Melody Buila

Her blend of disco, electronica and 80s dance has captured radio audiences in Argentina, Romania, Italy and Sweden and is quickly breaking into the London underground scene in style. Her latest record ‘Boytoy’ premiered in Ibiza and sold out due to fantastic demand, but the road thus far has not been easy.

Early on in her career Melody applied for various grants and was unsuccessful, but this failed to dampen her enthusiasm. “If anything this drove me on,” says Melody, “I knew I had the talent and the passion to succeed so I just went for it!”

Melody has self financed her records through working at VIP music events in London, and writes, co-produces, promotes and distributes her own music. She is unique in this respect and is an inspiration to other struggling musicians.

Melody is now collaborating with Ed Case who is the producer for many well known artists including Gorillaz and KT Tunstill, and will release her new track ‘Tears and Drama’ later this year on his label.

We asked Melody to tell us more about how she made her mark:

“After completing a degree at Westminster University, I decided to pursue my dream of creating and performing pop music. I was extremely lucky because my parents supported me even though it wasn’t a traditional career.

I became a singer-songwriter and this involves producing, promoting as well as funding my own music. I’ve always worked part time and never received a grant. So I guess it’s good to know that my success comes from my own hard grafting and persistence.

My first record, Boy Toy, came out on vinyl and was played a lot in Ibiza. It did well, got distributed in all of the major record shops and I was fortunate to receive good coverage on underground pirate radio stations. This gave me exposure, access to other promotional opportunities and a connection with the public. To this day I work closely with the underground stations.

I think one of the reasons I have done well is that I really put a lot into promotion. I’ve travelled all over the place to promote the record. As a result I’ve sold in Romania, Argentina and Sweden and this is a really good way of getting inside the music industry. I find the British market very limited in its outlook and it’s really hard to get airtime. Once I got to grips with this, I decided to spread the net wider and find alternative ways of making my own mark in music.

My next ambition is to be successful in the Japanese music scene.

The key elements to making it work in music is to just keep learning about all aspects of the industry and how to run a business, get a good financial backer if you can and keep improving your networking skills. You can never meet too many people in this industry and you never know who can help or connect you to an industry opportunity.”