Darryl Melo

Born in Toronto, Ontario. I grew up in Toronto as well as Mississauga.

While in school in Toronto, I started singing and once tried out for St. Michaels Choir. It wasn’t for a few years later that I first picked up the guitar around grade 6 or 7.

At this point I was just finding my musical taste but mainly started playing because my brother had recently started playing guitar as well. I am completely self-taught, starting out by reading tablature and picking things up by ear. I also had a childhood friend who taught me some things. I began my journey learning “Come As You Are” by Nirvana and a bunch of Silverchair tunes. It wasn’t until I found the Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead that I had more of an appreciation for the combination of sweet melodies and how the sound with vocals. Sometime in between there I got my first electric guitar, a Fender Stratocaster.

From then on I started a band in highschool and knew from there I would never stop playing. I later created a band called Willowbank after highschool. It was a lot of fun, this is where I started showcasing my original songs. After the band was over I took a lengthy break.

It wasn’t until some life events that started my progression back into music. I was invited by some friends in The Back Alley Ringers to come out to open jam nights in October of 2011. I had so much fun playing a stage again that in 2012 I decided to record a proper EP of my original songs.

In June of 2012 I went into the Shop studios and recorded my EP, titled “These Open Arms”. Taking 6 songs and doing it as raw as possible, so I made it all acoustic. The first single off the EP is “Fallin’”, it was played on cfre radio with great success. From here it’s where the road will take me.