“going nowhere” - Mel Denisse
Photo Credit: Mel Denisse
Mel Denisse doesn’t make songs so much as she summons worlds — fragments of memory, myth, and melancholy stitched together with distortion and grace. Her upcoming single “Going Nowhere” is a masterclass in that alchemy: a melancholy alt-rock/shoegaze fever dream inspired by The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent, but really, it’s about something universal — the restless drift between survival and surrender.
The track opens like a mirage — a haze of gauzy guitars and distant reverb before Mel’s voice cuts through like a ghost in motion. She threads cinematic storytelling through every echo.
Lyrically, “Going Nowhere” sits in that beautiful tension between movement and stasis — the act of surviving even when there’s no clear destination. “Trying to move forward with nowhere to land,” she sings (or maybe sighs), and it’s devastating in its simplicity. The song feels like a late-night drive through fog — headlights cutting through emptiness, everything familiar but slightly wrong. It’s the sound of emotional jetlag.
Production-wise, Mel walks her signature tightrope: “controlled collision.” The track swells with layers of guitar grit, warped delay tails, and brushed percussion that pulse beneath her ethereal vocal — at once vulnerable and defiant. You can hear her Myspace-era roots (those DIY recordings that taught her to bend imperfection into magic), but there’s also a refined, almost cinematic sheen that comes from years of collaboration with names like Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, Best Coast) and Ken Andrews (M83, Failure).
What’s brilliant about “Going Nowhere” is that it feels simultaneously nostalgic and new. It borrows the texture of old shoegaze tapes and filters it through a 2025 lens — dynamic, layered, and emotionally raw. The result is both introspective and anthemic, like she’s whispering directly into your chest while the world explodes in feedback behind her.
And let’s talk about that fantasy influence — it’s not gimmicky; it’s emotional world-building. Mel takes the survival themes of Broadbent’s novel and turns them inward, transforming otherworldly imagery into something deeply human: the quiet act of staying unseen until it’s safe to exist again. That’s what makes her writing so magnetic — it’s not cosplay, it’s catharsis.
Mel Denisse has always lived in the in-between — Florida and Turkey, Nashville and L.A., guitar grit and digital dreamscapes. With “Going Nowhere,” she proves once again that she doesn’t need to pick a side. She thrives in duality. Her songs are mirrors, and as she says herself: “If the song gives you a gentle gut-punch — that’s the point.”
“Going Nowhere” isn’t just a comeback moment — it’s a haunting, slow-burn reminder that even when you feel stuck, you’re still moving. Still breathing. Still becoming.
“going nowhere” is available now on all major streaming platforms
Photo Credit: Mel Denisse
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