There’s room for a whole lotta romance underneath Mel Go Hard’s umbrella of R&B. Inside the shelter of her new EP After The Storm, intimate secrets smooth over “Troubled Waters,” declarations of newfound independence clash with hard-to-break habits, and area artists bear love’s battle scars with pride. The Boston producer and engineer even bills the project as a compilation, dedicated to portraying the different phases of relationship we’ve all had the fortune — or misfortune — of experiencing.
And she’s unpacking love’s archetypes from every angle.
“Many of these artists I’ve had relationships with for years, and I did not want the project to feel ‘one sided,'” Mel Go Hard, real name: Melissa Sanon, tells Vanyaland. “It was important to get both perspectives, in this aspect, so that there could be a little something for everyone.”
Sanon tapped mostly Boston musicians to do the storytelling, featuring artists like Amandi Music, SING, MityMaose, HAKIM (f.k.a. Keem LeAmour), and Atikin Rose across the EP’s seven silky tracks. Yet despite the variety of voices, After The Storm‘s storybook manages to simultaneously follow Sanon’s own through-line of creative perseverance during the pandemic.
“The theme hits home, as many [people] have struggled maintaining strong bonds since the world changed throughout the pandemic,” Sanon notes. “During that time, I felt like I was in a ‘storm,’ and being locked down for two years really exacerbated those dark thoughts and depression after a tumultuous break up. As a creative person, I’m always in my head by default and the pandemic was a gift in a curse because it forced me to dig deep and explore more ideas, melodies, sounds but also look at myself and evaluate my self-worth… The final song ‘The Reign’ really wraps up the album because the ‘rain’ has passed but ‘The Reign’ has begun. So currently my life is ‘After the Storm’ and I’m much happier and confident in myself and everything I put my all into.
To summarize with lyric from “Reign:” These days, “it’s all sunshine over here.”
Check out After The Storm below.
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