Finding His Way: Melle on Before I Lose It

Melle never had a dramatic turning point. No single moment where everything clicked and he decided music was the path... it just always was. The multi-instrumentalist and indie-pop artist from Leiden, Netherlands, grew up writing songs, started a band in high school, and followed that thread naturally into a music education. While his classmates were agonizing over what came next, he already knew.

That quiet certainty runs through everything he makes. His second album, Before I Lose It, released January 30th, is the kind of record that feels lived-in: 13 tracks narrowed down from a list of 30, built around the tension between self-doubt and self-trust, between what other people expect and what you actually need. It opens with energy and closes with clarity, and somewhere in between, Melle finds a way to make his vulnerability feel universal.

We spoke with him about the album's architecture, the songs that made him nervous to release, what it feels like to loop a wrong note in front of a full room, and the single piece of advice that shaped the whole project, one he didn't get from a person, but from a song.

Melle - by Julia van Duijn

The shape of the album

"My Imagination" is the first track on the album. Is there a reason for that?

"I think there are two reasons. The first one is that musically I thought it was a nice opener — just start with something uplifting and energetic, because there are a bunch of more sad songs and slower songs on the album as well, but I wanted to do that on like the B-side of a vinyl. Then lyrically I think it made sense as well because I end with 'Before I Lose It' and 'My Imagination' was kind of the start of that thought process. I wrote it when I had a little writer's block because I didn't really know what I wanted to do and people kept throwing their opinions on me — and then when I wrote that song it was like, 'I don't care about that, I just do whatever I want' for the first time. And then a couple months later I wrote 'Before I Lose It,' which felt like the perfect ending. They kind of went hand in hand."

That bookending is intentional — a thesis and a conclusion, with the messier, more searching material in between. It's a structure that reflects how the album was actually made: emotionally honest, carefully sequenced, and deeply tied to the experience of figuring yourself out in real time.

You often talk about the song "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and you also mention it in "Before I Lose It." Would you say it's your favorite song ever?

"I think so. I usually have a favorite song every few years — a couple of years ago it might have been 'Motion Sickness' from Phoebe Bridgers, and when I was a kid it was 'Fix You' from Coldplay. But I think this one, even if in a couple years I find a new song that I really love, will always have a really special place in my life. I can't say for sure if it will always be my favorite song to listen to, but it always has a special place in my life."

Did it help you write the album?

"Yeah, definitely. I listened to it a lot while writing and making the album. If I was going to the studio, I put it on in the car. Or if I didn't really know where I wanted to go, I just listened to it."

The personal and the vulnerable

Not every song on Before I Lose It carries the same emotional weight — but the ones that do, Melle sat with carefully before releasing them. The closer you get to other people's stories, the more complicated sharing becomes.

What lyric or line were you excited or nervous to share with your fans?

"I think I get more nervous about personal things where there's other people involved as well. For example, 'DNA' is not only about myself but also about my dad — I share a bit of his story as well, which makes me a little more nervous because I hope that he's okay with that. I sent him the song before it was released so he doesn't find it on Instagram and is like: 'Hey, is this about me?' And 'Good Enough' is also about my parents being divorced. I think those two songs made me most nervous to share, because they're not only personal about my life but about other people as well."

That impulse — to protect the people who end up in your songs — says a lot about how Melle approaches his work. The goal was never catharsis for its own sake.

What is your goal with music, or especially with this album?

"The main goal when I was making it was to help someone in some way — the way that music has helped me as well. 'Make Your Own Kind of Music' helped me to choose my own path and be myself. I wanted to do something similar for other people. If that's a hundred people, it's fine. If it's two people, that's fine too. I just wanted to help someone in some way. And I think with some songs I achieved that, because I see a lot of reactions from people who really make it personal for them."

On stage, in the loop

Melle's live show is built around live looping — a setup that raises the stakes considerably. When something goes wrong in a loop, it doesn't just affect one moment. It echoes.

You do lots of live looping on stage. Are you ever scared to mess up?

"With the live loops it makes it extra scary to mess something up, because when you mess it up and it loops the entire song, it sounds terrible. We had a couple of shows where I played something wrong in the loop and we had to stop the song. But people in the audience said that it made it more human as well. It was good — if I mess up in one song, that's maybe even better than doing it perfectly, because people can see that it's actually live and I can explain to them like, 'Oh, this went wrong, so we have to do it over.' That wasn't really a problem."

What does a dream show look like for you?

"One show that I always imagine myself playing one day is at Lowlands. It's a big festival in the Netherlands — I've been going there since I was eighteen. That's one of my favorite moments of the year, always, because I go every year with this friend group and we have a whole weekend there. I always imagine myself playing there one day. That would be kind of a dream come true. But other than that, I don't really have a venue I really want to play — I already played a couple of tours where people come to see me especially. It doesn't really matter how big the venue is."

What's coming next

Before the year is out, Melle is releasing an EP of reworked tracks for Record Store Day — revisiting older songs that have evolved in the time since he first put them out.

What's the reason behind the Record Store Day EP?

"The idea came because I have this song 'Old Summers' — originally a band song — and then we released an acoustic version and that became a bigger success than the original. That sparked it: 'Oh okay, maybe I can do this with other songs as well.' Some older songs I still love, but the production seems a little outdated because it was me from four years ago and now I like a different sound. The songs evolve when you play them live. They kind of grow into different things, and I wanted to rerecord a couple of them."

And when asked for the best advice he's ever received, the answer loops back to where everything started.

What's the best advice you've ever gotten?

"It might be 'Make Your Own Kind of Music' from Cass Elliot. I didn't get it in person from someone, but that's probably the advice I used the most while writing the album. I've always been making music just for the fun of it — not to get famous or make money. The love for music was always the main thing. But it's nice to be reminded of it through a song like that."

Melle - by Julia van Duijn

About the artist

Melle is a multi-instrumentalist and indie-pop artist based in Leiden, Netherlands. His second album, Before I Lose It, was released on January 30th, featuring singles "My Imagination," "Living Like That," and "DNA," among others. Known for his emotionally direct songwriting and intimate live performances built around live looping, Melle draws from artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Coldplay while carving out a sound that's distinctly his own. He is currently on the Before I Lose It album tour, with upcoming shows in Arnhem, Leiden, Haarlem, and Amsterdam.