Featured on IDIOTEQ in 2015 and 2017, Warsaw based noisy, mathy post hardcore punk rockers MELISA are back with their new album this year, and today we’re stoked to give you their new single “Wystarczasz”, spiced up with the band’s first hand commentary below!
Asked about the creative background behind the new song, MELISA‘s vocalist Mateusz Romanowski commented: “Before meeting in the studio, I prepared a few sketches of the songs. We didn’t have enough time for all of them, but this one went through the selection of the rest of the band. We started working on it alone with Antek, when Marcel and Karolina (Marcel’s wife and studio co-owner) took the cat to the vet. For sure Antek’s beat added a lot of old school rock’n’roll vibe to the track.”
“As far as this band can even talk about something like that. Antek himself called his idea for the drum part “inverted the ace of spades”. The following instrument tracks added more aggression to the piece than I initially imagined. “Wystarczasz” (“You are enough”) is one of the songs I wrote lyrics for in the studio.”
“While looking for an idea for a text, I asked Karolina what she would like to hear about in our song. She replied that she liked the song “Jesteś najlepszy” (“You are the best”) by Wczasy. It turned out that “Wystarczasz” is a text variation on the theme of this track. I probably also reflect well the difference between our bands. It is enough to see the titles to guess which band has a greater component of optimism. “Wystarczasz” is “Jesteś najlepszy” to the best of our abilities. This text is a kind of message to myself or to any loved one who needs to be told that it is valuable enough to live. I know that several people interpreted this text much more broadly, but I am happy about it. My intention with a few songs on this album was to make them as versatile as they can be.”
“We met only twice since, together with Mateusz, we decided to resume Melisa.” – adds bassist Marcel Gawinecki.
“The first meeting took place in April 2021 in Łazy near Warsaw. It resulted with three new songs. We arranged the date of the second meeting and recordings right away. It was in November of the same year at Studio Cierpienie. We stayed there for almost a week to compose and record the album.”
Asked about the recording process, he continues: “The session went smoothly as we had no time restrictions or outside pressure. There weren’t too many presumptions, except that we wanted to vomit out the dirt collected during the few years since we last played together. In the studio, apart from the three mentioned compositions from the spring, we recorded 4 more songs.”
“Due to the fact that this time we had more time for recording, we decided to put more emphasis on the sound. We tried with various amplifiers, but in the end the choice fell on the Sunn Sonaro bass set from 1971 with the company’s speakers in a 4×10 configuration. In the case of the guitars, you can hear an Orange AD140 with an old Simms-Watts cabinet. Antek played on drums freshly brought from the store — Pearl Session Studio (it was probably their virgin session).”
“I don’t know how is it with Mateusz, but my Melisa sound has always been a combination of Precision bass + distortion. On „Zasługuję na istnienie,” I relied mainly on a Buzz fretless bass and a Tremond pedal from a Poznań-based producer Blue Colander Stompboxes After the session, all tracks went to Satanic Audio, where the material was mixed to its present form.”
“I have always been full of admiration for Marcel’s sonic awareness in all of his bands. ” – admits Mateusz.
“I consider his band Ugory to be one of the best live bands I have ever seen. He, Karolina and Krzysztof Kłos running a recording studio is something that just had to happen. It is definitely a magical place that allows you to fully devote your creative work. In addition to the recordings, there were already concerts and recorded live sessions.”
Cover art by Agnieszka Marcinkiewicz (Loving Artifacts Studio)
Melisa is: Marcel Gawinecki: bass, Mateusz Romanowski: guitar, vocals, Antoni Zajączkowski: drums.
“Wystarczasz” lyrics:
Wystarczasz
Połóż to “wystarczasz” obok ciężaru na barkachNa bagnach
nie mówimy “wystarczasz”
nie krzyczymy “wystarczasz”
nie słyszymy “wystarczasz”
myślimy “nie wystarczasz”To dostarcza win
wypycha nas tam
chodzi za nami na palcachTo gnije
w poukrywanych paczkach
wystarczasz, wystarczasz, wystarczaszTo nie noworoczne życzenia
i szampan
ciągle działający warsztat
odkopywania się z kłamstwa
