Artist Information Biography Melissa Bel’s voice is rich, smoky, impassioned and powerful, a rarity in the present-day pop world. When the 20-year-old sings of young love and heartbreak, you feel it. The girl gives it all she got. “I’m most inspired to write a song when I have a feeling or notion inside of me that I need to get out],” says Melissa.  “Along with that is the goal to share a certain emotion with the listener through that song.” Produced by Tom Treumuth (Big Sugar, Honeymoon Suite), her full length debut, Brave, ranges from the feisty call out “Better Things To Do” to the funky/jazzy plea “I Wish You Would Kiss Me,” beautiful ballad “I Hate To Say It” and bluesy pain of “Distance,” all held together by that voice.  An EP is currently available at live shows and via E1 Music (www.melissa-bel.com), and her 10-song European release "Brave" is now available on iTunes. “One of the best things about music is that you can listen to a song written by someone you don’t even know, and feel like it was written about you,” she says.  “Music brings out the similarities in people and their emotions. When you feel like you’re alone in your situation, just one song can reassure you that there’s someone else out there who has felt the same way.” Growing up in Burlington, ON, Melissa was drawn to music from a very early age. “I remember singing in daycare and making people listen to me sing Disney songs,” she laughs. While The Beatles was — and is — her all-time favourite band, she was also drawn to Motown/R&B music, which might account for her own soulful style. “I must’ve been 5 years old and every time I was at my swimming lesson, ‘My Girl’ would come on the PA and I would look forward to that moment every day.” At age 6, after hearing family and strangers praise her singing abilities, she made up her mind to be in the music industry when she grew up. She wrote her first song the following year, a rap called “Believe In Yourself.” She would not write another until her teens. At 14, she picked up guitar and taught herself to play by looking up songs on the Internet and practicing them. She never played publicly unless at home with friends, but she was a self-described “choir nerd” at school and also performed in musicals. She was also given the opportunity to sing the national anthems for the Toronto Marlies (later, she sang at Raptors and Leafs games). As Melissa neared the end of high school, she started contemplating her future. Would she go to university with all her friends or follow the music? She told her singing teacher, noted Canadian musician Ray Lyell, that she decided on university “because that’s the thing to do.”  “He freaked out on me,” she recounts. “’Melissa, you can’t go to school. You need to make music your priority. You can’t throw away what you have.’” In an act of desperation, Ray put her in touch with Tom so she would have incentive not to continue with school. Tom heard a demo Ray had produced and then came to see her play acoustically at an open mic Ray hosted. “I feel like he set the whole thing up,” she laughs. After the three-song performance, Tom sat down with Melissa and her parents and offered to produce her album. The first step, since she didn’t yet have enough material, was to co-write, which she continued to do with Ray as well as with guitarist Sean Ashby (Sarah McLauchlan). The full album includes “Distance,” written with Ray and “Tear This Apart,” “I Wish You Would Kiss Me” and Brave” with Sean. “I wish I was one of those artists [who has creativity just flowing out of them,” says Melissa. “I’m a terrible perfectionist. I drive myself insane, so that slows me down when it comes to songwriting, but I’ve been learning that you have to turn it into a craft as opposed to just writing when you feel like it. “I learned that even if you don’t think an idea is amazing, you have to write it down because every song you write can’t be a hit and it’s better to compile what Ray calls ‘the song junkyard’ so that when you are going through dry spells, you can go back to your songs from before and pick them apart and use lyrics and a melody to create something else.” On Brave, one can hear the struggle of a young woman learning about love, about boys, and wondering if it ever gets any easier. Many were written when she was just 16.  The title track is about being willing to try again. “Get Away With Murder” is about that guy who thinks he can treat you badly with no consequences. “Distance” is about your boyfriend pulling away and you don’t know how to repair the wall. “I Wish You Would Kiss Me” is all about that tension when you are first attracted to someone. And “I Hate To Say It” is about that unimaginable heartbreak that one never wants to go through again. It’s not like we’re hoping Melissa experiences many more years of heartbreak, but if the songs on Brave are what comes out of it, well, we can’t help but hope she at least writes a song when they’re fighting. Instrumentation I can play solo, as a duo, or with a full band depending upon the gig'srequirements. Melissa Bel - Vocals, guitar Discography Melissa-Bel - 2009 EP Melissa-Bel "Brave" - 2009 available on iTunes and being released in Europe Links http://www.melissa-bel.com Band Website Melissa Bel Live - Ain't No Sunshine MySpace Page