Meet Melody Campbell, The Underground Veteran Supporting The Next Wave Of UK-based Creatives

We sit down with Melody to unpack her career in the industry, how she's creating one of London's top full-service creative hubs and developing the stars of tomorrow.

Melody greets our Zoom like old friends catching up, her aura palpable enough that I easily slip into the role of confidant. Energy and assurance radiate from the entrepreneur - though she wouldn’t particularly refer to herself as such she says - an interesting take given her career. Her first venture, Instant Melodies; was the the UK’s first pay-as-you-go studio operation she founded in 2004, started during her time as a premier sound engineer that holds her responsible for mixing Ella Mai’s chart-topping ‘Boo’d Up’ among many other buzzy singles spanning anyone from Jessie J to Krept & Konan. Melody naturally resists any awkward labels that may keep her from moving in whatever direction she needs. 

Raising £250,000 in private funding for her newest business, The Sound Bank; her sleek multi-purpose creative space, complete with everything a creative could need, including podcast, recording, and photo studios, a live band session space, and green screen; is the newest pursuit she nurtures. All housed in a renovated ex-Barclays Bank based in Waterloo, it’s a true full-circle coincidence for Melody, as she receives word she's been shorted-listed for a Barclays Founder Award on the morning of our chat. She takes the news in stride - beaming as it marks her 20th year in the industry and its surrounding lanes. This is only a brief moment as she seems more focused on the next steps instead; a mantra that comes up often in our discussion and one she’s maybe picked up from her career. “I always knew that I would have to roll through a double sense of consciousness. Yes, I'm very focused and concentrated on where my goal is and where I want to be. But there's always this simultaneous consciousness along with me that always knows that there's so many variables”. 

Melody explains how being dynamic is one way she’s been able to come as far as she has, projecting in our conversation that finding a balance between developing your self-belief and skill is her secret recipe for realizing some of her ambitions. The Sound Bank is only one of the freshest of many other projects she’s working on. A dream that was 2 years in the making, wherein the story of its inception and development, I also understand why she’s the underground maverick she is. “ They can't teach you how to know something. It just is. But I think it's about you as an individual, having enough faith in that feeling and in that foresight to say, although it might not look like it makes sense to anyone else, it makes sense to me. It has served me well. It has really served me well.”. Explaining how her attraction to the curious building in South Bank kept piquing her interest, which ‌inspired the concept for The Sound Bank. “ That building just kept on flirting with me. I kept on walking past it. I saw the sign. I needed to ring the estate agent and check out this building. And I did. It might not have made any logical sense. But then it's interesting when you get to your end goal.” “The second I walked in there, I imagined everything. I could see it as a clear picture. And that was very tough because the place was derelict. It didn't even have any pipework.”.

Initially, the project was just meant to be recording studios, but moving with the times is another motto that comes up in our talk frequently. The industry moves fast, a lesson Melody has long learned through her transition from sound engineer to a serial business owner in music - some of which took place during a global pandemic when she first acquired the serious lease to the The Sound Building. Again noticing the innovation required of young artists today, she pivoted to the space's current setup. Moving with the pace of the industry is a necessary tool; which The Sound Bank is the materialization of that ethos. Detailing how she navigated the pandemic with a hefty project over the months-long and expensive legal battle with agents to secure the space, she brushes off the previous stresses, explaining where she found her commitment to seeing her vision to fruition. Musing at how the rocky journey to securing her lease on The Sound Bank property just offered more lessons and even how it all led her to meet a major private investor just in the knick of time - fast forward 2 years, her foot remains consciously on the gas. 

Enter the collaboration with Quality Control and Mr Too Official, the brains behind the record labels marketing. After a chance reconnection a decade later brought the pair back together - meeting almost 18 years ago on the Atlanta scene, this reconnection sees a culmination of The Sound Bank and Quality Control paying forward an opportunity for emerging artists and professionals trying to break into the industry. " I suppose there was a bond. When I would come over, I'd always go and visit them. And everyone is exactly the same. He just has not changed. He's still raw. You know, and I'm so proud of them. They stuck with it. And they are where they are now”. Holding a Seminar (Sept 4th and 15th) with a panel featuring local and international movers on the industry spectrum like Mr Too Offical himself, Chain Reynolds, and Debbie Gayle to name a handful, all comes between the duo's sponsored competition to help nurture the next wave of talent.

Realizing a gap in the ability of UK-based artists to infiltrate wider markets, the pair conceptualized The Quality Check Competition, with the top 15 acts across London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds to showcase at the seminar. Receiving an exclusive management deal and an exclusive studio session at The Sound Bank with a top London producer, the winning artist gains guidance from marketing mind Mr Too Official, before taking off for an all-expenses paid trip to Atlanta to promote their new single recorded with Quality Control. Bringing a focus back to artist development, the competition reflects The Sound Bank's mission to offer support and greater resources and collaboration across the industry; as emerging talent and creatives pursue this course in a space where it's imperative to grow and stand out.

Asking Melody where she sees the future of the industry, she explains that it's always hard to pinpoint where it's headed, given music's modern intersection with commercialization, tech, and social media. For her, the focus is development, where this industry has this in abundance. She echoes her previous sentiment that being dynamic and persistent is the best due course.