Love Confusion (Part 1)

When you’re an unemployed, female musician in Nashville, you take on odd jobs. Like house sitting, babysitting, grocery shopping & cooking dinner for busy, wealthy people. You also sing demo’s – songs in which other people have written but cannot or do not sing themselves. It’s great, easy money; anywhere from seventy-five to a couple hundred bucks for less than an hour of work. Beats changing a diaper any day. When you sing a demo, it’s a simple arrangement. Show up, sing the song, get your money, leave. There’s no contract or licensing & you’re basically just helping someone “pitch” their music to publishers, other artists, record labels, etc. 

Two years ago (around this same time of year) I had a #1 song on the dance charts in the UK, Japan, Australia & the United States but didn’t even know it. Fast forward to February of the following year. I’m at home, it’s late, I’m probably drinking a nice glass of red wine. I’m also bored. I google myself (because that’s what you do when you’re bored). I proceed to search for myself in YouTube. I find this:

Watch here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqjLl0wZac8

I begin watching it. That’s my voice. That’s not me. This video has had thousands upon thousands of plays. WTF!? I laugh – it’s a pretty ridiculous video. I get confused. I start a google firestorm & throughout the course of the next several days (with the help of multiple people on multiple computers), we find an astonishing amount of webpage’s in an astonishing amount of languages to download the song. My name, my picture & my voice plastered all over the place. Then I come across this:

The song was #7 on a 2008 “best of” list? What does that even mean - downloads, airplay, sales? At this point, I reached out to the original DJ I sang the demo for (not Danny Coggin). Through a series of phone calls & emails, I eventually talked to Danny. He said a lot of crazy things – “the song was #1 on the charts,” “I’ve made over $150,000,” “I’m traveling all over the world,” “the song made me famous,” blah, blah, blah. Still quite confused by the whole thing, I continued to search the web for anything & everything I could find on the song. Eventually, I found a feature on DJ Danny Coggin, a.k.a. Rising Star. The interview clarified several key issues for me, like the fact that I had a #1 song in 4 countries:

“Two of his most successful releases being, True Feelings & Love Confusion where both of these tracks ran up the dance music charts in several countries including the UK, Europe, United States and Australia with Love Confusion hitting number one in all of these Countries on 2nd September 2008 where it remained for several weeks, over and above some of the worlds best known artists such as Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Solarstone, Aly and Fila, and Chicane just to name a few. He has also done several hardcore remixes for some well known artists such Cascada, Liz Kay, Lady GaGa, Jordin Sparks, and Styles & Breeze.”

Yep, it’s true, I'm #1 recording artist in a genre (Trance - Happy Hardcore) that I didn’t even know existed. How hardcore is that? Okay, bad pun.

To be continued…it gets better.

Love Easy - Melissa Fuller

The Mole & the Music

Lately, I’ve been like a mole. Not like the one next to Cindy Crawford’s lip and definitely not like the spy/informant. More like the little mole that’s really busy digging tunnels underground. Expect I’m not burrowing; I’m creating music. So, I guess that’s a bad analogy.

Anyway, my amazing mole tunnel is about to hit the surface. We’ve been recording for the past 3 weeks and are getting closer and closer to having something to share! Tonight, I’m playing several of the new songs at a Writers Round with a few friends in Nashville. If you’re in the area, check it out! If not, I might just be “a dear” (as people in the South say) & post video from tonight’s show. Either way, get ready. I’m about to bust out!