Check Out Melanie Peterson’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Peterson.

Hi Melanie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

Hi! My name is Melanie Peterson. I am a Saskatoon born, Toronto based, singer-songwriter and actor. After I graduated high school, I moved to Toronto to pursue a career in entertainment. I attended Sheridan College for musical theatre but soon realized I preferred the acting and singing classes above everything else, though I was primarily a dancer when I entered the program. While in college, I found my first agent and started booking small roles in film and television.

There was so much downtime between auditions that I said yes when a friend invited me to join his band “Spring” as a backing singer. I was just learning guitar at the time. My father had given me a Gibson guitar as a curious parting gift when I moved to Toronto (seemingly knowing me better than I knew myself) and I said if my bandmates would teach me a guitar, I’d sing for them. I started songwriting while in this band. I’d learn a couple chords, write a couple songs. I started to notice that my songs were getting a better reception than expected when we played them live. I discovered I could write songs that people enjoyed listening to. The band fell apart, as bands sometimes do, and I became part of a girl band for a few years called The Dollz where we all wrote and performed our original songs with three part harmonies.

The other two Dollz eventually moved on to start families and get married, but I knew by then I was a “lifer” as Canadian producer/engineer Doug Romanow (Justin Bieber, Johnny Reid, Chantal Kreviasuk) once put it, so I continued on my own. I started writing more seriously, and wrote my first “important” song – “Unbreakable”, and started playing it out at open mics. I met my bass player and partner Peter Collins at that time. He said, “Do you need a bass player?” I was like, “Hell yeah” and we started playing together.

I then met producer Mitch Girio and asked him if he’d be interested in recording my debut album. He said yes. I was FACTOR funded and soon ‘Unbreakable’, my debut album,  was released. I’ve released two studio albums, a handful of EPs, and many singles, especially Christmas singles,  since then, mostly working with the same team. My latest release was fall 2022’s six-song EP “We Got This – Side Two”(Side One, just called ‘We Got This’ was released in 2020).

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a smooth road, for the most part. I am living a creative life and that is what I’ve always wanted, I knew any kind of nine-to-five life would wreck me.

Granted there were some years there where I was going to bed hungry every night, just barely making enough to cover rent, but I didn’t mind. I was living the dream.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am known musically for my heartfelt lyrics and hooky songs. I am most proud of all the music I have released and the steady increase in fans, friends, and radio play along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://melaniepeterson.ca/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misswatermeloni/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/misswatermeloni
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/mellysings
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/melanie-peterson
• Other: https://melaniepeterson.bandcamp.com/