April 1992 - The Birth
This is not the exact date of when it all started. In april 1992 the band gained its shape and gto a really descent studio to start real rehearsals; songwriting began; and line-up was stable for some time. The name "Melissa" was received later, in July 1992 on a local rock-festival. Band origin is a small town Obninsk, located 100km southwest from Moscow.
The original line-up consisted of 5 members. Due to differences in musical ideas, tastes and individual growth of each member the line-up has been changing throughout the first two years of band existence. Yet these days were very important to the musical growth of a band .
Since the very beginning only two original band members remained - Nick T. and Paul G. (both playing guitars). Paul and Nick's long friendship led to the band establishment itself and also contributed in writing all the stuff the band played. In 1993 the line-up became stable and consisted of 4 members:
- Nick Touzov - Guitar, Vocals
- Paul Ginkin - Guitar, Bass
- Paul Droban - Drums
- Sergey Olkhovsky - Bass
1994-1996 First contract / First release
This line-up existed until 1997. The band released three demos before they signed a contract with a record label "MetalAgen" in 1995. Melissa played on the III DeathRider Festival in Moscow in April 1995. Few weeks later the full 45 minutes album entitled "In Mourning" was recorded and in September 1995 it was out on MetalAgen with support of a huge distributor "Soyuz" on ex-USSR territory. The album received very good reviews, MELISSA performed later on several festivals both in Moscow and St.Petersburg.
1997 Dark ages
1997 was the year of relaxation due to the departure of the drummer. The band planned to record a new album in April 1997, but due to problems with the drummer, who used to do all sound engineering stuff, the record session was cancelled. The delay in band activity led in its turn to other more complicated difficulties. The new material was not completed and the band stopped rehearsing in April 1997. Besides, MELISSA had to cancel two major and very promising performances.
In October 1997 two original members - Nick T. and Paul G. continued to work on the next album. New professional studio equipment was purchased, new songs composed. MELISSA would like to thank all metal fans especially those who helped us over the Internet to keep going!
1997-1998 Back to life
Nick, Paul and Sergey finally gathered again in MELISSA studio with 8 new songs to rehearse and later MELISSA gained a session drummer Alexander A. He learned the new material very quickly, giving MELISSA 's sound new cool features. MELISSA started recording the new album, "In Peace..?" and it was finished in the end of March, 1998, after two intense months of hard work.
1999-2003 Latest events.
In June 1999, more than a year after the recording was finished, "In Peace..?" was released on an independent label "Matek records" on a CD. Since 1996 the band played only local shows until December 2000 - Melissa played on "Banzay" metal fest in St.Petersburg, which was a defeinite come-back for a band.
During these years several musicians helped Melissa with live performances - we would like to name them and thank very much for keeping us going. They are - Sergey Bondarenko (keyboards, bass), Alexander Mamonov (saxophone), Roman Tchinnikov (drums), Vladimir Tchutchelov (percussion, rehearsal base, sound engineering), Sergey Pasov (violin) and Pavel Droban who played several gigs with Melissa again.
In January-March 2000 new album was almost recorded but not mixed. The reason is that two band-members - Alexander A. and Sergey O. left for US to play in anopther project - "Bering Strait". The music is totally different from what the guys play in MELISSA - it is mostly country-music. And the guys get nominated for the best country instrumental "Bearing Straight" for GRAMMY 2003 award!
Melissa finally finishes recording of the new album - "Living in a Daymare" in August - September 2003. The single "So Loud" is planned for early spring 2003 release on "SOYUZ records" label and the album will see the light later with one more instrumental track to be added to 10 other ones. The music style ones again changes and now it becomes completely impossible to label Melissa with any of the traditional styles, be it death metal or thrash ro whatever. The album containes even country-influenced tracks or Bob Dylan-like ballads or Obituary-ish or jazzy tracks.
More information about the albums can be found in the "Music" section.
