Cody Melville — Inspired and Inspiring
The hooks in the music of Cody Melville don’t just come out of thin air, even if the New Yorker does make it sound easy, especially on his latest, Bonds Eye. But the source of his original inspiration may have come from an odd source.
“When I was a kid, I remember those commercials of those Top 40 and Greatest Hits records that they put out,” he laughs. “You’d just get the chorus because they’d run through 10 or 12 on the commercial, and I was so influenced by that. I really understood what a hook was from those commercials. So early on, I was writing what I always felt was these old school, Top 40 AM radio, three-minute pop songs with strong hooks. That was my training.”
Melville learned his K-Tel lessons well, and ten albums later, he is still firing on all cylinders long after many artists become jaded and start going through the motions. But Melville still feels as invested in the music as he’s always been, if not more.
“It’s something I can’t really describe, but it’s an amazing feeling,” he said of life in the biz. “Frankly, I don’t know what I would do in my life if I didn’t have that. I still walk into a guitar shop and there are all the guitars hanging on the wall and my pulse picks up a little bit. It’s still very thrilling to me.”
So despite Bonds Eye being his 10th full-length, when the Dec. 8 release date came around last week, it wasn’t just Friday to him.
“It was exciting making it, it was exciting writing it, and having that release date and the day when it officially comes to life is a pretty cool thing still, no question about it.”
Tonight, Melville will be playing tracks from the album at Bowery Electric, and while these 10 songs are his latest, the well is far from dry because the way he sees it, inspiration is all around him and always will be.
“I’m still very much a fan, so I listen all the time to the stuff that I always loved and then I listen to new things,” he said. “So I’m listening all the time, simply because I love it and you can’t help but be affected by that. And that does influence my own work and inspires me at times. I also read a great deal, so I’ll read something and really get turned on by it, or I’ll see a film and it will spark some kind of emotion or idea in me.”
Then it’s time to pick up his guitar and play, dishing out hooks like he always has.
“Writing has always been my thing,” Melville said. “Had I been around in the days where I could have been one of those Brill Building kids, sitting in a cubicle writing songs as assignments, I would have loved that. Those were amazing days for writers in the music business.”
There’s still a place for them, too, even if you have to look a little harder. That’s fine with Melville, because he’ll be here waiting.
“You keep doing it because you have to do it,” he said. “You have no choice.”
Cody Melville plays Bowery Electric in NYC tonight, Dec. 11. For tickets, click here
For more information on Cody Melville, click here
