Melanie Renee profile picture

Melanie Renee

About Me

Melanie DuPre began seriously studying the electric bass in 1997 with Kevin Tiernan, a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music. Her first performance experience came that same year when she joined the rock band, Chinaski. They gigged in countless clubs around Los Angeles and even put out an album, "You Might Like This Better Than Me", which had a song featured on TV's "The Gilmore Girls".
She then went on to attend California State University, Northridge where she studied under Don Kasper and Robert Hurst (a veteran of the Tonight Show Band). Her musical focus at school was primarily on electric jazz bass but she also built up a solid foundation in a variety of genres, including classical and world music through the many different ensemble classes that she participated in. While still at CSUN, she founded the steel drum calypso band, Metro Steel, which is still regularly performing today. Melanie graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Music in 2003.
She began studying classical upright playing in private lessons with Zac Matthews in 2002 and that fall began a four season stint as bassist with the Pasadena Community Orchestra and in addition to that she spent four seasons as the bassist for the baroque chamber group, the Bach to Beethoven Band. She also put in 3 years of playing bass with the rock band, Solarcade , which allowed her to hone her rock chops in front of crowds from the Viper Room to the Staples Center. She currently plays with the eclectic guitar ensemble, Zio Trio , which is allowing her to play blends of flamenco, latin, jazz, and classical fusion. Melanie continues to study electric bass while she simultaneously teaches students of her own in addition to holding a full-time position as a Multimedia Specialist at Alfred Publishing , where her focus is on the production of instructional music DVD's.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 4/22/2005
Band Website: myspace.com/ziotrio
Band Members:

Solarcade - The Teardrop ExplodesSolarcade - Song for Staes
Live clip from The Killer's Sam's Town tour 2007
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

So long Max...

A lot of people say that Buddy Rich was the "Greatest Drummer on Earth" but my personal favorite was Max Roach. Today the world says goodbye to a true master and jazz legend. So long Max...see ya at t...
Posted by on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:03:00 GMT

Summer update!!!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted a new blog! I've been keeping busy as usual. Things are going very well with Solarcade. We've got lots of stuff on our plate including gigs, videos, touring, ...
Posted by on Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:27:00 GMT

Notes from The Killers Tour!!

Hi Everyone! Melanie here&I finally found a minute to give you all an update on the Killers tour that we just got home from doing. It's been pretty crazy the last couple of weeks, so sorry for the del...
Posted by on Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:37:00 GMT

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

I just read that one of my lifelong favorite authors has past away. Kurt Vonnegut was like an old friend to me or an absentee father figure that I never met but who was always there to comfort and amu...
Posted by on Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:34:00 GMT

Standing ovation...

For those of you who have been following my struggles with Tchaikovsky 4 I just wanted to let you know that we rocked that bitch on Friday night! We even got a standing ovation...totally awesome feeli...
Posted by on Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:36:00 GMT

Videos, gigs, & NAMM!

It's been awhile since I've had a few minutes to blog. The last month has been insanely busy for me and a lot of really cool things have gone down. I just saw a rough cut of the Solarcade video that w...
Posted by on Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:57:00 GMT

RIP James Brown

James Brown passed away early this Christmas morning. He had been battling pneumonia and prostate cancer.I'm at a loss for even what to say. We have lost a legend who has directly influenced so many m...
Posted by on Mon, 25 Dec 2006 00:59:00 GMT

My first rock video shoot...

I had a pretty crazy weekend with the Solarcade video shoot. Tony and I spent a good part of Saturday shopping for wardrobe and other stuff that we needed for the shoot. We were finally ready to get s...
Posted by on Mon, 18 Dec 2006 22:05:00 GMT

The week in review...

This has been a really good week so I thought I'd share it with you all. I just had another birthday. I played a really casual gig at the Springbok with Solarcade and a bunch of my friends came out to...
Posted by on Sat, 16 Dec 2006 01:11:00 GMT

Drunk Doug

So, last night there was this really, really drunk guy at the Springbok where I played with Paul and Tony. This dude - his name was Doug - was so drunk that he was probably in a black out. I can't ima...
Posted by on Sun, 19 Nov 2006 10:13:00 GMT