The places and faces
which conspire to make us
who we are ...

  Biography  

... the common threads
which shape our lives

Lismore, 1965

Melissa was born in Lismore, NSW, in 1965 to a family where there was always singing and music in the house. Melissa's earliest memories are of sitting on top of the piano whilst her father played and her mother sang along. Indeed, all the children learnt to play a musical instrument.

Classical Training

Melissa is an accomplished, classically trained musician. In her teens, her brother Simon introduced her to Iron Butterfly, Jimi Hendrix and Tangerine Dream to ensure her palate was broadened. At sixteen, Melissa played in the Copland College Jazz Band, where she began to sing, jam and improvise in a more public forum.

Stringy Bark

In her late teens, Melissa met her lifelong partner, Brian, and formed the folk band Stringy Bark where she held up her end singing as well as playing the keyboard and tin whistle. But that wasn't enough for Melissa who yearned to explore other musical forms. During the last fifteen years, Melissa has played in a rockband (Moonlighters), a four-piece ensemble (Muscovy Duque), a contemporary duo (Black Velvet), a contemporary solo/duo (Tuesday) and an axe-wielding, country-pop-soul-metal-ska flying circus (Hollowpoint).

Mutant Ninja Turtles

Melissa has three children, Chris, Keira and Luke, and it was with each of their births that she turned commitedly to songwriting. As such, her first songs were written especially for children but she has since developed a more intensely personal and contemporary style. It was the maturing of this style that prompted the release of Melissa's debut album, 'Faces, Places'.
Melissa and Keira together composed the lyrics to the opening track, Tuesday, making this a special song for them both.

A Bee Beside the Seaside

In 1998, Melissa and Brian responded to a call they had both heard all their lives. They packed up the kids, the cat and the dog and moved to the North Coast of NSW and to a beach lifestyle they knew would provide all the peace, clarity and inspiration they could ask.
 
As much as this move to the coast comprised a realisation of the family's dreams, it also stood as an allegory for Melissa to follow her heart and consent to the attendant risks.

More Mutant Ninja Turtles

Whilst working and recording as a contemporary artist, Melissa still reserves time to share her love of music with children. For many years she has offered private piano tuition and holds a certificate in Early Childhood Music. She has been employed as 'resident pianist' at Centaur Primary in Tweed Heads where she directed the junior and senior choirs as well as other school activites requiring music such as special assemblies.

Currently, Melissa is the music tutor at Banora Point Primary in Tweed Heads. Melissa enjoys this work immensely and the chance it offers to see music playing a decisive role in someone's personal development. Her accomplishments at Centaur have led to contract work with various other schools in the region including the direction of practice sessions for the Murwillumbah Eisteddfod. Lately, Melissa has been opening up new doors for the direction of her own original music by once more becoming a student herself, studying jazz piano.

They call her 'Flipper'

With the release of 'Faces, Places', Melissa soon found her music getting attention between the gigs where audiences had already been "...drawn into [her] natural warm, sexy style and gorgeous vocals..." (AMMA Magazine [15]). Regional airplay and newspaper reviews added a whole new dimension of feedback which culminated in nominations for industry awards - Semi-Finalist for 'Come Fall' (Folk) and 'Breathe In Breathe Out' (Acoustic Rock/Folk) in the Muscoz National Music Competition and Finalist for 'Breathe In Breathe Out' in two categories (Female Vocal and New Recording Talent) in the North Coast Entertainment Industry Association Dolphin Awards.

flipper