Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
German skate-punks Melonball are about to release the high-octane LP, Breathe on 31 March. Before the record drops though, singer Oli (Olivia Barth-Jurca ) took some time to discuss the record, what’s next, who they’ve been listening to and the importance of music against a socio-political backdrop like the one we find ourselves faced with.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats in advance on the release of Breathe. What can you tell us about the band and the album?
Thank you so much! We can’t wait to hold BREATHE in our hands and show it to the world. We put so much heart, soul and effort into our debut album and we are really happy with the final result and hope others will like it too. So far it seems like some people are also very excited to hear it. One of the things, that make BREATHE and Melonball so unique, is that we somehow combine these well known typical good old skatepunk tunes with melodic harmonies and give it also a new and fresh twist. Often people say, we remind them of some bands, but they never quite know, which one. For us, that’s a good thing. Having Oli as a singer also gives us some very unique funky jazzy vibes to it, the guitar riffs sometimes also have a splash of metal or posthardcore. We don’t put every song into one corset and let every song have its own ambience and a unique sound.
How has the response you’ve gotten from live crowds been thus far?
We are actually very overwhelmed by what happened to us over the last two years. We first started the band as a bunch of friends, who just enjoyed playing music together. Quite quickly we had so much support and positive feedback from the scene, other bands and of course from our labels Thousand Islands Records and Lockjaw Records. Despite the pandemic we have been playing and travelling a lot right from the beginning. Our second show ever was at the Punk Rock Camp (smaller version of Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia) and we had the chance to open for some absolute rad bands like The Toasters, Belvedere, Punk Rock Factory or A Wilhelm Scream during the first year of our formation. Also we played a bunch of festivals like KNRD Fest and Wasted Open Air and there are more to come. Wherever we have been, we met so many great and inspiring people – we always love to get in touch with other bands and musicians and of course the people at out shows.
The world has been going through some shit over the last few years; a pandemic, attacks on reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, etc. What affect, if any, have the cultural and political landscapes of the last few years had on your music?
We are a band with a strong opinion when it comes to certain topics and everyone who listens to our music will notice. We take a straight anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-discrimination stance and try to act as good as we can in this direction. We do volunteer work and are politically active, raise donations for various causes and just try to act and change topics that we are criticizing in our songs. These are not the only topics though. We also capture or deal with emotions or obstacles we encounter in live. Music is such a great vehicle to do that – it’s sometimes therapeutic or even life-saving to know, that you’re not alone and that there are so many like-minded people. This is also very noticeable on BREATHE. The songs on the album collect social and system-critical topics, channel and break them down to the human feelings that are left at the end and can make you despair sometimes.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
I think it is amazing how the punk rock genre is developing and so many great bands appear on the radar. Of course the “forefathers” like Bad Religion, Pennywise, Millencolin and others influenced what we do, but really it’s the newer generation of bands that gave me the inspiration for what I do today as a musician. Primarily bands with female singers like Not On Tour, The Dead Krazukies or For I Am, as for a long time I thought (and was told) that as a woman with a clean singing voice I cannot be part of the genre. It is still so important to support diversity on the stages and in the minds of people. Also I think we have such a variety of different interpretations of what punk music can be – if you for example take Heathcliff or PMX, DARKO, Captain Asshole or Deadends – they all sound so very different but show so much creativity and love for what they do – and of course are just so much fun to listen to! You should check them out!
Once the world has its hands on Breathe, what’s next for Melonball?
After the release party on April 1st in our Hometown Nuremberg (with Drunktank, Heathcliff and Money Left To Burn) we will be heading to our first tour with shows in Saarbrücken, Antwerp, Brighton, London and at the Manchester Punk Fest. This will be totally rad and we can’t wait to go on the road and on the stages with tour buddies Heathcliff. We already have planned also many other shows with bands like MARCH, Chris Magerl And The Burning Flags and many more. We are also very excited to play outdoor shows at festivals. This summer we are having some shows at “Punk Rock Holiday” in Slovenia and at the warmup show for “Mission Ready Festival”, also at “Balarock Festival” and “Der Karter Bebt”. And we are always working on new songs because we definitely want to keep going and also put out a second album someday.
What do you wish I asked about or that you had more of an opportunity to speak about during this interview?
I would like to point out, how lucky we feel, to be party of the wonderful scene called “punk”. We have met some friends for live and most of the people and bands we meet support each other, help each other out and just like to have a good time and meet like-minded people. I experienced so much positivity among the bands, we help each other out, support with booking and organizing shows or offer places to stay overnight when on tour – this is what make the DIY-scene so great, and I am very grateful to be part of this!
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
