In losing the cheque that would pay for her piano courses, a 6 year old Mélissa Laveaux forged herself quite the destiny. She'll eventually become a self-taught musician, by ear and through books. Thankfully, her mother has a liking for French singer-songwriters and Haitian big band jazz during long sessions of hair braiding. While her father, a guitarist in his downtime, spontaneously offers her a guitar in the summer of her 13th year. ...show more

In losing the cheque that would pay for her piano courses, a 6 year old Mélissa Laveaux forged herself quite the destiny. She'll eventually become a self-taught musician, by ear and through books. Thankfully, her mother has a liking for French singer-songwriters and Haitian big band jazz during long sessions of hair braiding. While her father, a guitarist in his downtime, spontaneously offers her a guitar in the summer of her 13th year.

Would one call Laveaux's music an eclectic mix? Without a doubt, how else could it be described? Born in Montréal in 1985 to immigrated Haitian parents, she grows up in Ottawa (Ontario), in a mostly Anglophone community. One of her first challenges was then to integrate herself to her new environment without leaving behind anything cherished from her original francophone and creole culture. At the crossroads of her multiple identities, Mélissa becomes increasingly aware of the gap that lies between her life at home and her outside environment. A creative adolescent, she finds refuge in music, piecing mix tapes of late night radio hits to the more than slight disappointment of her parents, both teachers with hopes of her becoming a physician.

She developes her music taste palette with North American folk music (Joni Mitchell, Feist, Tracy Chapman), British trip hop (Martina Topley-Bird, Morcheeba), alternative psychedelic Brazilian music (Adriana Calcanhotto, Os Mutantes), recent highlights in hip hop and nu-soul (Erykah Badu, Common, The Roots, The Fugees), voices that have become institutions in the African-American music (Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin) as well as more geographically distant stars in world music (Rokia Traoré, Lhasa...). Brewing all of these influences into a mix of naiveté et instinctive brilliance, working daily on her guitar skills, Mélissa constructs her own, very personal, very rhythmic style of instrumental accompaniment. Soon she starts composing her first lyrics, her first songs. From hereon, this very contemporary songwriting, integrating all of her underlying culturally existential facets, instead of branding them with a political message, opts for the road of intimate storytelling, the adventure of a free voice speaking candidly in all confidence to an audience. ...show less