New York, New York

One of the great things about the climate that surrounds American music is the sheer number of, not only musicians, but genre's that define them. Almost any sound can be labeled and placed into a category alongside its peers, giving connoisseurs a bevy of options for their listening pleasure. It is in that labeling, however, that the true beauty in music can be lost due to pre-existing ideas about a genre. Many people don't listen for themselves, they just assume certain ideas about a band based on the festivals they play, or whom they tour with. New York's U-Melt has been placed under the category of "Jam Band", but their influences and resulting compositions do not always reside in that territory.

"We've been very influenced by very large jazz ensembles, orchestras, show tunes, and things where there’s a lot of instrumentation, and when we write songs, we have that very much in mind," says Rob Salzer, U-Melt's lead guitarist. "About half of our original songs don't even have jams in them, which probably takes people four or five times to even realize. A lot of twelve-minute compositions have a lot of sections that go on and build so the arc of the song is like a jam, but it's just in the composition. There are some parts in songs that could be a spot for an extended guitar solo, but I may not feel its necessary. Sometimes you gotta’ let a song be a song," he offers.

"We have many different types of songs and they're structured many different types of ways. A lot of our songs aren't necessarily vehicles for improvisation but we have those in the set. A lot of times we'll balance those out in a funky jam. I think classical music manifests itself a lot in our composition in that way," he adds. Salzer plays soaring leads and simmering riffs that can be heard over the bands sweeping arrangements, that dabble in roots blues, electronic, and more progressive feelings.

As accomplished as he is on guitar, Salzer received his early musical training on a stringed instrument of a very different nature, the Violin. He began his training at age eight, which fostered his love of classical music and structured composition. "With all the styles of music we delve in to, we like everything to be orchestrated. With Zac (Lasher) playing so many different types of keyboards, and being able to loop things, and make all sorts of sounds, when we compose, we're hearing it in a very orchestrated manner, as you would hear things on an album. They are things that a band can't necessarily portray live." Salzer states. "I think that's part of the beauty of what we're able to do when we write songs. We write with that in mind to get a live production feeling."

At age twelve, he moved to the guitar and started his ongoing love affair with improvisation. He had been exposed to the free improvisation of fusion rock, and found his new instrument was much more suitable for such exploration. "As a trained violinist, I find it difficult to improv on violin." Salzer relates.  "Its such a rigid training, I even find it difficult to play when I'm not looking at music. I don't formulate ideas playing the violin spontaneously like I do playing guitar cause I never had any formal training. I just applied my music theory knowledge to the guitar, and it automatically became a vehicle for improvisation."

Salzer took that applied knowledge and embarked on a career that led to the formation of U-Melt in 2003 along with George Miller (drums), Zac Lasher (keys), and Adam Bendy (bass). As opposed to having a sole creator, each band member's input is vital in order to achieve the group's complex sound. "Its awesome cause it takes pressure off of everybody. It helps a lot with orchestration." Salzer intimates. "It also makes every band member happier to have them know that they're contributing to the process. Zac and I write the majority of the songs, but everyone helps and ultimately it comes out to what everyone feels it should be. We don't just dictate what it should be to everyone. We write, say, the chords and harmony in the song, but it evolves and gives it a whole new life."

_________________________________ “Some spots in songs lend themselves to jams. If you indentify those spots you can build them up and repeat them.” - Rob Salzer _________________________________

Photo by Jeremy Gordon

 

Part of U-Melt's allure is their electric live show, which is includes their original compositions and is punctuated by their unique renditions of tunes by other artists. The band enjoys paying tribute to the artists that influenced them along their way, including Frank Zappa and The Beatles. "Certain artists that we like we'll play multiple covers of. We did a whole Zappa Album, and we'll keep three or four of his songs in our repertoire. Zappa and the Beatles couldn't be farther apart stylistically, but they do overlap in one way, and that is:  they both had a lot of different styles of music in their repertoire," shares Salzer. "The Beatles evolved tremendously over time, and Zappa was out of his fucking mind; a genius. We like to play multiple genres of music, so both of those bands are perfect for us to express that and pay tribute to geniuses at opposite ends of the spectrum."

Once chosen, covers get the full U-Melt treatment, including added beats and mind-bending jams. "Some songs have spots in them that just lend themselves to jams. Once you identify that spot, you can build it up and repeat it. We did that with The Beatles 'Tomorrow Never Knows’, which is a great ethereal song. George (Miller) did it in rehearsal one day and put a dance beat over it. We decided it was perfect," Salzer says. "Hardly anyone covers 'Tomorrow Never Knows', and lyrically its right on board with what we're recording for the album we're going to be putting out either later this year or early next.

"We love the Beatles. We did this set at a late night festival several years ago and it was Beatles themed. We started at 4am and played till 7am. It was pretty cool. We interwove Beatles songs into our original songs and made them lyrically fit," Salzer shares.  "We started with 'Good Morning'. Towards the end of the set was 'I'm So Tired', and we ended with 'Dear Prudence', which was very lyrically appropriate cause in the chorus its 'The sun is up the sky is blue' and we played it as the sun was coming up so, its was something we thought would be cool."

The band has self-released two records throughout their five year existence, 2004's The Unbelievable Meltdown and 2006's The I's Mind. They have plans to release a third full-length in the coming months, and are currently looking for the best platform to do so. "I think we would be leaning towards having some help. There are plenty of labels out there and they're not all major. If you want to get to the point where you can do it for a living, its unbelievably hard to do so unless you have a tremendous amount of money at your disposal," imparts Salzer. "If you don't, you need help, end of story. No one does it with no money, on their own. Even people who are amazingly talented need someone with capital to get their name and sound to people. The only way to grow is exposure. Word of mouth is a way to grow, but you need exposure to develop word of mouth."

"Things are definitely on the up for us. This next album that we're putting out is by far the most unique thing we've put out. It's the beginning of the U-Melt sound. The first album we put out was showing our influences, and the second album was splitting the difference, showing some of the directions we were going but still showing early influence. This third album is very much representative of who we are as a band."

With a catalogue of complex composition and a knack for taking music and making it their own, U-Melt stand on firm ground in 2008, ready to take on all comers and prove what it means to be a true musician. The band may be thought of as a "Jam Band", but when all is said and done, U-Melt is a rock music consortium with fierce talent and the chops to back up whatever style of music that they feel suits them best.