| Melodrom | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Slovenia |
| Genres | Electronic Experimental music Alternative music Synthpop |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Labels | Nika Records |
| Members | |
| Mina Špiler Matevž Grad Matej Nolda Miha žargi Polona Janežič |
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Melodrom are: Mina Špiler (vocals), Matevž Kolenc (guitar, programming), Miha Žargi (bass), Matej Nolda (drums) and Polona Janežič (keyboards). The band create everything by themselves: from music and lyrics through videos to design. All members of the band are still students: three study at the Faculty of Arts, while two study architecture.
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Melodrom (originally Marquee) was founded in 1999 in cafe Marilyn at Slovenian Cinematheque, for the purpose of creating a soundtrack for a new film by Jurij Meden. The line-up has remained the same ever since. Following Meden's suggestion, the band started rehearsing immediately and in the beginning of the year 2000 they recorded the film soundtrack in KifKif studio. Nevertheless, the film was never actually shot. Initially, the band's purpose was to create music for theater performances and shows. They recorded music for the theatre performance Zvitorepka, directed by Aleš Korpič, and various dance performances by Bara Kolenc, including Razobraz (2001), Čečečečebula (2002), Brezdno (2004) and, most recently, Zimska pravljica (2004) by Borut Bučinel. In the autumn of 2002 the band collaborated with the designer Uroš Belantič of the Oktober fashion house to create the music for their spring/summer 2003 collection fashion show. The catalogue representing the collection was accompanied by Melodrom’s promotional first single. Melodrom’s “proper and independent” band career began in March 2001 with the concert in Gromka club at Metelkova mesto. They started preparing material and recorded their first demos. Some of the recordings found their way to Radio Študent station, were aired successfully and, consequently, the song Extemporary Ending (called Pet petnajst in the Slovene version) reached fourth place on the International Crossradio chart of best singles of 2001. In 2004 they reached seventh place with the song Duet. After the first recordings and initial radio success, the band had increasingly more concerts. A few concerts in Slovenia and Croatia (Močvara) established them as a promising young band and thus they were selected for the second Club Marathon tour organized by Radio Student which enabled them to have concerts all over Slovenia. They also played in Austria, Germany and Serbia and Montenegro.
In July 2003 the recording of the first full-length was completed in studio Hymnos with the producer Jaka Jarc. The group planned to release the album on their own in October 2003. They recorded the first video Prenzlauer Allee which was aired successfully on the national and commercial TV stations. However, due to good reviews and interest from record companies the group postponed the release of the album. After months of negotiating, Melodrom signed to Nika Records in February 2004. After some additional recording sessions and translation of some song lyrics, originally written in English, into Slovene, the album went through the production process again under the careful eye of Iztok Turk. It was finally released in September 2004 under the title Melodrom. It has been chosen for the album of the year 2004 by Polet and Vikend magazines and the Videospotnice TV music show. In 2005 the album was rereleased in English version by Mascom Records.
Melodrom have collaborated with DJ Umek and the band Rotor, and Mina has worked with Laibach on their remix of the song Ohne Dich (Mina Harker's Version) by Rammstein. She also joined Laibach on their Volk tour in 2006 as a replacement for Boris Benko of Silence.