To be yourself is all that you can do

For those who know me you’re probably wondering what I’m up to? Why the name change? This post gives me the opportunity to explain my thought process. Many years ago, I fronted a progressive rock band called Joker’s Grim. We were students at Griffith University’s Conservatorium of Music and played regularly on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, Australia.

Joker’s Grim won a lot of band competitions, supported some well-known Australian acts and were on the local music industry’s radar as a band with promising career potential. Unfortunately, after recording our first EP, Joker’s Grim broke up. The band was not united in its vision for the future so it all fell apart pretty quickly. Honestly, this broke my little heart and…in retaliation, I gave music the cold-shoulder for almost a decade. Seriously…I did! I’m ashamed to say that I actually gave up!

In addition to music, I was studying journalism. After graduation I made the bold decision to enlist in the military as a reporter. I was a sailor/soldier posted to Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, and I deployed on warships and overseas operations including the war in Afghanistan. I didn’t touch my guitar for six years.

But the real itch to play and write songs again resurfaced when I left the military and moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles for a writing job.  I don’t know if it was the city’s constant creative vibrations or the weirdo eccentrics who loitered Hollywood’s Walk of Fame that inspired me, but I finally began to write songs again.

The first song I worked on in Hollywood was in collaboration with Record Producer Rocky Byrd of Blackbyrd Music. Together, along with guitarist James Grossenheider, we produced the rock/pop song Get Out under the solo artist name Meliya. It was a fun one-off project but the other songs I had written didn’t fit with the look and feel of Meliya.

Meliya was a constructed pop character and the new songs needed to be presented by a more authentic singer/songwriter-type. I decided I would just be myself and release the new material I had written under the title Mel Stirling (Melanie is my first name and Stirling is my married surname…I am just too lazy to legally change it).

So there it is friends, the story so far and reasoning behind the decision to just let my name and songs speak for themselves. I hope they do and I can’t wait to share them with you in 2019!