Ocean State Sessions Preview: The Psychedelic Soul of Melo Green

This week, we bring you a live performance and interview with Rhode Island psychedelic soul artist Melo Green. It’s part of Ocean State Sessions, a collaboration with our colleagues at Rhode Island PBS. Artscape editor Mareva Lindo spoke with Melo Green earlier this year at Big Nice Studio in Lincoln, R.I., where he and his band performed three songs from his latest album “Laminar Flow.”

I spent a long time just kind of building a concept and trying to figure out what I was going to do. And I came across laminar flow, which is when water appears to be frozen, when it’s not, it’s still moving and it’s in flow. And I really felt like, at the time, when I was really writing and finishing [the album] it was like 2021, so we were still really in the pandemic – and I was like, everyone I think, we’re all kind of in that boat where our lives appear to be stagnant, but we’re still moving. We’re trying to do our best, and everyone’s online, and we’re way more on our phones, more often than we want to be and all that stuff. And I think that just for me, the core definition of the album is like, look, just because I’m not doing anything on the internet doesn’t mean my life isn’t in motion. And at the time it was because I was tinkering away at this album. I was working like 14 hours a day and these are all things that I wasn’t really going to post. And I just felt like, yeah, I think that’s something that resonates with people. Your life isn’t made important by the internet and the phone. It’s made by the things you do and the people you surround yourself with, and the way you treat them.”

Rhode Island PBS

My dad, he was a rapper – he still is a rapper, and he was a producer in the late ‘80s – in the early ‘90s, excuse me. So I grew up just playing around in his studio, and my parents are both really big into music and the arts, and so we would be listening to all kinds of stuff. So that was the beginning influence.

I’ve listened to so much. Different kinds of music. … I think my biggest influences as musicians are like Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis, are really my two – they’re like my grandparents. I listen to them all the time. I still come back to their records all the time, and it’s a really huge part of my writing. And then being left-handed guitar player, people are always saying “you look kind of like Jimi Hendrix.” So it’s like, after a certain point, I just owned it.

It’s sort of a song for musicians. I feel like all of the songs are for people that are kind of like me, I feel. And ”Just Wandering” is, you know, if you’re in the arts or in that environment where you’re doing something that’s marching to the beauty or drum a bit, people tend to make a lot of unbridled suggestions and go like, “Hey, it looks like your life might not be totally together. What if you did, what if you were a teacher? What if you auditioned for The Voice?” And it’s like, well, I’m not lost, I’m just wandering. I think, I’m also a huge “Lord of the Rings” fan. Funny enough, I didn’t intentionally quote J.R.R. Tolkien, but a friend of mine pointed out afterwards … “Not all those who wander are lost” is his.

Rhode Island PBS

It’s kind of about just after you have a breakup with someone that does you dirty, you start to really feel, “oh wow, it’s so easy to be treated fairly. Most people are good.” … The chorus, “all it took was being treated right” – it doesn’t even have to be someone that necessarily loves you or stays with you, it’s just somebody that responds to your text or lets you know that they’re not into you. It’s just simple little things like that. And I think it’s so important for us to have those uncomfortable conversations. And so that’s what that song is about.

• “She’s My Rock”
• “Just Wandering”
• “All it Took”

You can watch video of Melo Green’s Ocean State Session in the premiere of the next season, available July 11 on Rhode Island PBS.