Keeping it Real With Melissa Giges

If you’re a lover of reality TV, you may have heard the clear, mesmerizing vocals and hauntingly beautiful lyrics of singer-songwriter Melissa Giges. Her music has been featured on shows like MTV’s Real World, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Bad Girls Club and Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami. And her heartfelt debut album, Evident, won her a loyal following that traveled way beyond the reality-show circuit.

Next month, Giges returns with her second album, Just When I Let Go, an introspective yet raw exploration of relationships. The album’s first single, “Audience,” is an empowering look back at an emotionally draining union (“You took anything I’d give/Then you’d offer the breath when I couldn’t breathe.”) that enables Giges to flaunt her songwriting chops.

A native New Yorker, Giges began playing piano at age 4. She majored in classical voice as a Presidential Arts Scholar at George Washington University, where she was part of a Latin band and started writing her own music. Since then, her career path has led to performances at the White House and the Kennedy Center, as well as a European concert series.

Here, Giges talks to Red Typewriter about the intimate nature of the new album, how it feels to hear her songs played on reality shows, blogging as a side gig and learning to play the glockenspiel.

Red Typewriter: You’ve said the new album is more personal than your first. How so?

Melissa Giges: On the first album, there were some hidden messages in the songs, but the recurring theme was about realizing your need to speak up and express how you feel, whether other people like it or not. When you speak your mind, you’re being vulnerable because you don’t know how the other person is going to react. I used to be nervous or scared of how people might react, but as you get older and more mature you realize you have to be yourself no matter what happens. I had no option—I just had to be honest with myself and with other people. On the new album, there’s an empowerment tone to most of the songs and a message about how I’ve learned and grown from different relationships I’ve been through. A couple of the songs on Just When I Let Go are about one specific [romantic] relationship, but there are also songs about different relationships with family, friends and other people in my life. I think there’s a sadness in some of the songs, but they also reflect what I needed to experience in order to get where I am today.

RT: What is your songwriting process?

MG: I don’t have a specific process. For example, yesterday I was sitting down at the piano and came up with some chords that felt good to me. I usually just feel it out, and whether the chords end up being major or minor depends on the mood I’m in. But there are other times I’m inspired by something someone might say or something I’m going through and I’ll write it down right away and take it to the piano. I’ll sit with it for a while and later try to find a way to make it into a song.

RT: You’ve had some pretty classy gigs, having performed at both the White House and the Kennedy Center. How different is it to hear your songs on reality TV?

MG: It’s a lot of fun and a great way to get your music out there. I had my songs on the season premier of The Real World Brooklyn and in promo. The most interesting part is when they play the song in the show and you see how it’s interpreted. I may have written the song to mean one thing, but it may be used to express something [entirely different]. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the songs on the new album will be placed.

RT: The music industry is in an interesting state of flux. There’s a lot of opportunity, especially for independents, but also challenges. What’s your take?

MG: There are definitely challenges in the industry right now, but I feel so lucky because I have a great label [ECR Music Group] of amazing and talented artists who all help each other out. Blake Morgan is my producer, and he and some of my friends played most of the instruments on the new album. Janita is an artist whose band I play piano in, and artist David Cloyd did all the artwork for my albums. So yes, the industry has changed a lot, but I really feel like I’m in a great place with a great home. We really support each other, and I also get the creative freedom to make a lot of my own decisions.

RT: OK, this question is begging to be asked. On the new album you’re credited with playing the glockenspiel. When did you pick it up?

MG: [Laughs] It’s a new thing for me. I learned the glockenspiel and debuted on the tambourine for one of Blake Morgan’s shows last year, and after that we decided we’d put the glockenspiel on the new album. I’m always out learning new instruments. I have a blog and in one of my posts I talked about all the things I hadn’t done but wanted to do, and one of them was learning how to play the drums. I haven’t started yet, but I just picked up the guitar yesterday. It’s going to be a challenge, but one I’m looking forward to.

To find out what instrument Melissa is learning next, check out her blog. Or listen to her newly released single, “Audience,” below.