The funky Grand Rapids rock band talked about its sophomore project for Local Spins, which also debuted tracks by Tobin Sprout, Brie Stoner, Moon Orchids, Farewell Come April and more.
Progressive Ska? Whatever it is, Melophobix wants it to be ‘an experience, a joy, and a riot.’ (Photo/Nathan Purchase)
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Struggling to define the band’s style due to “insane varieties” of musical influences, Melophobix bassist Ben Steer suggests “progressive ska.”
And while that brings a chortle from guitarist and singer Stefan Schwartz, he concedes that this newly invented genre isn’t too far off the mark for the Grand Rapids band that melds rock, funk, reggae, pop and more into its approach.
“With our kind of gaggle of geese here is that we all listen to insane varieties of music,” Schwartz insists. “Ben can list off names of bands that I’ll never hear unless I hear them out of Ben’s mouth.
“I listen to a broad horizon of European music, a lot of French, German, Italian composers, Dutch music, and then getting into my ska and metal and emo and rap and whatever the heck else that fits my fancy at any given point in time.”
Stefan Schwartz: Forgetting the old, learning the new. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
Melophobix – which plans a March release for its first studio album since 2019’s “Cage-Free” debut – aims to bring “all of those elements into one traffic jam of influences and just let the best foot forward dictate where each song takes,” he added.
“We’ll incorporate a lot of elements of various different genres into a lot of these songs, not because we’re trying to, but just because that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”
Indeed, the forthcoming, sophomore “Retroactive Interference” release rolls out as a two-pronged expression of the band’s eclectic evolution – from a “retroactive” collection of older single to the “slightly more pop-oriented” batch of “interference” tracks that symbolize newer stylings.
Thematically, it’s all about “the act of forgetting old things while learning new ones,” Schwartz said.
The band – Schwartz, Steer, drummer Scotty King, keyboardist Adam Parada, saxophonist Nate Hansen and trumpet player Geoff Hansen – hasn’t exactly taken a hiatus in the intervening six years between album releases.
“We did a lot of gigging. We did a lot of side-hustle projects, if you will,” Schwartz noted. “We released several singles … and mostly it’s just been a matter of finally putting our foot on the brake of everything and really focusing in on, ‘Ok, let’s release a sophomore record.
“The timeliness of the project and what we had to work on it in tying everything together and rally dotting our i’s and crossing out t’s gave us an ability to create how we’ve never really created before – which was both a challenge and an experience.”
HOSTING A MONTHLY ‘GROOVITATIONAL’ OPEN-MIC THAT OOZES COMMUNITY
Melophobix also has placed a priority on its monthly “Groovitational” – band-backed open-mic nights at Turnstiles in Grand Rapids. The unique open-mic sessions that first started many years ago at O’Toole’s Public House attract musicians and singers of every genre for on-the-fly performances.
“Groovitational is something that’s more than your typical open-mic at the pub,” Steer said.
“There is always someone different. … It’s also an excellent community event in Grand Rapids for people who are looking to share a stage. It’s a really nice community event for us all to get together and do something different, do something just for fun.”
Schwartz added that the evenings can feature everything from “joke tellers and spoken-word guys to hip hop, Latin music, jazz, funk, rock, you name it. … We’ve had bands formed at this event.”
At Turnstiles: Melophobix has long hosted this monthly open-mic. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
The Melophobix Groovitational takes place at 9 p.m. the last Friday of every month at Turnstiles, 526 Stocking Ave. NW.
Of course, the band also plans to tour behind the new album, though the only official date on the books currently is a May 9 show at Gun Lake Casino in Wayland, with an album-release show and dates at The Deck in Muskegon in the offing.
At the end of the day, Melophobix just wants to keep its longstanding philosophy intact.
“It’s always been a perpetuation of the ‘Cage-Free’ concept. Anything goes. There’s no right or wrong to songs and their influences, no key phrase of inspiration. We just like to create together, and play off each other’s vibes both on and off the stage for a final result that’s both out of sight and mind at the point of conception,” Schwartz suggested.
“One thing has remained constant though, and that’s just to have fun with it. We don’t want music to ever be a job, a pain, a chore, or an obligation. We want to be an experience, a joy, and a riot.”
For this week’s edition of Local Spins on WYCE – which spotlights music by Michigan artists at 11 a.m. Fridays and 5 p.m. Sundays on WYCE (88.1 FM) and streaming online at wyce.org – Melophobix debuted two tracks from the upcoming album, “Before” and “Pickled Beatz.”
Listen to those tracks and the interview below in the podcast that also featured new music by Brie Stoner, Moon Orchids, Lafayette Gunter Jr., Farewell Come April, Tobin Sprout, Lynn Callihan, Pretoria and The Lasso/The Go Rounds, as well as a track by The Legal Immigrants (this week’s musicians’ pick by Melophobix).
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (2/7/25)
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