Meet Melissa Eve - an aspiring pop singer from South-East London. With a love for lyricism and story-telling, her music is influenced by the narrative songwriting of Taylor Swift, as well as the high-ranging vocals of Ariana Grande.

 

Eve's recent performance at the 'Reflection' show:

 

 

Watch the full thing here.

 

Who are your musical inspirations?

 

I find Taylor Swift's lyricism to be almost unmatched in our generation - I grew up with her music flooding the radio and my childhood. My parents were the generation of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, so growing up with those two vocal icons playing throughout the home, along with my intense level of love for Ariana Drande heavily influenced my vocal styling, especially runs and whistle tones, which I first discovered I could do with the release of Grande’s promotional single off of her 2019 album “thank u next” by just randomly having a go at it in my living room whilst singing along.

 

What is your history and relationship with music?

 

My house is as musical as it gets. My dad had a career as a singer that stemmed from his father, Trevor Bastow, a successful musician himself with recognisable works such as the trumpet composition in the classic christmas song “Stop The Cavalry”. My late grandad also had his own music which is available on Spotify under the same name. Fortunately I've been able to write most of my songs on the piano he passed down to our family when he died, so although I never met him it seems like he’s met me, and we know each other through this. My sister sings and writes her own songs on the piano as well but she follows more of a country pop genre, also heavily influenced by Taylor Swift (we’re one big Swiftie household). My brother also plays and sings.  

 

What is your favourite aspect of creating music? 

 

Definitely the collaboration. There’s been so many magnificent people I've met on this musical journey during these past few months. Although there’s nothing that compares to the feeling of a live performance, there really is something special about the people you meet and the art you create with them. It bonds you for life. Even my own original songs could never sound as amazing as they do without the incredible musicians that bring my vision to life. I could not be more grateful for the friends I've made through my art. 

 

What is your song-writing process? 

 

My writing process always starts with a lyric. My brain works in lyrics. Everything I hear I have a lyric for - whether it be one of my songs or not. I'd be so good at the song association game for Elle Magazine that they get all the singers to do (someone give them my number right now!) Lyrics to me are the most important part of the song - its message. What do I want to say? What do I want to feel, or not to feel? What do I want to let out or what do I want to treasure and hold on to?. I'll put this into a melody and continue it following the theme of these random lyrics that popped up, sometimes until I have the whole song with no music. Then I go to the piano or guitar and find chords to match. Once I have that basic acoustic or piano recording my brain knows exactly how I want the rest of the song to sound and how I want every instrument to play to the song and what they play. However, I have extremely long nails and can’t play anything except keys at the moment, which is where the collaboration with the talented musicians comes in.

 

What are your favourite songs to perform?

 

My favourite song I've performed so far in my career would have to be an original christmas song “You’re Not Taking Christmas (Away)”. I last performed it on Dec 17th 2021 and the crowd always loves it. It's just so festive. Who doesn’t love a good Christmas heartbroken-to-healed anthem? It just really is so catchy and festive. I’ve had some people come up to me about recording it and I'll definitely be working with them to release it some time this year before christmas. I've also been loving my new original “perfect in white,” a song about a girl who regrets turning down a proposal, which I just performed last night (feb 11. 2022) and it was very well received. It’s just so beautiful to me, lyrically and melodically. The writing style has been compared to Taylor Swift again which I could not be more flattered by. My tutor has told me I've got the X Factor, and I'm going to be filthy rich haha. It’s a song the band love playing and it’s something I’m very proud of.

 

What do you want to achieve in the next 10 years? 

 

In the next 10 years I want to be doing exactly what I'm doing and be happy doing it. I want to be performing and writing and loving it as I always have. If I'm fortunate enough I would be so happy to have a following begin to gather once I start uploading my music - something I hope to do in the near future when I write a few more songs. I'd love to win an award. It’s not my aim or my motivation, but it’s certainly a dream of mine. More than anything I want to tour. I want to get out there and show the world all I can do. I want to have performed a whistle tone in every country. 

 

Melissa Eve hopes to release some of her original music soon. Follow her journey on her instagram - @melissaeveofficial