Melpo Mene

Swedish singer/songwriter Melpo Mene crafts luminous indie pop marked by emotional depth, varied instrumentation, and inviting, memorable hooks. Born in Stockholm, he entered the music scene during the mid-2000s and built a reputation as a skilled pop craftsman through 2008’s Bring the Lions Out and 2012’s Behind the Trees, then shifted his base to Los Angeles in 2013. From that point his tracks appeared more regularly in television and advertising, surfacing on series such as Bored to Death and Faking It while he supplied the opening theme for season two of the Hulu drama Shut Eye. He also shared writing credits on “Catch and Release,” whose Deepend remix topped European charts for American artist Matt Simons in 2015. Nine years after his last album, Mene returned with his fourth full-length, Vernalagnia, in April 2021.

Originally known as Erik Mattiasson, the artist began composing in the early 2000s. Drawing on romantic and literary influences, he titled the project after Melpomene, one of the nine Greek muses. His 2004 debut Holes paired incisive, frequently heartache-driven lyrics with settings that ranged from jazzy folk-pop to luminous chamber pop and earned him a deal with Imperial Recordings, the same label that housed fellow Swedish songwriter José González. The follow-up, Bring the Lions Out, arrived in 2008 with richer production values and introduced the buoyant single “I Adore You,” later licensed by Volvo. After issuing Behind the Trees independently in 2012, he relocated from Sweden to Los Angeles. Once settled stateside, his music secured spots on The Middle, Hemlock Grove, and the 2014 feature The Good Lie, along with campaigns for AT&T and Lexus. In 2015 he co-authored the title track of New York songwriter Matt Simons’ Catch and Release; the album performed strongly across Europe and the Deepend remix became a major hit. He further ventured into scoring with the season-two theme for Hulu’s Shut Eye, which debuted in 2018.

During these years Mene kept writing, drawing on his experience as an outsider navigating Los Angeles to shape songs that examine ego as a means of endurance and connection. The resulting fourth album, Vernalagnia, appeared in April 2021.