The Check-In with Melanie Radford

From Tour Stories/The Check-In with Joe Plummer by Ruinous Media

June 5, 2026 · 23 min · Season 8 · Episode 324

About this episode

Melanie Radford discusses her debut solo album and her musical journey from jazz to rock.

Melanie Radford is a bassist, singer and songwriter based in Seattle. Her debut solo album For The Sake Of Stillness is due out June 26th via Jealous Butcher Record. Melanie shares her experience in the Boise music scene and why she shifted her playing from jazz to rock. We learn how For The Sake Of Stillness is both a personal mediation and a need for stillness and grounding. She tells us why field recordings operate as the core of the record and how they operate as a living collaborator. Joe and Melanie discuss her writing and recording process, why bass is necessary to contextualize her songwriting and how the lush ambient presence was achieved. Melanie tells us about her approach to performing the record and we hear a couple new songs. Melanie Radford Jealous Butcher Records Tour Stories would like to welcome our newest sponsor Kuma Coffee. Kuma Coffee is a 100% Independently owned roasting company right here in Seattle since 2008. Kuma is a 5-person team, roasting over 100,000lbs of exclusively high scoring coffee each year. They source their coffees direct from origin and pay well over fair trade pricing to farmers. This guarantees the highest quality, while supporting…

People in this episode

Host: Joe Plummer

Guest: Melanie Radford

Topics covered

music
songwriting
recording process
jazz
rock
field recordings
performance

Keywords

Melanie Radford
For The Sake Of Stillness
Kuma Coffee
Jealous Butcher Records
field recordings
songwriting
Seattle music scene

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Jealous Butcher Records

Books & works: For The Sake Of Stillness

Places: Seattle, Boise