News: Melissa Hale releases the EP "Ready To Be Found"

A little fiery but chill, Melissa Nicole Hale is a red headed Italian-Canadian finding her ground in America by way of the scruffy city of Knoxville, TN. Growing up in the outskirts of Toronto, Canada and spending the summers working on her family farm, Melissa discovered music during after school programs when her parents worked late in the fields and at the market when school season started. First came dance classes, then piano lessons and guitar and voice lessons followed. She found herself growing in her personal art form but also wanted to grow in her knowledge of the music industry through artist management college in 2012. Her mind got the best of her and things got rough so she found herself running from music and a passion that had been growing in her for so long. After years of healing, finding her worth, surrounding herself with people who uplifted her and finding that nothing else struck as deep, she came full circle back into the world of music that she couldn’t run too far from.

Now how does America fit into all this? Well in the journey back on track, a girl met a boy while spending a few winters away from the bitter cold all the way in Florida. They got married, ditched their hometowns and are now finding new waves in a city that’s halfway.
Melissa’s debut EP was a big comeback into the world of music and it was a fully crowdfunded effort from friends, family and supporters. Raising over $5K in 5 weeks her dream put aside was brought to life again. Along with being a musician and artist herself she also spends time working with other artists on their dreams and careers through A&R and artist management. Melissa also hosts a series called Indie Tune (in) Tuesday’s where she interviews independent artist, musicians and producers every Tuesday throughout the year. Matthew Hale, husband of Melissa Hale co-produced her debut EP, ‘Ready to be Found’, and brings the rhythm during live shows and events.
Running from a passion only lasts so long and Melissa is diving straight in and making up for lost time. She hopes to build a community of ‘Hale Raisers’ through live gigs and tours in America, Canada and Europe. Hopefully making her way farther across the world. An album is currently in the plans and works that will be co-produced with her husband and collaborated on with Indie Artists she’s met along her re-found musical journey. For the time being, Melissa’s debut EP is finally out in the world and she ready to keep moving and growing.  

"Ready to be Found" has been released back in January. The first time I listened to it, her lovely melodic voice blew me away: Melissa's passion in what she does shines through every note. It is certainly high quality music from instrumental, technical and lyrics point of view. That's why I encourage you to start listening to it with your eyes closed, letting your mind and body be moved by the music.

About the EP, Melissa says: "Ready to be Found" is my first collection of songs as a debut EP.  It is also a project that was fully funded through many friends and family members who believed in my passion and wanted me to pursue it. If I’m truthful about it, I wasn’t sure I would ever release music in the professional sense of the word. I was pretty content with the idea of the songs I had spent writing over the years to simply stay in a book for my ears only, and maybe a friend or two! It wasn’t that I never had the dream of releasing music I just wasn’t sure about how to go about it. It’s a vulnerable and courageous thing to decide to share your work and your art that is written mostly behind closed doors and in moments of emotional release and growth. Each song on the EP is a story of sorts. The first song 'Manic' is meant to start the collection as a bit of a roller coaster and emotional ride. This song is about my personal experience with being diagnosed and managing my bipolar disorder (manic depression) that I have been living with since 2012. That diagnosis was a big part of my stepping away from music and the industry for many years. 'Ready to be Found' the title single of the EP is a move into healing and peace when it comes to my mental health, life goals and journey back into music. I had let a lot of false truths get in the way and fear of what my past told me define my road as a musician and an artist. I once was told I’d never been good enough and that I wasn’t good enough to “do music” and heck I'll spend the rest of my life living out my true worth and rejecting that lie. Writing this song was a big factor in my final healing process and plunge back into music (in the serious sense) and starting the journey of being an independent artist. 'Rainy Day Room', a song of comfort that comes from being with the one who brings out the best in you and showers you in unconditional love. The song I got to co-write and co- perform with my husband. A song that also was originally written and completed many years apart. This song was actually the first song we started recording off the EP and actually had to scratch and re-record because our engineer thought we could do better! We definitely learned from that and spent a lot of time working all the little details of every song. With that in mind Matthew (my husband) and I co-produced all the tracks together in our spare bedroom. Aron Bicskey our genius other producer & engineer, based in the UK really brought everything together and put the final touches on every song. The 4th song 'Storm' was a song I wrote in the middle of the pandemic, which I’ll say many musicians probably wrote a decent amount of emotional songs in the past couple years to make it through. Storm shares in the hope you feel when you sit and connect with the truth. We all go through storms and each of us did and still do on a daily basis. The reality is that storms don’t last forever and there is such beauty in the calm after a storm. Life is not always easy and there are ups and down that are inevitable in my opinion. It’s about how we can grow and become stronger when we get out of storm we feel we’re living in. The last song 'Hope in the Unknown' is meant to tie all the stories together and touch on the idea that I don’t and we don’t know the road ahead. There are so many possibilities that can occur with the choices we make and the cards we are dealt. But to still have hope in the unknown can help in allowing life to happen as it should and for us to make choices that will strengthen us and lead us into the life that was written for us. The EP as a whole is meant to have a cyclical listening experience that shares a bigger story, both individually and together. As you end off on 'Hope in the Unknown' and hopefully listen back to the start again with 'Manic' you are brought back into the highs & lows and roller coaster of life. As you listen through each song again you hopefully feel a new sense of peace and the beginning of another journey".

Since it is a so heartfelt EP, I asked Melissa to share with us which is her favorite song and she responded "It is definitely hard to choose a favourite song from the EP but if I had to it would be ‘Rainy Day Room’. That song almost was thrown in the trash and not meant to exist, crazy enough! Matthew originally wrote the chorus and bridge of this song years and years ago. He had shared it with me in 2019 in hopes of maybe us writing more to it. We couldn’t come up with it then but time and time again that chorus and bridge would pop up in my head randomly. It was late 2021 that I was like “Hey Matt, can I write more to that rainy day room song and see where it goes”.  He was like “yeah sure I haven’t touched it!”. Sitting alone on our bed the verses and pre-chorus came. When I showed it to him a few weeks later with the question of if I could add it to the EP and also have him sing on it, he agreed! This song was also the first single release back in April 2020 and we also decided to release it on the day we met 3 years prior and the single artwork was actually something we got designed for our wedding in March 2019. It was part of our invitations and everything. This song just has a soft spot in my heart as it developed and grew like a relationship does and it was one of the first things we worked on together as a team".

Rainy Day Room
I think I can guess what you’re thinking
I bet that, you’re hopin’ we’d stay for a while
Leave behind the day we’re facin’

Well I hope, It’s starts to pour and we can’t make it out
Cause It’s one of those storms
Turn the lights out
And we’ll hang out
Right here on the living room floor

I wanna stay in our rainy day room (It’s a rainy day)
If you’re not by my side
I won’t sleep tonight
 
I guess I can sense what you’re feelin’
A little worn down, like you ran for a mile
Stop the clock that you’ve been racin’

Well I hope, you share a little more
And we’ll make sure we keep things behind closed doors
Turn the lights out
And we’ll hang out
Down here on the living room floor

I wanna stay in our rainy day room (It’s a rainy day)
If  you’re not by my side
I won’t sleep tonight

Oh the sheets are cold with one less body to hold
Oh the sheets are cold with one less body to hold
Oh the sheets are cold with one less body to hold

I wanna stay in our rainy day room (It’s a rainy day)
If you’re not by my side
I won’t sleep tonight

I wanna stay in our rainy day room (It’s a rainy day)
If you’re not by my side
I won’t sleep tonight

Instagram: @melissanicolehale

Spotify: Melissa Hale