Biography
Dan Melchior, a wide-ranging and stylistically diverse artist, initially surfaced within the Medway music community that also spawned Billy Childish and Holly Golightly, with whom he collaborated, before developing a singular profile through his distinctive strain of lo-fi pop. Early recordings championed unrefined, blues-steeped material on 1999's This Love Is Real, yet 2002's Bitterness, Spite, Rage and Scorn introduced substantial low-tech garage rock elements. Gritty rock & roll tempered by pop instincts shaped 2011's Catbird and Cardinals, after which 2017's Melpomene explored experimental terrain through layers of distorted and processed sound.
Born in 1972 in the English town of Chertsey near Shepperton in Surrey, Melchior began self-taught guitar lessons at age 17. After passing through several undistinguished teenage bands, he founded the Loaded Souls in 1995. Though the group dissolved quickly, a promoter who witnessed their performances urged them to submit a tape to Billy Childish at Hangman Records. Childish responded favorably to Melchior's raw yet forceful blues guitar work and vivid songwriting, directing him toward chanteuse Holly Golightly. Melchior supplied guitar on Golightly's 1997 album Painted On, produced by Childish, and contributed a song to the collection; he subsequently recorded multiple albums, singles, and EPs with Golightly across ensuing years while also serving in her road band. He additionally cut the 1998 duo album Devil in the Flesh with Childish.
Melchior issued his debut solo single, "Wrong Inside" b/w "Crow Jane," in 1998 and launched the first version of Dan Melchior's Broke Revue in 1999, releasing This Love Is Real. That year he met American artist and musician Letha Rodman; the pair became romantically involved, prompting his relocation to New York City in 2000. Once established there, Melchior assembled a fresh Broke Revue lineup that included Rodman and recorded and toured extensively over the following years, issuing several albums on In the Red Records and Sympathy for the Record Industry. He gradually departed from the blues-inflected garage approach of his formative work, an evolution signaled by the 2002 solo album title This Is Not the Medway Sound, and in 2004 he disbanded the Broke Revue to pursue lo-fi material emphasizing pop and psychedelic qualities alongside his incisive and reflective songwriting.
Melchior reemerged with the 2006 album Hi, I'm Dan Melchior and resumed ensemble work through Das Menace. After he and Rodman moved to Durham, North Carolina, in 2007, he told reporter Mark Kemp in 2011, "I didn't know that much about [the North Carolina music scene] before I moved, but luckily I couldn't have made a better choice." Melchior sustained steady output in North Carolina, releasing material across assorted independent labels. In 2015, following a decade-long pause, he revived the Broke Revue for the LP Lords of the Manor, which adopted a more minimalist and improvisational stance. The 2016 two-volume anthology Filthy Frozen River Rag, Vols. 1 & 2 gathered previously unreleased recordings. He delivered the solo album Melpomene the next year. In 2019 he issued Exhibit A, a set of melodic, acoustic-based pieces recorded in tandem with guitarist P.G. Six.
Born in 1972 in the English town of Chertsey near Shepperton in Surrey, Melchior began self-taught guitar lessons at age 17. After passing through several undistinguished teenage bands, he founded the Loaded Souls in 1995. Though the group dissolved quickly, a promoter who witnessed their performances urged them to submit a tape to Billy Childish at Hangman Records. Childish responded favorably to Melchior's raw yet forceful blues guitar work and vivid songwriting, directing him toward chanteuse Holly Golightly. Melchior supplied guitar on Golightly's 1997 album Painted On, produced by Childish, and contributed a song to the collection; he subsequently recorded multiple albums, singles, and EPs with Golightly across ensuing years while also serving in her road band. He additionally cut the 1998 duo album Devil in the Flesh with Childish.
Melchior issued his debut solo single, "Wrong Inside" b/w "Crow Jane," in 1998 and launched the first version of Dan Melchior's Broke Revue in 1999, releasing This Love Is Real. That year he met American artist and musician Letha Rodman; the pair became romantically involved, prompting his relocation to New York City in 2000. Once established there, Melchior assembled a fresh Broke Revue lineup that included Rodman and recorded and toured extensively over the following years, issuing several albums on In the Red Records and Sympathy for the Record Industry. He gradually departed from the blues-inflected garage approach of his formative work, an evolution signaled by the 2002 solo album title This Is Not the Medway Sound, and in 2004 he disbanded the Broke Revue to pursue lo-fi material emphasizing pop and psychedelic qualities alongside his incisive and reflective songwriting.
Melchior reemerged with the 2006 album Hi, I'm Dan Melchior and resumed ensemble work through Das Menace. After he and Rodman moved to Durham, North Carolina, in 2007, he told reporter Mark Kemp in 2011, "I didn't know that much about [the North Carolina music scene] before I moved, but luckily I couldn't have made a better choice." Melchior sustained steady output in North Carolina, releasing material across assorted independent labels. In 2015, following a decade-long pause, he revived the Broke Revue for the LP Lords of the Manor, which adopted a more minimalist and improvisational stance. The 2016 two-volume anthology Filthy Frozen River Rag, Vols. 1 & 2 gathered previously unreleased recordings. He delivered the solo album Melpomene the next year. In 2019 he issued Exhibit A, a set of melodic, acoustic-based pieces recorded in tandem with guitarist P.G. Six.
Albums
