I started songwriting at the age of 7. At 14, I became famous and was suddenly thrown into a world where perfection and a curated image were rewarded.

When Youtube was launched, I was one of the first people to start sharing my original songs and covers - but in response to my history with fame and being a brand, I wanted to be as authentic and real as I could possibly be in my expression. Like with many things in my life, I didn’t follow through enough and quit after a while, thinking no one would be interested in me singing covers in my pyjamas or vlogs about my strange life (little did I know what Youtube would become). One of the things I often started my old videos with was the apologetic phrase “this is really rough, by the way”. It evoked complaints in the comments - and you’ll hear it in a lot of my voice notes that I record right after writing a song, too.

So, this is my ode to roughness. Each page linked at the bottom of this page is a dedicated shrine to just one song, with the freestyle seed it started with (usually a voice note - available for download if you’d like to make your own music with it), lyrics, the story behind the song, and the journey that song takes, layer by layer. Some songs will be finished, and some will never be. And that’s ok.

If you’d like to be notified whenever I update any of these song pages (or add new ones), feel free to sign up to Melissa Madness below.