If you’re not careful, the thrumming bass in Melanie Rogers’ new single “Fever” will pull you under. The song — one that captures that moment of clarity when you realize a relationship is over — is Rogers’ first secular release, though you can hear the Contemporary Christian Music influence in the song’s muscular production and Rogers’ own soaring vocals. After a disappointing experience playing at a church in Seattle while in grad school, Rogers realized it was time to unleash more of her individual voice and to allow her music to reflect her personal experiences.
“Even while I was playing worship music in public, my own songwriting was the way I processed my life experiences and private emotions,” says Rogers. “I definitely miss performing live because being onstage every week gave me energy and life, and I am looking forward to getting back to that as a solo artist, touching people with my music, as soon as possible. But I love the reality that for the first time in my life I am giving myself permission to write and produce whatever I want, especially breaking out of my earlier belief that the only songs I should be writing are about either God or a future husband. It’s fun to write weird songs and play with all sorts of sounds. I have very big dreams and the foundation of those is the opportunity to write about anything and everything and share my heart with people like never before.”
There’s no official video for “Fever” just yet, but the multi-talented artist’s passion for sharing visuals with music shines through via the images and shapes that were in her mind as she wrote the song. Rogerscomposed “Fever” the night after she went to a coffee bar to meet him to return one of his T-shirts that she wore home. She was half hoping if they saw each other again, things would turn around, but the encounter quickly and sadly proved otherwise. She paints the mood immediately: “You were waiting/My heart was pounding like a storm/And it was raining/You were waiting for me there/It’s late December/I can’t remember what you said/But you were colder. . .than it’s ever been.”
When she reaches the chorus, the singer shows just how that strange chilliness affected her mind, body and spirit: “Tonight I felt the fever break/When you looked into my eyes/The fire turned gray/And oh, how it aches to be painfully close but far away.” In the second verse, she admits that the relationship was not a healthy one: “Come into focus/I see now I was out of control with care/And I drowned in it/Scared you’d leave if I came up for air.”
“It was really like a punch to the gut seeing him again, and I told friends that night that the moment felt just like when a fever breaks,” says the Santa Barbara, CA born and raised artist, who has lived in the Seattle area for three years. “I used the title as a metaphor because it reflects the immediate heat we felt at the beginning. Rather than a slow building relationship based on true love and trust, we dove in really fast led by infatuation and in a whirlwind created unhealthy bonds with each other. When he told me there was someone else in his life and he needed to pursue a relationship with her, I felt blindsided. Months later, I rewrote the original second verse with my producer, Jesse Field, which helped bring more clarity.
What is the story behind this song? What inspired you to write it?
I have found that a lot of the songs I write are birthed out of singular moments that I experience with people in my life – and the same goes for “Fever.” I wrote almost all of “Fever” in one sitting late one night after going to a coffee shop to return a t-shirt to my ex. When he and I were talking, there was a distinct moment where I looked him in the eyes and it hit me in the gut – things have permanently changed between us, and I don’t want them to.
As an energetically sensitive person, I feel everything incredibly deeply, and for as long as I can remember, songwriting has been the way I process those emotions, usually right when I’m experiencing them. Sometimes I write lyrics that don’t make a lot of sense to me at the moment, but later on, I’ll return to them and have a revelation about what I was going through. That night, I remember saying to my friends, “This feels like when a fever breaks,” but it wasn’t until months later that I had the insight to be able to understand that my relationship with this individual was like a fever: we jumped in really quickly with passion and intensity and quickly created unhealthy bonds, instead of slowly building love and trust. So when it abruptly ended, it felt like an equally intense drop-off.
How would you describe the music that you make?
Genre-wise, I would describe my music as indie/alternative pop. Descriptive-wise, I would say the music I make is deeply emotional, raw, ethereal, unique, colorful, and visual. My music is a musical representation of everything I’m experiencing internally in my world. As I said, I’m a highly sensitive person, and I pick up on lots of energetic nuances in the world, which are all transferred into the art I create.
What’s coming up next for you?
In a way, I feel like I am cannon-ball jumping into the music world with this song. After “Fever,” I plan on releasing two more singles throughout this summer – which is so exciting!! I also can’t wait until I am able to start gigging and playing live around Seattle again, so as soon as I’m allowed, I will most definitely be doing that.