![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/melodious.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
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. \u201cWhen my mom was growing up, the basement of her house was full of handmade instruments,\u201d says Micaiah Dempsey, keyboardist and eldest member of the group.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Micaiah is 19 years old. When she was two, her grandfather recognized that she had an ear for music. \u201cHe would write a song, and I would sing it back to him verbatim,\u201d she recalls. \u201cHe told my mom, \u2018Put her in music!\u2019\u201d When Micaiah\u2019s grandfather passed away two years later, her mom enrolled Micaiah in piano lessons \u201cas a tribute to him,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd it just stuck with me. It became my \u2018sport.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Micaiah\u2019s siblings followed suit. Matthias \u2013 now 17 \u2013 initially chose bass guitar; Memphis, who\u2019s 15 years old, took up drumming. \u201cWe started off playing singing in the choir,\u201d Micaiah says. \u201cOne day we realized, \u2018Wait a minute \u2013 we could all play our instruments together<\/i>!\u201d 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. \u201cI can\u2019t keep calling them The Dempsey Kids,\u201d he told her. \u201cWe need a real name.\u201d<\/p>\n
When \u201cMomager\u201d (as her kids playfully named her) woke up the following morning, she heard birds singing in the trees. \u201cThat\u2019s very melodious,\u201d she thought. With that, The Dempsey Kids had a new name. \u201cWe officially became MeloDious on June 25, 2016,\u201d Micaiah says. The group\u2019s unique spelling represents the initials of each of the three musicians.<\/p>\n
The first MeloDious show as a headliner was at Yoshi\u2019s. \u201cWe went out on a limb and bet that we could do it,\u201d Micaiah says, admitting that the extramusical preparation was demanding. \u201cWe learned a lot about ticket sales and how to promote ourselves,\u201d she says. \u201cBut our community really came out for us, and we sold out the show. It was a beautiful feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Yoshi\u2019s date was a landmark gig for MeloDious. \u201cIt was our proof that hard work pays off,\u201d Micaiah says. She explains that as she and her siblings were growing up, their mother always encouraged them to be curious. \u201cNever be afraid to ask questions,\u201d she told them. \u201cThrough every process \u2013 whether it\u2019s recording music, booking a festival date for the first time or whatever \u2013 we were taught to ask questions and get clarification,\u201d Micaiah says.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s own Fantastic Negrito. \u201cWe know what our sound is,\u201d Micaiah says, \u201cbut we have the fluidity to dip into anything that we want.\u201d Pausing for effect, she adds, \u201cWe love a good yacht rock song, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
MeloDious\u2019 set list includes select covers by artists they admire, often recasting the songs into a jazz arrangement \u201cto make the songs feel more like us,\u201d Micaiah says. Other times, they honor the way the original version was arranged. \u201cFor, say, a Michael Jackson song, we\u2019re not gonna do a whole bunch of crazy stuff to it,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
The trio writes original music as well. Micaiah chooses her words carefully when she describes the group\u2019s collaborative songwriting process as \u201cinteresting.\u201d She admits that at first it was challenging to reconcile their differences in the form of new songs. \u201cThe solution we came up,\u201d she explains, \u201cwas that each of us writes individually, and when a song is 75% finished \u2013 when you have a groove and lyrics \u2013 you bring it to the group.\u201d At that point, finishing the song becomes \u201ca collaborative experience. We help build up each others\u2019 idea, and we enhance their vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
MeloDious released a debut EP, Is It the Way: Volume 1<\/i> in 2023. The sessions for that collection marked the siblings\u2019 first time in a recording studio. Recording the basic tracks \u201cwas a learning experience,\u201d Micaiah says. \u201cWe were in the studio every day, 10 hours a day, for two weeks.\u201d The three musicians are proud of the results, but Micaiah says that they will never again take such an intense approach to recording.<\/p>\n
Instead, they prefer the working method used to finish the album. \u201cWe worked in our engineer\u2019s basement and garage,\u201d Micaiah says, \u201cjust changing and tweaking things\u201d without pressure. \u201cThat\u2019s the recording environment I love; you have so much more flexibility to create when you’re not under a time constraint. And it\u2019s more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,42,51],"tags":[5625],"class_list":["post-29035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-jazz","category-pop","tag-melodious","cat-41-id","cat-42-id","cat-51-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29037,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29035\/revisions\/29037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}