‘Mellifluous’: Introducing the sweet sounds of MELLI

One part of the six-member Auckland-based R’n’B Soul collective Tone6 has made his solo debut with the release of a new single, “I wanna know”.

Nineteen-year-old MELLI, also known as Viliami Tupa’i, is one of the first members of Tone6 to release music since their hiatus announcement in January.

Speaking on NiuFM’s The Morning Shack before performing an acoustic version of the song, Melli admitted he felt mixed emotions when his song dropped this week.

“I’m excited, nervous, the whole lot. But I’m just excited for everyone to hear my craft and finally share it.

“This one was written a little over a year now, just been slowly compiling it., then I decided that this was the one I wanted to release as my debut and come out as an individual artist.”

From the singer’s perspective, the song is about a boy and a girl, their friendship, and the potential and want for love to happen.

Is it based on a true story?

“Nah, for me, I like to write about different scenarios and situations that I see in our day in age at the moment, and one of those things that came up was these kinds of situations where you commonly see friends, where one person typically has feelings for the other.

“I just wanted to write from the male’s perspective, or well, my perspective.”

From demo to record

MELLI initially recorded a demo track that he says was “a whole bunch of sample tracks” mashed together.

“I’ve actually got quite a few songs in the vault at the moment.”

Once he committed to going solo and releasing the song, he wanted a full reproduction done and worked with Producer and Mixing Engineer Edward Liu (@edyonthebeat).

“This whole reproduction is totally different to my demo, and that’s all props to Edy for helping me bring that to light.”

The full production team also involved Christian Tjandrawinata (@christiantjandrawinata), who directed the visuals, distribution through Precise Digital and Josh Mase, and photography by Alistair.

Creating the artist

A St Paul alumnus, MELLI was a top English student, and his literary appreciation inspired his artist name.

MELLI says he wanted a name that “resonated with my sound and music”, so he took from the word ‘mellifluous’.

“[It] means a sweet, soothing musical sound to the ear, and that’s kind of what I want to produce and share with people.

“I didn’t want to take the whole word and become, ‘Hey, that’s that dude Mellifluous’,” he jokes.

“That’s too much to say, so I took the first few letters and came up with ‘Melli’.”

Going solo: From six to one

Music runs in MELLI's blood, especially since his father and uncle are the R’n’B Soul legends Adeaze.

MELLI’s musical family also founded the SaintzUp Performing Arts School, which provides affordable creative arts lessons for Pacific and Māori students and is where Tone6 was formed.

MELLI, who grew up in the music industry, said flying solo was an intimidating jump.

“Since my whole time being in the music industry, I’ve always had people to lean back on. Always people by my side to pick me up and do the whole journey (with).

“Stepping out of that, stepping into a zone where I’m uncomfortable it’s totally different.

“It’s still buzzy to me that I even decided to do this.”

“I wanna know” by Melli is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, and all streaming platforms.