Good timing with this one, as M&M (not the sweeties, though they probably are sweeties – they seem nice enough) just release a new video which you can check out at the end of the article…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Dhuran: The beautiful garden of England that is Kent, full of fields, forests, greenery and great energy, something that sticks true to our values. Which is why we both moved to the city…
Adam: At least we moved to Birmingham, the birthplace of Metal!
How did you meet?
Adam: We had been in school together down in Kent, not that we ever really spoke to one another. That was until we were thrust into a band playing drums and bass, and had to learn to be succinct as the rhythm section. It was an intense start to a great friendship.
If you like what we do, consider joining us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
How long have you been playing as a band?
Dhuran: We were previously in another band together for about 5 years, and after the downfall of that particular endeavour, we formed Melody and Madness about a a year and a half ago.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Adam: When we realised Dhuran was the mastermind behind the “Melody”, and I simply decided to scream over it in an attempt to relieve myself of my “Madness”, it just fell nicely into place.
What are your influences?
Adam: Everything we can get our hands on! We both grew up listening to nu-metal and 90s hip-hop, which gave us the foundation of what we wanted to do. My vocals are also inspired more by old school punk like Discharge and Charged GBH, with the lyrics containing ideas from classic sci-fi novels.
Dhuran: My influences are a mix of quite a lot, guitar wise I take a lot of inspiration from bands like Periphery, Tesseract and Animals As Leaders. But production wise I take a huge amount of influence from Adam “Nolly” Getgood who is one of the metal industries highest quality producer at the moment.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Dhuran: Personally I feel our music is unique in the fact I wrote quite progressive and heavy pieces, and Adam puts a nu-metal/ punk vibes with the vocals and adding in a lot of electronic elements that aren’t usually heard in our style.
Adam: We don’t care to fit into any box, we have our own noises to make.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Adam: Whatever makes me angry! With anger comes passion. Right now I’m passionate about simply getting our shit together and avoiding the pitfalls laid out for us in our recent history. I want people to feel horrified, then inspired to do something about it.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Adam: Unfortunately, we started to get going when the lockdown began, so we’re still setting our sights on being just a studio band for now. But if we did have live shows, they’d probably involve tinfoil hats, giant bongs, and lots of things being destroyed.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Adam: I got to see The Subways playing a tiny basement gig a few years back in bournemouth. The place was packed and they were loving it. Billy, the lead singer, managed to get himself lifted up and was pressed into the low ceiling with microphone and guitar still in hand. He then started to “crawl” across the ceiling screaming “spider-pig, spider-pig” into the microphone. Everyone was pissing themselves laughing.
Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Dhuran: Gear wise I’m using an Ibanez RG32 guitar, Musicman Sting Ray bass, and that’s really the crux of it. I record everything direct and manipulate the audio, we self record into Pro Tools at my own studio, mixed and mastered myself.
Adam: An 8 year old laptop with a free version of Ableton lite. I demo the vocals and create all the electronic elements from this.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Dhuran: We are currently promoting our latest single “Think About it” a song we wrote about a year ago about the Extinction Rebellion protests, but with the current climate surrounding systemic racism and the Black Lives Matter movement we felt this song was so relevant to the current movements and want to invite people to start the conversation around race and make sure we can push the human race to be the best it can be.
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
Dhuran: Within the next six months we are looking to promote this single, put out a music video and gearing up for a EP release towards the beginning of next year.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Adam: I’m gonna say my dream gig, having Slipknot as the headliner would be perfect, and I want The Exploited supporting us, mostly because I really want to have a drink with Wattie.
Dhuran: I’d really want to open for Architects, with Dream State supporting us.
Melody and Madness: facebook | twitter | instagram | bandcamp | spotify | youtube
