Ricky Sans Songwriting Process

Melee Guitarist Discusses The Songs On New Album Devil's & Angels

May 1, 2007

With the new CD fresh in the stores, Melee guitarist Ricky Sans explains the band's songwriting process in part two of our special series of interviews here at Suite101.

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. Here, in the second part of my interview with him, Ricky talks about Melee's songwriting process and how music will never get in the way of friendship.

Ricky Sans Interview Part 2: The Songwriting Process

Suite: So the actual name Melee; where did that come from? It seems to suggest chaos (laughs).

Ricky: Yeah, that came from when we were younger (laughs). We were just looking around in the dictionary, and that was a really cool word and we just adopted it. With it meaning a free for all, we felt it was kind of symbolic of our musical style, where we like to think we cover all bases.

Suite: Although the album's quite a poppy album, it's still got a pretty dark undertone as far as the lyrics are concerned. Is something like Imitation (that tells of a girlfriend of Ricky's dealing with the news that her sister is schizophrenic) easier or harder to write, considering the background to the song?

Ricky: All the songs that Chris and I write are like student consciousness – we don't really try too hard to force something out, you know? Although our music has this upbeat feel, we like the fact that our lyrics have an uneasy feel to them. The subject matter for Imitation fell perfectly for that song. I think sometimes the problem is that people hear a song and hear that it's happy, so ignore the lyrics. We try and write in a universal way, so that you almost have to listen to the lyrics. It's not always the easiest way to write, but it's cool. There's a band like Third Eye Blind, and you listen to their music and you think it's just upbeat pop music. But then you hear the lyrics and they're talking about crystal meth addiction and all sorts of crazy stuff, but it can be easier to get your message across if you make it a little more digestible, and that's what we try to do.

Suite: You and Chris are the main songwriters, and you've said in the past that you often "butt heads" because you have different outlooks on how a song should sound. How do you overcome this and come up with a finished song?

Ricky: It's really a bit of give and take and compromise, and we'll both agree that enough's enough. Some other times, though, we just can't agree and we'll stay up all night trying to get a song finished, and it'll pretty much be up to Ryan and Mike to kind of step in and tell us what they like, and we go with that.

Suite: It must be good that you can do that, with the band all being friends as opposed to just four guys who know each other and make music together?

Ricky: Oh yeah, and that's what's cool. It's not like we have these huge egos that can't take criticism, you know? We can all say what we feel, and even though at times we may not be able to settle arguments quite well when it comes to writing songs, I know where Chris is coming from and it makes the dynamic that much more easier to work; it's more like just a family fight as opposed to anything that would ever get out of control. We all love each other and that allows us to know how to fight, and where to draw the line.

The copyright of the article Ricky Sans Songwriting Process in Indie Music is owned by Danny Brown. Permission to republish Ricky Sans Songwriting Process in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.