Meliesa McDonell

San Diego singer/songwriter Meliesa knows what she wants.   She is an artist with a vision.   It’s not the trappings of fame and fortune that inspire her to press on, but her overwhelming desire for the world to experience her music.

Meliesa’s current release, some neglected toy, is a collection of well-crafted songs composed from her life experience.   They span the range of style of the Adult Alternative genre.   Some songs like “One More Touch” and “Until the End of Days” are soft and deeply emotive while others, such as “Phone Call” and “Jealousy,” rock with brutal honesty.   Her sound is comparable to the likes of Alanis Morissette, Sara McLachlan, Heart, Evanescence, and Sheryl Crow.

  “You won’t find me indulging in decadent diversions or meaningless materialism,” Meliesa asserts.   “I just want to be a part of musical consciousness.   My hunger is for experiences… to travel the world, study the music of other cultures, and be a goodwill ambassador.   I would rather be a Bono than a Paris Hilton… after all, success is not measured by what one has accumulated, but by what one has contributed.”

For Meliesa, life is all about the music. She possesses an extreme passion for music and expressing herself through the craft of songwriting.   “All of my songs are written from life,” she says; “each one an emotional snapshot of what I am feeling the moment I’m writing.”

Meliesa cut her musical teeth in the late ‘80’s hair band scene on the Sunset Strip.   Fronting the band DeAllen, she frequently played original material in clubs such as the Roxy, the Whiskey, and Gazzarri’s, where the band was reportedly a personal favorite of the late Bill Gazzarri.

After DeAllen disbanded, Meliesa fronted several cover bands.   She eventually gained the golden opportunity to belt out some cover songs at Cabo Wabo, in Cabo San Lucas , Mexico , where the club’s owner, Sammy Hagar, joined her on stage.   Sammy was quite impressed with Meliesa’s vocal talent, exclaiming to a sound tech that her voice “gave him chills.”

With the days of hair metal and poseurs long behind her, Meliesa began to take her songwriting more seriously, and enrolled in some music theory and history courses at Palomar College .   In the summer of 2002, Meliesa began writing and recording the tracks for her debut solo CD with producer Tim Dolbear at Eclectica Studios in Montclair , California .   Without a band backing her, Meliesa was forced to hone her drum, bass and keyboard programming skills in order to create the driving rhythm section on her album.

All the hard work and long hours in the studio paid off.   some neglected toy was released in January 2004, and met with some measurable success of online national and international purchases and radio airplay. Meliesa set about looking for musicians to form a live band, but was unable to find the ideal musicians. Out of frustration, she taught herself to play guitar and took her solo act to small clubs around north San Diego County . Eventually she met up with some local musicians and formed her cover band, Meliesa and the Monkeybites. You can see them play at clubs such as the Surf and Saddle in Solana Beach , Patrick’s Irish Pub in Poway, and Pounders in Escondido .

When the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish lost their singer, Meliesa applied for the position. Though she did not get it, her demo was very favorably reviewed by the group’s founder, and it led her to other auditions for the Swiss band Elis , Swedish band Therion, and Norway's Tristania. Again, her demos placed her as a frontrunner... but as they say, "close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades."  Producer Per Froberg in Sweden had heard these demos, and contacted Meliesa to work on a pop/ambient CD with his firm, Warehouse Music Productions. He flew to San Diego with the tracks for the first single in February, and Meliesa recorded the vocals at King’s Ransom Studios.   The single will be released in Europe spring 2008, with the full CD in late 2008. U.S. release dates have not yet been determined, but will be announced once domestic distribution had been secured.

Meliesa recently signed with Kings Ransom Records to record and release her next solo CD in the Adult Alternative genre.