Melodies and Masterpieces with Milekka
Welcome back to Glasgow Street Music!
Let me
introduce 20 year old Melissa Wright (Milekka) from France!
From a
trip down Glasgow’s Buchanan Street to find a final busker for my Glasgow
Street Music blog series (for now!), Milekka’s unique, raw melodies are what
stood out the most. A newbie to the busking scene, Milekka was performing in
front of an exhibit of her own artwork, further enticing listeners to stop in their tracks.
Milekka
visited Scotland during her gap year travels and fell in love with Scotland’s wealth
of culture; particularly in the arts. Once completing her journey across Europe
she returned to Scotland to study Politics and Law at the University of Stirling,
where she puts her heart and soul into her creative ventures in art and music on
top of her course studies.
Apart
from spending some time in performing covers during her secondary school career,
Milekka had never performed to a crowd in public until this week. It was only
recently that she branched out into producing her own music, discussing how she
had to work on building up the courage to go out and sing her original lyrics. Her
music is created by putting together a simple melody and adding her own verses
on top, with trap-soul and jazz styles in her recent releases. A huge focus for
Milekka’s music is lyrical integrity; using her words to express deeper
meanings in her tracks. This is reflected when listening to Milekka’s main
musical influences and favourite artists: jazz and blues legend Nina Simone and multi-genre icon Whitney Houston.
Click here to hear some of Milekka's original songs
I was
fortunate enough to be a part of Milekka’s first ever audience in street performing
– an opportunity for her to gain experience in using vocalist equipment
outdoors, reading how a crowd responds to her material and getting her name out
there as both a musician and an artist. Her first busking venture was a
success, as she enlightened me on the myriad of interesting people who approached
her (People Make Glasgow!) and she was even featured in the filming of a documentary
on Glasgow’s music scene. She added that she would love to collaborate with a
musician who plays jazz instrumentals in the future.
When
discussing the current impacts of the Covid-19 restrictions on indoor
performance venues, Milekka had a rare but refreshingly positive outlook on the
situation. She feels that there is newfound freedom for musicians to perform
in the streets, potentially gathering interest in their music from audiences
that may not have had the chance to hear it otherwise. She went on to elaborate
that busking should be viewed as an ‘occasion’ in which the public can celebrate
having a variety of live music performances to listen to.
Although the central focus of this blog is music, I feel I would be neglecting some serious talent if I didn’t mention Milekka’s artistic capabilities. While busking she had combined her music and art, using the space to display some of her incredible paintings. From my viewpoint (bearing in mind I have a very limited knowledge scope on art), her art encompassed themes and influences from an array of different artists (Dali, Picasso & Kahlo sprung to mind for me) as well as psychedelic pop art from the 60s and 70s combined with surrealism features. Her paintings often include a variety of styles in the same piece, which I found gave her work distinction. Funky and fresh (much like Milekka), I’d highly recommend you take a look at some of her paintings and other creations for yourself, where you can make your own interpretations. Below are two personal favourites from Milekka's page!
Thanks
for reading,
C x
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