Ricky Sans Past And Present
Guitarist From Californian Indie Band Melee Talks Label Changes
Ricky Sans of Melee talks to Suite101 in a special series of interviews. Here in part one, he discusses his new CD "Devil's & Angels" and moving to a bigger label.
- Genre: indie / pop / rock
- Chris Cron (vocals / keyboards / guitar), Ricky Sans (guitar / vocals), Ryan Nalloy (bass / vocals), Mike Nader (drums)
- Sounds like: Keane, Ben Folds Five, Coldplay
- Home: Orange County, California
- Melee
Sunshine In Dark Places
Coming from the sunshine state of Orange County, California and with music giant Warner Bros currently promoting their new album Devil's & Angels (which will be reviewed on Suite101 soon), it's easy to understand why the music of Melee is so upbeat and undeniably happy. Yet this isn't just another run-of-the-mill Californian band singing about sun, sea and all other connotations; songs about mental problems and suicidal thoughts stand Melee out from many of their contemporaries.
Currently on a massive North American tour that runs until the end of May before hopefully hitting the UK in June, Melee recently played in Toronto where Suite101 caught up with guitarist and co-songwriter Ricky Sans to discuss the darker side of pop rock. In part one of our interview with him, Ricky talks about making the switch from indie label to major.
Ricky Sans Interview Part 1: Past and Present
Suite: The new album just got released last week – how's the feedback on that going?
Ricky: It's been totally crazy, in a good way. Seeing some of the reviews come through, looking it up on Google and the likes, there's a lot of good things being said about it. We worked really hard on it, and the feedback's been so positive that we're just all really happy at the way it's going. What's been really interesting is that normally with reviews, you get people praising some songs then slating others, but we've been lucky so far that with all the different spectrums on our album, everybody's just been saying really nice stuff.
Suite: With the last album, you released on an indie label, whereas on this one you've got Warner Bros behind you. How's the transition been?
Ricky: It's been really cool. I mean, you always hear little horror stories about a smaller band being on a major label, but so far we've had a better experience than when we were on the indie label. Everyone has the same vision as us, and they have the means to blow everything out of the water. The good thing is that they're really behind us, but building us slowly. There's not much pressure there; I mean, there are expectations, but they're more for further down the line. It's an old cliché, but it's not a case of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, it's just bit by bit and seeing what happens.
Suite: For a new band, you do seem to be getting good support from a major label.
Ricky: Yeah, that is definitely a booster for us. I mean, obviously the likes of My Chemical Romance are going to come before us, but at the same time, Warner's are getting us out there and really supporting us with the new album. We do sometimes feel that we lucked out, but at the same time, we have worked really hard to get where we are today. It's always part luck and part work.
Suite: The fact that you managed to sell 15,000 copies of your debut Everyday Behaviour on a small indie label (which led to a bidding war for Melee which Warner Bros won) must have helped with how much support the label offers you?
Ricky: Exactly, since we definitely knew that Warner's wanted us, which is why we swayed towards them. I mean, it took us a year to get out of the contract at the indie label we were on previously, but that proved to be really good, because Warner Bros never gave up, at all. For a full year they waited on us, and that was so flattering, it just made us so comfortable with the transition.
