We receive quite a high number of submissions directly from artists and some of them make clear that they are doing everything related to their music independently as well – writing, performing, recording and publishing as well as the PR.
Sometimes you can tell it’s a first, or at least early, effort; perhaps a little rusty in the production for example and that it will take a few releases to get up to speed. In Valerie Melina’s (Elin Tirén Vilhelmson) case I was bowled over by the professionalism.
The single ‘Death of Me’ isn’t her first recording. She released an EP, ‘Red Lines’, last autumn (incidentally she used the word ‘autumn’ rather than the American ‘fall’ for an English publication, so even more kudos heading her way).
She says she has been practicing and studying music for a long time, but only recently debuted as an artist. She’s 24 years old, from Umeå in Northern Sweden, and strives to produce well written melodies, lyrics and vocal arrangements.
She adds that she’s “fond of dance-y songs with sad lyrics” and that “I want people to first fall in love with my melodies and then fall all over again when they start listening to the lyrics.”
I think can say with certainty that she’s ticked all the boxes with this song. I’m in lurve.
‘Death of Me’ (note how she uses an English colloquialism here, as in ‘it will be the death of me’) concerns having such a huge crush on someone that it’s unhealthy. She says, “Like you know you would do ANYTHING for this person and that should scare you, but you’re so delusional it excites you instead.”
She ponders whether it is genuinely love or just an obsession and whether it is possible to tell the difference between the two anyway.
She concludes by saying she wanted to dive into this ecstatic feeling that comes early in the stage of falling in love with someone, while also being slightly aware that it could all go wrong.
Ok, time for a bit of soul bare-ing. I’ve just been through something like that myself and that’s probably at least one of the reasons why the song appeals to me.
‘Death of Me’ pretty much has it all where mainstream pop is concerned, although I’d prefer to label it ‘intelligent pop’.
It grabs your attention right from the start with a strong guitar melody line in contrast to the simple bass line, followed by several sharp changes of melody, one of them involving a delightful set of ascending chords. The degree of syncopation is what I would expect from a top US artist.
There are two bridges, an extended middle one and the second one extends into an outro that’s sounds like she’s a dying swan. That’s smart. Oh, and her vocal is just perfect. Strong enough to make its mark but not too overt to detract from the tune.
If all that sounds a bit technical let me put it another way. If it was 1987 and she released ‘Death of Me’, Stock, Aitken and Waterman would ensure that Kylie wasn’t so lucky, lucky, lucky and abandon her to sign Valerie.
If it picks up airplay here in the UK now it’s a surefire hit.
She’s only got around 400 followers on social media at present. By the end of the year that should be 40,000.
Have I convinced you? Give it a listen…
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valerie.melina.artist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valeriemelinamusic/
