Rose Melberg was the founding member of the mid-90s indie bands Tiger Trap, Go Sailor and the Softies; all influential parts of the Olympia/Portland pop-punk scene. In addition to her work with her popular bands she released two critically acclaimed acoustic solo albums, "Portola" in 1998 and "Cast Away the Clouds" in 2006. During her career she has performed and recorded with such artists as Elliott Smith and Neko Case. Although American, she has lived and worked in Canada for the past 13 years. She now lives in Vancouver with her six year old son and is currently preparing to record her next solo record.
Straight out of a Sacramento high school, Rose Melberg entered the indiepop 7-inch scene in 1992 with her first of many successful bands, Tiger Trap. Crunchy guitars and punk attitudes couldn't hide Rose's velvet voice and painfully honest lyrics, and the all-girl foursome quickly became stars of a burgeoning indiepop/punk movement centered around Olympia, WA and record labels like K and Kill Rock Stars. Too good to last, Tiger Trap split after their second US tour, leaving just one classic album and an EP on K Records. Wondrously prolific, Rose quickly teamed with uber- fan Jen Sbragia to form the The Softies, possibly her best-known project. With just two guitars and two angelic voices, The Softies debuted with a 7" and mini-LP on the wonderful Slumberland Records, toured the US 5 times (once with Elliott Smith) and released 3 amazing albums and singles, also on K Records from 1994-2001.
At the same time, Rose somehow managed to front Go Sailor who collected their sold-out and sought-after pop singles on Look Out Records in 1997, and had two songs featured in the campy film, "But I'm A Cheerleader". Never stopping, Rose also played drums on two albums with Gaze and recorded various duets and solo tracks while on tour. Those stray tracks were compiled on "Portola" released by Double Agent Records in 1998. All-Music Guide gave it 4 stars and declared "Even in light of the uniform brilliance of Rose Melberg's past work with Tiger Trap and The Softies, her solo debut is still revelatory -- never before has her voice been so disarmingly honest and vulnerable... 'Portola' is a small miracle."
Rose re-emerged in 2006 with the most deeply personal album of her career, "Cast Away the Clouds".
I'm listening to The Orchard! Your voice is so beautiful!!! I love your music and lyrics and voice so much! I'm so happy that I found you! You always inspire me!
it was so nice to meet you and share cake with you at nyc popfest! your set was truly lovely. i hope that you come to chicago someday...i'll keep my fingers crossed.
Rose please make my summer happy and come to California, somewhere south by me. I'm pretty sure you have fans here waiting around for a time such as this. -Kim*
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