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girl group

Melody Key: The Virtual Girl Group Taking Pop to Rapturous Heights – An Exclusive Interview

With infectious energy and a mission to uplift, Melody Key is redefining what it means to be a modern girl group. Formed virtually in 2022 by Katy “Kitty” Kunberger and Lashnate “Shanti” Johnson, the trio has already made waves with their viral TikTok videos, empowering anthems like Girls Rule, and a dynamic collaboration with UK rapper 0milicu0us. In this interview, they discuss their songwriting journey, their forthcoming debut EP, and their vision for spreading positivity in a pop landscape often focused on despair.

Melody Key, thanks for sitting down with us to discuss your discography and burgeoning pop career. We’d love to know what initially brought you together in 2022. 

Our girl group, Melody Key, was originally a virtual girl group that was founded on May 4, 2022, by me (Katy “Kitty” Kunberger and Lashnate “Shanti” Johnson). A couple of months earlier, I was posting an audition call for members who were interested in joining a girl group. However, I wanted to have a girl group since 2014 but kept it a secret but finally revealed it when I posted the audition call online.

Shanti was the third girl to audition for the girl group after two girls had told me that they could not stay nor continue with the girl group. Since then, we made songs and posted singing videos on social media. We have three members in Melody Key and hope to have one or two more members to make it a total of four or five members.

How does the songwriting and recording process play out between the two of you?

Shanti and I usually write original songs and all of us recorded songs on Bandlab. Bandlab is an app where we record our songs, even remotely. Although, we would like to meet together in person sometime next year whenever we are available to record songs at a studio.

How did it feel to go viral with your dance videos to your original music on TikTok? 

To be honest we felt very honored to have our TikTok videos go viral! It has been part of our dreams to have our TikTok videos go viral, let alone dancing to our original music.

How did you connect with the British rapper, 0milicu0us, for your official debut track, College Groove? 

We met 0milicu0us on Instagram last year! He discovered us and sent us a message requesting that he could rap in a song someday. We accepted his request to collaborate with our song, “College Groove” and then he recorded his rapping verse on Bandlab! We released the song this past January 12th!

Your latest single, Girls Rule, is an instantly iconic lo-fi hyper-pop anthem; what’s the story behind the single? 

The story behind “Girls Rule” is how girls could be anything they want to be, meaning girls could have professions that only boys had once upon a time. For instance, Mary Blair was a female animator back in the 1940s to early 1950s and she worked for Disney. It was not typical for women to be professional animators and often those who were employed took masculine names.

There’s an eclectic mash of aesthetics and genres in the mix, allowing the track to unravel as an infectiously upbeat celebration of feminine power; what do you hope your listeners take from it?

We hope that our listeners will be inspired by the positive message and the upbeat tempo of our songs. Our group has been somewhat dismayed by the numerous pop songs that focus on depressing themes of despair, We believe that life is full of joy and opportunity and we want to inspire young people, especially girls to seize opportunity and live life to the fullest.

Can you tell us a little about your upcoming debut EP? 

Our debut EP has six songs:

  1. Reach the Stars
  2. The Girls and I
  3. Take Me Back to the 90s
  4. Golden Age (Best Years)
  5. Lover Girl
  6. Bright

We do not exactly have a title for our debut EP but we are planning to release the EP this coming May. “Golden Age” is my personal favorite song, but “The Girls and I” will hopefully be our most popular song in our EP and we would like to have our own music video for the song, “The Girls and I”. The mock instrumentals are already made but needed their official remakes. This is our golden opportunity to travel to Los Angeles, California and meet up there in person in order to record our EP and do our music videos whenever we are available.

How does your forthcoming EP fit into your broader ambitions as an artist?

In our forthcoming EP, other members in Melody Key other than myself wrote some of our songs such as “Lover Girl” and “Reach the Stars”. Additionally, all six of our songs have different themes and stories behind them. “Reach the Stars”‘s theme is Zodiacs and Astrology. Whereas, “Golden Age”‘s story about how great and optimistic vintage culture is unlike modern-time media that can cause anxiety and melancholy.

Stream Melody Key on Spotify.

Follow the artist on TikTok.

Interview by Amelia Vandergast

Embrace the nostalgically chaotic empowerment in Melody Key’s hyper-bubblegum-pop hit, College Groove, ft 0mili0us:

Melody Key’s official debut single, College Groove, featuring British rapper 0mili0us, is an explosion of Y2K pop nostalgia ignited by unapologetic hyper-pop ferocity.

Formed virtually through TikTok in 2022, the trio—Kitty, Shanti, and Bella experimented with their creative synergy by recording tracks on Bandlab and releasing them on Soundcloud. After a year of digital experimentation, they’ve graduated to the big leagues with a debut that’s impossible to ignore.

Sticky-sweet bubble gum harmonies form the earworm’s anatomy, but its soul thrives in its feminist grit. Between the euphoric bursts of neon-coloured melodies, 0mili0us delivers rapid-fire rap bars that sharpen the edges of this otherwise sugar-coated anthem.

By injecting Y2K aesthetics with a progressive punch and proudly wearing their serotonin on their sleeves, Melody Key became the ultimate conduit of female empowerment with their anthem that crashes onto the airwaves like a fresh feminist wave.

TikTok virality may have been their genesis, but Melody Key proves they’re more than a digital gimmick. They’re a powerhouse with enough energy to keep their fans craving more.

Whether you’re here for the nostalgia, the empowerment, or the unapologetic chaos, Melody Key delivers it all with an infectious swagger that commands attention. It’s pop, but not as you remember it—this time, it’s here to stay.

Stream College Groove on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The UK’s hottest RnB trio, Y.Q.S, Harmonised Through An Interplay of Light and Dark Duality in Their Latest Single, No Angel

Y.Q.S’s latest harmonised-to-the-nines contemporary RnB single, No Angel, is a sublime equilibrium that delicately balances shadow and light, embodying the complexity of feminine energy and autonomy. This track emerges from the depths of personal scars and speaks volumes of universal archetypes, presenting itself as a bold declaration of independence against the backdrop of love’s darker, often unexplored side.

Y.Q.S, a supergroup hailing from the urban melting pots of London and Manchester, channels their rich RnB heritage into a modern narrative that will ensnare fans of iconic ensembles like 3LW and Destiny’s Child. No Angel is steeped in the trio’s signature style of lush, interwoven harmonies, elegantly layered over a trappy, contemporary beat that amplifies the track’s luxe feel.

The production, handled by Klaudia Keziah and Jojo Farinella at Southampton’s Red Room Studios, further refines the single’s polished fiery signature that carries the potent with empowerment lyrics, which create a resonant anthem for those who navigate the tightrope walk of self-sacrifice in relationships.

As Y.Q.S stands poised on the brink of further acclaim, having already graced platforms at London Fashion Week and received nods from BBC Introducing, No Angel promises to elevate their artistic trajectory even higher.

The release, scheduled for streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify, from May 24th, will coincide with the release of the official music video for No Angel.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

D’LuXE Reminds Us Of The Cyclical Nature Of Music

There is something that lies at the heart of the D’LuXE sound which seem to make me picture it playing from an old radio at a low volume at night, perhaps as the quiet sound track to the scene of a film, one tinged with love, loss and longing. It is a resonance, a certain sonic heart, a depth of classicism, and a feeling that even whilst hearing the song for the first time it is somehow woven into the very fabric of the human condition.

Although she works in a modern genre, musically she seems to possess an old soul, remembering when such music was still connected to the emotive sound of the genre of the same name and equally so to the tragedy of blues and the classic girl group era, rather than the modern influx of more pop styles which seem to have subsumed that nostalgic purity to some degree. But for all its traditionalism, Not Hiding The Pain is still very much a product of the present as well and a wonderful reminder of the cyclical nature of all music.