Oakland Trio is a ‘MeloDious’ Family Affair

The members of Oakland music trio MeloDious are all under 20 years of age. Siblings from a musical family, MeloDious combines superb musicianship and a warm and accessible jazz-informed sound, built on a foundation of preternatural music business acumen.

All of the Dempsey siblings started playing instruments when they were quite young; music is part of the family tradition. Their maternal grandfather had his own group, the Ebony Jam Band. “When my mom was growing up, the basement of her house was full of handmade instruments,” says Micaiah Dempsey, keyboardist and eldest member of the group.

Micaiah is 19 years old. When she was two, her grandfather recognized that she had an ear for music. “He would write a song, and I would sing it back to him verbatim,” she recalls. “He told my mom, ‘Put her in music!’” When Micaiah’s grandfather passed away two years later, her mom enrolled Micaiah in piano lessons “as a tribute to him,” she says. “And it just stuck with me. It became my ‘sport.’”

Micaiah’s siblings followed suit. Matthias – now 17 – initially chose bass guitar; Memphis, who’s 15 years old, took up drumming. “We started off playing singing in the choir,” Micaiah says. “One day we realized, ‘Wait a minute – we could all play our instruments together!” Billed as The Dempsey Kids, the siblings began accepting gigs. Soon enough, an uncle in artist promotion who had been booking them approached their manager/mom. “I can’t keep calling them The Dempsey Kids,” he told her. “We need a real name.”

When “Momager” (as her kids playfully named her) woke up the following morning, she heard birds singing in the trees. “That’s very melodious,” she thought. With that, The Dempsey Kids had a new name. “We officially became MeloDious on June 25, 2016,” Micaiah says. The group’s unique spelling represents the initials of each of the three musicians.

The first MeloDious show as a headliner was at Yoshi’s. “We went out on a limb and bet that we could do it,” Micaiah says, admitting that the extramusical preparation was demanding. “We learned a lot about ticket sales and how to promote ourselves,” she says. “But our community really came out for us, and we sold out the show. It was a beautiful feeling.”

That Yoshi’s date was a landmark gig for MeloDious. “It was our proof that hard work pays off,” Micaiah says. She explains that as she and her siblings were growing up, their mother always encouraged them to be curious. “Never be afraid to ask questions,” she told them. “Through every process – whether it’s recording music, booking a festival date for the first time or whatever – we were taught to ask questions and get clarification,” Micaiah says.

The trio plays covers, but writes original music as well.The three musicians each have their own musical preferences, but share an appreciation for an eclectic assortment of artists. Micaiah mentions Esperanza Spalding, Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Sheila E, Mariah Carey and Oakland’s own Fantastic Negrito. “We know what our sound is,” Micaiah says, “but we have the fluidity to dip into anything that we want.” Pausing for effect, she adds, “We love a good yacht rock song, too.”

MeloDious’ set list includes select covers by artists they admire, often recasting the songs into a jazz arrangement “to make the songs feel more like us,” Micaiah says. Other times, they honor the way the original version was arranged. “For, say, a Michael Jackson song, we’re not gonna do a whole bunch of crazy stuff to it,” she says with a laugh.

The trio writes original music as well. Micaiah chooses her words carefully when she describes the group’s collaborative songwriting process as “interesting.” She admits that at first it was challenging to reconcile their differences in the form of new songs. “The solution we came up,” she explains, “was that each of us writes individually, and when a song is 75% finished – when you have a groove and lyrics – you bring it to the group.” At that point, finishing the song becomes “a collaborative experience. We help build up each others’ idea, and we enhance their vision.”

MeloDious released a debut EP, Is It the Way: Volume 1 in 2023. The sessions for that collection marked the siblings’ first time in a recording studio. Recording the basic tracks “was a learning experience,” Micaiah says. “We were in the studio every day, 10 hours a day, for two weeks.” The three musicians are proud of the results, but Micaiah says that they will never again take such an intense approach to recording.

Instead, they prefer the working method used to finish the album. “We worked in our engineer’s basement and garage,” Micaiah says, “just changing and tweaking things” without pressure. “That’s the recording environment I love; you have so much more flexibility to create when you’re not under a time constraint. And it’s more fun.”