festival slot at Yours & Owls, sold out headline shows in Sydney, been broadcast on local radio, and attracted a buzzing fan base. All of which is made more impressive by the groups minimalist social media presence, relying largely on word of mouth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h4apsCd-DQ

The ‘Nobody Said/Ground Control’ double A-side adds to their swelling catalogue of fuzzy pop songs, with the group seemingly hitting a melodic sweet spot and also harnessing the power of the Saunders and Marie’s intertwining vocals. The aforementioned orchestral flavours of the track also give us a little glimpse into the broader musical direction of the band who, despite a huge 2020, are just getting started.

You can catch The Melodrones performing with Shogun & The Sheets at Mary’s Underground next Friday the 18th of December – FB event here, tix here – which we can 100% recommend. For now, check out our interview with Rik Saunders below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IasNekLKRk

2020’s been a pretty big one for The Melodrones. What’s been your highlight musically and otherwise?

Ah yeah we’ve had a pretty good year. Farmer and the Owl festival in February was a pleasure to be a part of. It’s carefully curated by Ben Tillman who let us play after we employed some strong-arm tactics. Was a great day. I have never bothered to watch so many bands on one line up before. Sleaford Mods stole the show from everybody.

You started playing live about a year ago. Do you still feel like a “new” band?

Well we certainly can’t claim the crown of Sydney’s newest band anymore. We do still like each other though so it’s going to be a while before this feels stale.

You’re hosting a radio show called ‘Heavy Demo’ on Orbital at the moment as well, what’s it like being on that side of the turntable?

John Peel is a hero of mine so I love it. Every week I invite a guest presenter on to share their record collection with the masses that tune in. We banter in between the songs and it is a genuinely fun time.

You’ve played with a bunch of different artists in Sydney. Are you part of an Inner West scene? Or is that a myth?

Nah scenes are for kids.

We hear the 60s influences come in everything you put out, but what’s your favourite release of 2020 (and why)?

Blake Scott – Niscitam hit me the hardest. I’ve done that record almost 40 times since it’s release. It’s a mad record from start to finish and it made me realise I need to work harder at my own songwriting. He totally solidified himself as a ‘great’ with that record.

‘Nobody Said’ gets a little orchestral in the outro. Is this what we can expect from you in the future? Are you envisioning a wider range of instrumentation than your standard “rock” setup?

Yeah always. The Melodrones in the studio is a different beast to us live. Live we’ll keep it simple and stay as two guitars, bass and half a drum kit for a while but I think it’s nonsense to limit ourselves to that in the studio. There’s always something more interesting than a guitar lying around the studio.

You wrote the track about Mody’s girlfriend. What’s so special about Manu?

Manu’s the best, she’s a very lovely and caring personality that brings a great vibe to the room. Mody and her have been together for over 8 years. It’s inspirational. The second verse of ‘Nobody Said’ was loosely inspired by a friend of hers that I had a couple of dates with. We didn’t really work out so in the end it made more sense to make the song a homage to Manu. Her name also rhymes with ‘you’.

Your vocals and Mel’s vocals are so different, but work so well together. Are you two sitting down writing tunes together or writing each other’s parts? How does it work?

Yeah we did start writing together. Mel has this great song called ‘Swimming’ that needed a chorus. Our fifth member Jack wrote a great chorus to it and I provided a riff for the outro. A lot of my songs are silly love songs which have been written from a boring male perspective, historically it has been done to death. If it works out that it is more interesting having Mel sing it, she will. I’m really enjoying this dual front person thing we’ve started doing.

What’s coming up next year? Any larger bodies of music?

Yeah we’ll put out a record next year. The idea behind all these double-sided singles is that eventually we’ll compile the best of them into a full record. Economically we’re limited to recording a pair of songs at a time and with the nature of streaming it makes sense to release singles. We’re sitting on a pile of tracks.