Teased with excellent new single “Wystarczasz” and a follow up track “Śnienie”, presented through our special artwork centered piece HERE, Warsaw, Poland based noisy, mathy post hardcore punk rockers MELISA are back with the full stream of their new offering, including four new songs , presented and explained through a special track by track comentary below!
With craftmanship carved into every track, from ambitious lyricisms to the bold sonic shifts, “Zasługuję Na Istnienie” is both punchy and immersive. The creative drive of the initial singles already promised a great offering, but it’s only the full thing that showcases the full spectrum of MELISA’s idea for this release. Their most cohesive and coherent record so far.
Track by track commentary for the newest 5 tracks from the album. For previous 2, head over HERE.
Widzimy się
Of all the recorded tracks, this one took us the most time. In order not to get bored, I talked some stupid things between successive attempts to motivate the guys to continue playing with the same energy and enthusiasm. Therefore, chatter is heard at the beginning and end. After recording live with Marcel at Studio Ciepienie I had a dream that Kudłat from Qx gave vocals on our album. I also dreamed that I was doing guitar doubles on my old Fender 212 amplifier. I realized both of these ideas. I wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals on the last day when I was in Smarzyków. It is not easy and intuitive for me to write positive texts, but I felt a deep need to try it. Classic noise rock, despite its musical courage, sometimes had a trollingly conservative overtone. So I thought that singing out things that I would like to receive from life, but also that I generally try to wish other people, seemed like an idea that I wanted to try.
Continued below…
Pluralizm
I am very irritated by calling simply stupid behavior or statements controversial. I am not discovering anything new, but to some extent, certainly in Poland, such a media pursuit of controversy and misunderstood pluralism worked to the advantage of the neo-fascist movement. We have some journalists in Poland who for years, under the pretext of pluralism, invited such people wherever possible, and then were surprised that they were omnipresent and spoke extremely discriminatory views.
Samotność / Samotność skit
It is a secular tradition that there must be some storytelling on every Melisa album. This one is dedicated to my hundred-year-old neighbor who once asked me through the window to visit her. I visited her several times after that. I believe that seniors’ loneliness is serious and not systemically sufficient (as with most social problems). On the one hand, the text concerns the problem of loneliness, on the other hand, our personal boundaries, the extent to which each of us has the space to support others. The second part of the piece is improvisation after some approach to playing it, which was simply nicely suited to melorecitation.
Co robisz
I don’t have anything special to say about the lyrics for this piece, but I really like the way the dissonant heavy themes contrast with the moments of breath on our album. The latter often arose right after I got out of bed in the studio, while everyone else was still asleep. And I think the calmer passages in the second half of this song and the second half have something of waking up from a bad dream.
Melisa is a Polish noise rock trio consisting of Mateusz Romanowski (voc/guitar), Marcel Gawinecki (bass) and Antoni Zajączkowski (drums). The group was active between 2014 and 2017 and released two full-length albums, Dla Melizy (2015) and Wszystkie nasze kwiaty będą gnić (2017), which gained much recognition on the indie/alternative scene.
Now they are back with new music and a new bandmate on drums.
The main reason for Melisa‘s return was the band’s frustration with the current political situation and the need to express it through music in an intense, condensed version, different from the modes of expression used in their other artistic endeavors (the band members play in such line-ups as Willa Kosmos, Próchno, Ugory, Hanako and Brooks Was Here).
The band combines noisy, aggressive punk music with socially conscious, poetic lyrics, touching upon such issues as the rise of nationalism, the impact of Catholicism, the problem of alcoholism or existential pain.
Melisa’s new album Zasługuję na istnienie was recorded in 2021 in Studio Cierpienie, a recording studio owned by Marcel, the band’s bassist, located in the picturesque village of Smarzykowo. The break in playing music together resulted in a more diverse album, in which, despite the dark times, there is also room for brighter topics, such as finding inner peace in a world torn by war and conflicts.
Zasługuję na Istnienie is out on June 17th via most streaming platforms.
