Farewell, Melodime
This past Saturday, one of my favorite bands put an exclamation mark on a bold and creative journey that lifted our spirits and touched our souls.
Entrepreneurs and artists all have beginnings. And endings.
This past Saturday, I was at something akin to an ending. Sort of.
I was at the farewell show for an incredible rock band named Melodime. Maybe you’ve heard of them. Maybe you’re reading this because you’re a fan. Or maybe you’ve heard of me talk or write about them before. Either way, their journey has been worth following and perhaps you’ll be inspired by a piece of their story that I’m sharing with you today.
It’s a weird thing to be at a farewell show for a band. Sometimes bands break up. They have arguments, fights, or just burn out. Other times bands end because someone dies. In all those instances there is never an opportunity for a planned “last show.”
Even when a band you like plans a “last” farewell show, it’s not likely you’ll even get the opportunity to attend. I’ve been going to live concerts since I was a teenager. I have certainly been to hundreds of shows, if not thousands by now. Who knows. But I never remember being at a farewell show. Have you?
Sometimes an individual artist retires, but a band?
And what about a band that could be classified as your absolute favorite band? Melodime fits that category for me — or at least somewhere in my top 10 for sure.
What about a band that you not only became a fan of but friends with all the bandmates?
They’ve even been on my podcast. Their guitarist Jon Wiley has been on twice.
The full band of Melodime were my guests on Episode 9 of the Agents of Innovation podcast that now has over 105 episodes. They were probably doing me a favor when I asked them for an interview back in 2015. In fact, they were on tour and did the interview over Skype — from Nebraska. Go back and listen. The ending was awkward — because I didn’t quite know how to end the show properly back then. Maybe it was because I was capturing a journey still in process.
This past Saturday, I traveled from Florida up to Washington DC to attend the “farewell show” for Melodime. Around 800 people packed out the State Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia, a place that Melodime has played at before and a region of the country that has been the epicenter for these Virginia boys.
Of course, they are no longer boys. They are now grown men, in their mid-30s. Three of them are married. Two of them have children of their own. Two of them have gone on to form other music projects and it is clear that music will remain a major part of all of their lives. While Melodime may be a project or enterprise that is ending — the journey of each individual goes on.
I was at the first show they played at Rock By The Sea “Lite” in the fall of 2012 on St. George Island, Florida. They gained an audience among that festival crowd and RBTS Lite even evolved to partnering with Now I Play Along Too, a charity the band created, which helps bring music instruments — and private lessons from these bandmates — to impoverished children in Haiti. The story behind this spirit of giving the gift of music is perfectly captured in their song, “Brothers.”
These guys fit every category of the kinds of people I interview on my podcast: entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and artists.
I was also at their last previous show to the one they played this past Saturday night. It was over two years ago, in January 2020, on The Rock Boat (where they played a record six times over seven years, and became Rock Boat legends). A few weeks later, in February 2020, they announced they would be hanging it up as a band. They had simply run out of steam and their lives were being pulled in new directions. They announced their “farewell” show would be June 20, 2020. Like many other “Melomaniacs,” I bought a ticket. And then we all know what happened. The show, like nearly all concerts in 2020, was canceled.
It was postponed and postponed and postponed. Maybe the universe was not going to let Melodime say farewell. But then, as the world is pulling out of the worse of this forever pandemic, we sinners and saints finally had our chance to collide again. While my ticket still said June 20, 2020, it was accepted at the door this past Saturday, March 19, 2022.
You can’t mark a date for the timeline of one’s journey. Or, as lead singer Brad Rhodes said from the stage on Saturday, as frustrating as it was for the pandemic to put this show in limbo for so long, “This is exactly when this was supposed to be.”
That’s what made this last “farewell” show a bit weird as well. They had not played a show together as a band in over two years. Accustomed to seeing Melodime at least once (if not multiple times) in a given year, it was so awe-inspiring to see them back on stage together after two years away. It was also the largest concert I’ve been to since getting off The Rock Boat in 2020. And it felt like being baptized into live music all over again. I needed a concert like this. We all do. Music takes us to another place, both inside us and beyond us.
And Melodime — they didn’t miss a beat. Ok, maybe they missed one beat or two — but almost no one noticed. This is a band that is at the top of their game, with a fan base that just continues to grow. They had been accelerating over the previous decade that I have known them and over the entirety of the 15 years since they formed.
It’s almost unbelievable that a group of guys so young, seemingly still on the rise, would hang it up. But here we are. While they brought so many fans on board and together, it is not we who choose their future. And you do have to admit that it’s admirable that the families they have begun have taken a priority over the enterprise they created. Aggressive touring isn’t always conducive to building a relationship with a wife and kids. These guys have their priorities right.
The band has a great sound, which is especially captivated in the high energy of their live shows, but also in the deep lyrics of theirs songs that tell stories that mark so many aspects of the human condition and our spiritual sides.
Speaking of decisions, it was a decision the three original bandmates made almost 15 years ago that was perhaps pivotal to their careers — and one that led to this past Saturday night. Brad Rhodes, Sammy Duis and Tyler Duis, all left college in their first year to come back to northern Virginia (where brothers Tyler and Sammy first met Brad years before) and formed Melodime.
As Tyler Duis recounted to me on Episode 9 of the Agents of Innovation podcast, in 2015, “I think if we would have stayed in college – it’s kind of like an unknown because you kind of get involved in everything. Over time, I don’t know if we would have kept going.” He added, “So we wanted to get back and to make sure that we could have kept doing this. We’d kind of lose a lot of ground of ‘wasting’ four years on college.”
So many of us have experienced “wasting” years in college. I’m glad they didn’t do that. And I’m sure the nearly 800 people in the State Theatre on Saturday would agree with me.
On that same podcast interview from six years ago, Brad Rhodes remembered that “There were definitely a lot of people I think in the first couple of years that, when we would show our faces at home again, who were like, ‘oh, when are you going back (to college) and what’s your plan moving forward?’ I think once people saw our actual commitment to the band and saw that it wasn’t just like a hobby, but that it was a business startup, for the most part for us, people began to understand that a little bit more. We knew exactly what we wanted to do when we were 18, 19 years old. So we wanted to start [the band] up as soon as possible.”
“We can always go back to school if we need to,” said Brad. “The band was something that we felt like we needed to start as soon as possible, given how competitive the music industry is. So that’s what kind of helped us make that decision.”
Competition is always a great motivator. Kudos to these guys for realizing — at the age of 18 or 19 — where the field of play actually was.
At this last show, Brad took a few moments between songs to remember some of the pivotal people that helped them along the way. And what may have seemed like periods of struggle at the time are now incredible memories along their creative path. He talked about how much they learned through it all and how they always focused on “enjoying the process” of the journey.
The Fearless Journey of Melodime.
Going to college and staying there to finish a degree would have been the safe route. Instead, as Brad said to the audience, the guys of Melodime have had over 15 years of “making songs with my best friends that we write for you.”
He told of playing local shows at small dives like Dogwood Tavern (which is across from the State Theatre). During that journey, the road was a grind and the mountains were high, but he said he always believed that “we are going to climb that ladder no matter what.”
Belief and confidence will pull people a long way. But being entrepreneurial with one’s art — there’s no telling how that art will be perceived by others.
In the early years of Melodime, they also went through a few guitarists until finally finding the perfect fit in Jon Tyler Wiley who joined the band nine years ago.
“I wanted to be in a band,” Jon told me on Episode 76 of the Agents of Innovation podcast (in 2020). “I wanted that brotherhood of traveling in a band.”
In 2013, he got his wish when he was discovered by Melodime and was picked up as their lead guitarist. He had met their keyboardist, Sammy Duis, one night while both were playing in a cover band at a gig in Silver Spring, Maryland. They played off each other well and a few days later Sammy sent Jon an email letting him know about their band, Melodime, and that they were looking for a guitar player.
On the podcast in 2020, Jon had told me that when he heard the first track, “Halo,” of Melodime’s forthcoming album in 2013, he was excited and said, “I think I’m in.”
While Jon has spent the past two years creating music for his new band (in which he is both the lead singer and lead guitarist), he was back in his Band of Brothers for the Melodime Farewell. (And we loved every guitar solo, Jon).
Prior to the show this past Saturday, one of my best friends, Kristen Moran and I, pondered what songs Melodime would open and close this farewell show with. We both guessed wrong, but I think it was perfect they closed with “Love Songs & Lies.”
“Sing me love songs, tell me lies,” go the lyrics. “I know you can't be perfect all the time.”
No person or band is ever perfect all the time. But I have always felt this band had it all and the collaboration between each of the four members always seemed so perfect to me — not to mention their relationship with their fans. On top of that, there is not a single person that I dragged to a Melodime show over the last decade that ever came away being anything less than impressed.
These guys not only create great music but are all solid individuals with great foundations who have used their music for the greater good. And that’s really all one can ask for.
I hope this little piece of the story of Melodime inspires you to go out and live your passion and share your creations with others. Don’t let anyone tell you what you should be doing. Don’t allow any obstacle to stand in your way.
If you need a community to help stand alongside you and encourage you, I hope you’ll consider joining Fearless Journeys today. We have 45 guides, including plenty of musicians like Andrew Leahey, Amy Gerhartz, JD Eicher, Houston Keen and many others. We have role models from a variety of professions like heath care, education, real estate, retail, tech startups, nonprofits, and so much more.
Whether you are 18 or 19 or 45 or 65 years old, it’s never too late to build that entrepreneurial mindset and be a part of a community that is all about pushing you to be the best version of yourself that you can be and to share your unique talents and passions with the world.
Imagine if Brad, Tyler, Sammy, and Jon had not taken this leap of faith. Imagine if they had not pushed aside the expectations the world had for them. No one would have experienced the artistic creations that this little enterprise called Melodime brought to the world. Their music moved us, inspired us — and simply rocked us. And it led to them impacting the lives of young Haitians as well.
I’m also willing to bet that this past Saturday was not the very last Melodime show we’ll ever see. I really do believe we need an annual “Melodime Day.” And just like the pandemic wouldn’t let us keep that date of June 20 — the “Melodime Day” can be different every year — if only to relive the greatest creations of this enterprise and continue to celebrate the Fearless Journey they have been on.
Of course, if this was the very last Melodime show ever — it was a glorious end to an incredible journey. There were lots of smiles, tears, and emotions on Saturday — but none of it would be possible if each of the members of the band did not have a mindset of “enjoying the process” of the struggle and the willingness to embark on a Fearless Journey, no matter the way the story concluded.
It’s never about the the end; it’s always about the journey. And I’m just grateful I was able to witness theirs. Let’s use their story to inspire our own.
“With help from the angels, I can fly now.”