“What’s that Shmel?”

Korin Chao
Nov 4 · 4 min read
PHOTO: VIA @tkhuongshots ON INSTAGRAM

A phone is perched precariously on the dashboard, air conditioning turned down low. Melanie Ngo, known affectionately as “Mel” by friends, and on stage as “Shmel”, is ready to record a song cover.

Those who love to sing know that the inside of a car has some of the best acoustics, and it’s an amateur’s best friend. While at that moment she’s singing for an audience of one, she’ll be posting her cover for others to see online.

It’s no concert crowd, but that comes later.

Ngo is a vocalist from Riverside, California that hopes to make it big one day as a singer. Music has always been a part of her life, and she cites her dad’s side of the family as a big reason for that.

Singing and music are what Ngo and her cousin had been passionate about together, but while that passion ended after high school for her cousin, Ngo’s went beyond that and she wanted to pursue music even more.

However, Ngo went on to study dental hygiene at West Coast University, music not her focus for the time being.

“I was thinking more stability, rather than making sure I was happy,” Ngo said.

On the first day of classes, students are instructed by professors to play icebreakers in order to get to know each other better, and one of the questions they had to answer was why they wanted to go into dental hygiene.

Ngo remembers all the students talking about how they had a passion for dentistry and expressed that in their answers, but when it came time for her to give her own answer, she gave an honest answer that she says should have been her first red flag.

“I’m here for the money,” Ngo said.

She hated what she was studying, and says she should have known from the beginning that going to school for something that she wasn’t passionate about was going to make her miserable, putting her in what she calls “a dark place”.

School was one of Ngo’s biggest obstacles when it came to seriously pursuing music, and she says it wasn’t just hard on her, but on her friends and family as well.

Tirza Hernandez, a friend of Ngo’s, experienced it firsthand.

“She used to be so cloudy. And sometimes the sun would shine, but it would still be cloudy. But now she’s glowing,” Hernandez said.

PHOTO: VIA @tkhuongshots ON INSTAGRAM

Ngo says that music was what she needed to get her out of her dark mindset. She’s quick to turn a negative into a positive, however.

“When I’m sad, I’m able to write music with the emotions I’m feeling at the time,” Ngo said.

Ngo officially left West Coast University in April of 2019, and has been pursuing music seriously ever since. Her first real collaboration was with Javlin, a visual media creative and artist.

“She’s always posted covers on her Twitter that she shot with only her phone, and when she shared those with me, I knew she had amazing potential,” said Javlin.

Javlin asked to do a collaboration with her, a cover that was a mix of three EDM songs, which they shot a video for in Los Angeles.

“Shooting a video was definitely out of my comfort zone, because I’d never done it before, but he made it comfortable for me,” Ngo said.

Javlin recalls giving her a MIDI piano, which is an electric keyboard with beat-making capabilities that can connect to a computer. He talks about visiting Ngo often to teach her the basics of producing music and how to record her vocals for future covers and originals.

Ngo cites Javlin as someone who really pushed her to believe in herself and her talent. He said introduced her to more of his producer friends, stating that he knows she has great songwriting talent, and has a bright future as a singer-songwriter if she keeps going the way she is.

“We actually have something else in the works together,” Ngo said, but didn’t provide any further details.

Javlin isn’t as secretive, revealing that they have an original duet on the way that they’re both excited for.

Ngo has also since performed at the San Diego Night Market. She remembers it being nerve wracking because there weren’t many people and it was in broad daylight, a far cry from the high school talent shows she was used to. Back then, with the spotlight on her, she couldn’t see the crowd.

“It was humbling to see that my first performance was only in front of a handful of people. It showed me that literally everyone before me started where I was and that I can only go up from here,” said Ngo.

When thinking of her future, Ngo states that she has no immediate plans and that she wants to take things as they come.

“I’m more focused on paying my loans. I have a lot of loans. That school was expensive,” Ngo said.

Because her collaborations have been pre-recorded months ahead of release, she wants to see whether they open any doors for her once they are finally posted online for people to hear.

“And I’m pretty sure they will. And even if they don’t. I’m still living my life creating what I wanna create. I don’t have anyone telling me ‘oh, you can’t do this’ or ‘oh you can’t make this kind of music’. I’m doing what I love for me, and no one else,” Ngo said.

Korin Chao

Written by

Ambitious young creative with an eye for fashion, the arts, and music

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