themel-ancholymuse

[themel-ancholymuse]

*this is a shortened version of her intro post because i...got carried away with her, i won't lie. her full bio is here if you're interested.*

Darnell Muse, the Muse family patriarch, was a wealthy businessman with a wife and child at home when he meets Pamela Carter at a lounge. It doesn’t stop him from pursuing a relationship with a young, beautiful woman; and having an unplanned child with her is still not enough to get him to be honest with her about his real life. Melpomene Muse is born the second child of Darnell Muse, owner of a successful nightclub in Echo Isle and benefactor of various arts centers. She’s naively unaware that her home life is unconventional by most standards; her father is only ever around on the weekends, he never spends holidays with her, and her parents fight a lot. In fact, one of her earliest memories is of a screaming match between her parents, before her father storms out the house and her mother retreats to her bedroom, both slamming the doors so loud little Melpomene can feel the walls shake.

Darnell would only really ever see Mel on the weekends, he’d pick her up on Friday nights and they’d stay in one of his rental properties. Daddy-daughter bonding was a pretty big deal to her, days at the park, trips to the zoo, stopping for ice cream on the way home – they were all some of Mel’s most treasured memories. But nothing was more precious to her than the first musical he’d ever taken her to see. Their trip to see The Wiz was a special gift for her birthday, and little eight year old Mel leaves the theatre wholly and truly obsessed. She dives into the world of musical theatre head first, perfecting swelling solo numbers in her bedroom to show her father the next time he comes to visit. At this point, weekly father daughter days had become rather irregular, so she has a few solid months before she’s allowed her father’s full attention once again. She performs ‘Home’ for him, hair tied up in two braids and in a little blue dress she’d had sitting in the back of her closet waiting just for this moment. Darnell is thrilled to learn she’s got a voice on her, and a natural charisma that makes her a joy to watch. Her only experience with singing prior to this was singing in her church choir when her grandparents would take her to Sunday service. Darnell enrolled her in singing, dancing and acting lessons, sparing no expense and setting her up with the best instructors money could afford them. The new extra curriculars don’t make Melpomene any less lonely, but the theatre gives her a chance to leave her life behind, a few hours to become someone else and get swept up in the only kindness she’s ever received – the adoring applause of people who thought she was a star.

It’s safe to say Mel focuses fully and wholly on her craft as a performer and musician; she joins the school choir, the drama club, and even did a brief stint in the school marching band. She participated in every production her school put on. She takes up learning new instruments, adding the piano, drums, and guitar to her roster. She spends hours combing through record stores, looking for new things to add her to ever growing collection and she’s down to listen to a little bit of everything, building an eclectic music library of her own. Her musical influences are vast and wide, the most notable: Tina Turner, Donna Summer, Nirvana, My Chemical Romance, Green Day, Aaliyah, Prince, Muse, Janet Jackson and Minnie Riperton. Her favorite musicals are: The Wiz, Wicked, Dreamgirls, Spring Awakening, Bare, American Idiot and Phantom of The Opera.

When she turns thirteen, her father gains full custody of her after learning about how horrific her living situation with her mother is. The custody battle is long and exhausting, and having her parents in close proximity under intense circumstances is enough to drive the little girl insane. She’d always just sit with her headphones on, zoning out as she listens to her music loud enough that she should probably be deaf by now – but it’s the only thing that can drown out the fighting, music had always been the only thing that drown out all the pain.

Her senior year of high school, she and her sisters decide to perform in the school talent show together. They perform a medley of Counting Stars, Holy Grail and Smells Like Teen Spirit), and continue to operate as a band for fun, performing covers and even writing a few songs and uploading them to YouTube. 

When Melpomene graduates high school, she gets approached by a record executive off the island for an opportunity to sign with their label in Los Angeles. Initially, she’s hesitant because The Muses are still operating as a unit at this point, even if it’s not serious, and she doesn’t want to leave her sisters behind – but after much deliberation she decides that if Teri and Clio are still finishing high school nothing should stop her from being able to pursue the career she wants. So Melpomene leaves home to go on a new journey that she hopes leads her to pop stardom. 

Long story short, things with the label do not work out for a number of reasons. Full story in her full bio as it's got mention of some potentially triggering things. Inevitably, Melpomene is dropped from her label, and she returns home not sure how exactly she’s supposed to explain this to her friends and family. So, she doesn’t, she instead lies and says that she just didn’t have what it takes to be a big star.

Melpomene is a ride, always looking for something to keep her mind focused on anything other than her past. Hooking up with strangers in the backs of their cars, hanging out the window as sports cars speed down winding roads, if it’s something that sounds fun and a little reckless, chances are she’s agreeing to do it. 

After graduating college, Melpomene focused her time on theatre yet again, performing in a few productions. She played Dorothy in The Wiz, Deena Jones in Dreamgirls and has always got her eye out for a new project to sign onto. She also produces a lot in her spare time, working as an out of house engineer and producer for Couffaine Records. It’s the closest she’s gotten to fully working in the industry again, keeping her close to the creation process, but since it’s basically freelance work she doesn’t feel trapped in a situation in the event she doesn’t want to be doing this anymore. Sometimes she records demos when she’s feeling the itch to create, she rarely shows these demos to anyone because she’s self conscious about her work considering her former label spent all their time telling her she wasn’t talented. 

she doesn’t handle stress, or anything emotional for that matter, well at all and will much rather die before she talks about what’s going on. her parents weren’t the best as talking about their feelings, and she develops their same toxic trait of ignoring her problems and finding something else to distract her. sometimes it’s diving head first into work, sometimes it’s a week filled with parties, too much alcohol and hooking up with people whose name she won’t remember, sometimes it’s stress baking a million cakes. the third one, she feels, is the most productive because at least she can share treats and goodies with her sisters and friends. 

[themel-ancholymuse]

LORI HARVEY’S Makeup Routine w/ VOGUE Beauty Secrets.

[themel-ancholymuse]

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