BACK TO BASICS
Sydney Sun Herald 'Time Out' November 1999

Country music is more than a novelty for Melinda Schneider, writes Susan Jarvis.

A DECADE ago, she was a talented teenager yodelling harmony with her famous mum, Mary Schneider.

Five years ago she caused a major stir in country circles when she reached the mainstream Top 10 with a techno-yodelling hit called Tighten Up Your Pants.

Today, 28-year old Melinda Schneider is being widely touted as the next big thing in country music.

Her first single, Love's Out To Get Me, has gained rave reviews from all over the country, and Jeff Chandler - who helped build the careers of James Blundell, Lee Kernaghan, Tania Kernaghan and Colin Buchanan - has stepped out of management retirement to take on Schneider's career.

"She was so impressive I couldn't resist. Hearing and talking to her just blew me away. This lady has everything it takes to succeed in this industry," Chandler said.

Being touted as a newcomer after 10 years of hard slog doesn't faze Schneider. In fact, she sees it as a real advantage.

"It's just the right time for me now," she said. "Most so-called new American artists have been out there working and recording for years, doing their apprenticeship in the business and learning about things like stagecraft. That's what I've spent the last decade doing - the club scene, covers, just working hard at what I love - singing."

Schneider's 15 minutes of fame so far - the success of Tighten Up Your Pants - now embarrasses her a little.

"The song came about after a chat with producer Mark Moffatt, and it just took off, charting at number 5 on the dance charts and making it into the 1995 ARIA Top 40," she said

"It was a lot of fun although not really what I wanted to do permanently. The song was rejected for the Country Music Awards of Australia on the basis that it wasn't country, although Slim Dusty went on to do something similar. But that didn't really worry me at the time."

Schneider admits that, despite growing up with country, she had to experiment with all kinds of music before returning to her roots. That happened through a series of coincidences involving another of country's new stars, Adam Brand.

"I first met Adam when we were both 13 and we kept in touch by mail for years after that," she said.

"Then we lost contact for about seven years, and when Adam came to Sydney a couple of years, he looked me up and we've been great friends ever since."

Brand's songs so impressed Schneider that she immediately took them to her now-husband Graham Thompson, who was then working for Rondor Music. Brand was signed to a publishing deal and Thompson left Rondor to manage the young singer/songwriter.

"I suppose I saw what Adam was doing and that made me realise that country music was where my heart was," Schneider said.

Tamworth a test for new country crooner
The Australian - January 2000

Country singer Melinda Schneider is on a roll.

Her single, Love Away the Night - a duet with her friend and fellow rising star Adam Brand - has just reached No.1 on the country charts, while on TV she can be heard singing the theme song to the ABC's new early-evening drama series, Something in the Air.

To top that, she has been nominated for two awards, including best new talent, at the Country Music Awards, the climax to the 28th Tamworth Country Music Festival in northern NSW, which begins its 10-day program tomorrow.

Sydney-based Schneider is just one of hundreds of performers who will take part in the country music capital's annual shindig this year, during which the town's 50,000 population will double, as fans and performers crowd the streets, bars and concert halls from early morning until the wee small hours.

Star attractions include overseas artists such as Willie Nelson and The Amazing Rhythm Aces, plus our own Paul Kelly, making a rare visit to Tamworth on the strength of Smoke, his new bluegrass album with Melbourne band Uncle Bill.

As a solo artist, Schneider is a newcomer to Australian country, but it's a form that she's been close to all of her life.

She is the daughter of Australian yodelling star Mary Schneider. The two feature together in one of ABC TV's current signature ads.

Melinda Schneider has been singing since the age of 3. "I've been going to Tamworth since I was 8," the 28-year old performer says. "So it will be weird going this year and playing my own songs. It's a bit scary, but exciting too."

It has taken a few false starts and changes of direction for Schneider to get her solo career started, but with the awards pending and her first album due for release late this year, the new millennium bodes well. But she won't be following in her mother's yodelling footsteps.

"It's not so strange to me because I'd wake up in the morning and mum would be yodelling in the shower. Only now am I realising just how bizarre my childhood was."

Country music's popularity is on the rise in Australia.

Established names, such as Lee Kernaghan and Gina Jeffreys, are among the biggest selling local artists in any field, while the million-selling status of Canadian Shania Twain's crossover album, 'Come on Over', and the success of US acts such as the Dixie Chicks, is further indication of the genre's potential.

"People are becoming more broadminded about country," says Schneider.

Nevertheless, there's division between the traditionalists and those who think the Shania Twains and Faith Hills of the world are the way forward.

"Shania's not country," Schneider says. "She has country roots but the latest record is very pop. I'm not going out there to do that. I'm more Dixie Chicks. It's much more country, but it still has a modern element to it and a little more Nashville than Australian country."

And can Tamworth make a difference to your career?

"You've got to be part of Tamworth," she says. "If you want to get to that fan base, you really have to be there

By Iain Shedden

MAKING UP IN THE CHORUS
February 2000

Melinda Schneider is proof that penning a number one song does not necessarily involve blood, sweat and countless tears.

In fact, the daughter of local yodeller Mary Schneider wrote her latest hit with Adam Brand in a most unconventional way.

The country music duo, who met on a waterslide on the Gold Coast, were laughing and joking on a couch one day and set about putting their thoughts down on paper.

An hour later they had a song and weeks later a new hit.

Love Away the Night is about a guy who loves footy, his race car and forgets his anniversary while his girl loves to shop and buy shoes.

They often drive each other crazy but a twinkle in the eye and a phone left off the hook helps them make up and love away the night.

Following Adam and Melinda's meeting on the waterslide, the couple renewed their friendship three years ago when Adam moved to Sydney to pursue his career as a country music singer.

They released a duet of Words Cannot Say on a single and Melinda sang on Adam's self titled debut album.

The pair have a special chemistry when it comes to song writing. "We had an idea that wasn't quite working and decided to start from scratch," Melinda said.

"Adam came out with this line about how I was always in the fridge or on the phone, then we started talking about all the things we would say to each other if we were in a relationship.

"We decided to fight in the verses and make up in the choruses!"

These two budding stars take the mickey out of each other in song and in real life, resulting in a partnership which strikes a chord with people who like their country music fresh.

THE BULLETIN ALBUM REVIEW
Melinda Schneider My Oxygen (Compass Brothers)

Schneider has a pure, clean country voice (she also co-wrote six tracks, to her credit), the picking is top shelf, and the mix of teary ballads and rootsy pop is just about right. You have to figure it's only a matter of time before Nashville comes calling.

by Jeff Apter

READY TO WEAR
Country Music Annual August 2000

Enchanting songs coupled with eye-catching outfits? A sure-fire recipe for success

Melinda Schneider may appear to be one of Australia's most fashion-conscious country acts, but it's purely a matter of skill, and economics. A fashion designer by trade, Melinda can make anything, whether it be women's clothes, or men's tailored suits. "It comes in handy when I need to whip something up last minute," she said.

Impeccably dressed on stage, Melinda's sense of what looks good combines with a talent that has already earned her a Golden Guitar award for Vocal Collaboration of the Year. That was for her duet with Adam Brand on 'Love Away The Night', at the 2000 Toyota Country Music Awards of Australia in January.

Tamworth is a far cry from the inner city dance clubs where Melinda was the voice behind the Audio Murphy techno tune, "Tighten Up Your Pants'. Showing off her yodelling skills, which she inherited from her mother Mary Schneider, the song hit the Top 5 of the Australian dance charts towards the end of 1994.

"I knew I couldn't be a techno yodeller forever…I knew it was only a one single thing," Melinda admitted. She spent the next four years writing songs and 'trying to find my sound'.

"And that brought me to this album." The success of 'Love Away The Night ' and another single, 'Love's Out To Get Me' in 1999 paved the way for Melinda's debut album My Oxygen , released on Compass Bros Records mid-way through 2000. Recorded in Nashville, My Oxygen quickly garnered interest through the song TV or Me, which deals with what she believes is a universal issue. "A couple that I know used to have arguments about her man watching too much TV and not paying enough attention to her," explained Melinda, who promptly set about writing a song on the subject

Co-writing six of the 16 tracks on My Oxygen gave her the opportunity to put her imagination to music, particularly with the song 'Rapunzel'. Driving over the Gothic-styled Northbridge Suspension Bridge near North Sydney gave her the inspiration for the medieval type lyrics for the song. Melinda also wrote 'Three Rings', inspired by her marriage to Compass Bros label co-director, Graham Thompson. The wedding took place in New York City, where the clothes-conscious Melinda spotted another fashion accessory - a pair of red knee-high boots. However, she soon dismissed the theory that it's only women who have a shoe fetish.

"I've had a few blokes reacting a bit strangely to my boots," she said. "One guy, he was about 35, and his parents were saying how much they enjoyed the show. He kept looking at my boots, and I said, 'Are you okay?' And he said, 'It's the boots, I've had goosebumps all night over those boots'." Melinda also has in her collection a pair of hot pink, snakeskin-styled boots which she describes as 'fantastic'.

With that style of wardrobe, Melinda is probably more at home in metropolitan Sydney than the Aussie outback. And she doesn't pretend otherwise, steering clear of rural subjects in her songs.

"My music is still country, but it's about love and subjects that anyone can relate to, no matter where they live.

by Jenny Hele