Portland-based band Melville have gained a solid following and reputation in a relatively short amount of time. This is due to their ability to create music that is rocking and even heavy at times, yet strikingly melodic. If you listen long enough you’ll quickly realize that the band writes every song as if it were a single. When the members of Melville began thinking about their full length album, they knew they wanted the concept behind it to represent a starting point of sorts. Aptly titled The New Zero and coming out August 18th, the album represents the culmination of past events into the beginning of something new. The group’s first full-length record comes after the band spent time honing their sound from lower-fi alt-country to the current template of visceral, shoot for the stars, high-energy rock ‘n roll. The results do not disappoint. The songwriting is markedly tighter and more focused on this album. When combined with lead singer-songwriter Ryan T. Jacobs’ fiery vocals, the album’s abundance of hooks and singable choruses proves nearly irresistible.
Today Glide Magazine is premiering the new music video for Melville’s single “Televised”. The song is reminiscent of 90s alt. rock and power pop acts like Gin Blossoms and R.E.M. As a single it captures the power and depth this band is capable of.
Melville’s songwriter and frontman Ryan T Jacobs explains the meaning and inspiration behind the song:
“Televised” is an anti-told-you-so anthem. Too many people are pessimistic and predict the worst in the hopes of it somehow beating their fear of failure to the punch, just in case they don’t achieve what they set out to do. It’s so easy to be the naysayer because if you’re wrong, it costs you nothing. However, if you’re right you get to say “I told you so” and continue masking your fear as practicality. You find out over time that there’s not a whole lot of satisfaction in that. It’s not very fulfilling to be right when it’s for accurately predicting negative results. No matter how many times we’ve lived a situation out or how accurate we might be in predicting the way a situation can go, whether for good or for bad, we won’t always get it right. This is a song written to remind people not to tune out because they think they know it all; to not get sucked into the easy apathy of everyday life that constantly threatens to creep in.
The video’s writer and director Robert Grant elaborates with his own story of getting inspired by the song and coming up with the idea for the video:
These days, so much importance and reality is based on unreal things. Characters from television programs have become real. So convincingly given life, by actors, that reality has become skewed. Working in this industry I have a number of actor friends. On more than one occasion (Whilst out) I have witnessed fans approach and call them by a characters name…this is fascinating, a truly strange phenomenon. When I first heard the Melville track “Televised” I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to explore this topic. What would happen if these characters were, in fact, real. In the video our heroine dies and then this ‘fictional character’ has her own journey towards whatever happens in the afterlife. I really wanted to show what this might look like. Moving down through the layers of life, from her childhood through her hopes, fears and desires.
WATCH:
Melville release The Zero Hour on August 18th. Their release show happens at the Fremont Theater in Portland, OR. For more music and info visit melvilletheband.com.
Photo by Austin Herr
