If you’ve been on TikTok lately, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve come across viral videos from aspiring artist Alex Melton.
With over 160 thousand followers and 1.2 million likes on the app, the multi-talented musician has made a name for himself with his creative covers mainly in the field of pop-punk and country.
That’s right. Taking pop-punk tracks from bands like Panic! At The Disco and Blink-182 and giving them a honkey tonk twist, the South Carolina native is turning plenty of heads with his rowdy renditions.
“I posted the Panic! chorus to TikTok as a meme,” says Melton. “I wanted to get a laugh out of some people, the whole thing was intended to be a music-based comedy sketch essentially. Then I started getting a lot of likes and a lot of people using the audio with their own takes on a comedy idea.”
Melton adds, “A lot of people started asking me to post the full song, so I sat down and arranged the whole tune. It ended up being really catchy and I realized I could probably do this with all of my favorite classic emo and pop-punk favorites.”
When asked if he plans to release more country-inspired covers, Melton says he actually considered creating an entire full-length LP.
“I absolutely plan on releasing more,” he said. “I contemplated the idea of an album release but ended up deciding to release the singles of each track as they get recorded. That way, people can add the songs on Spotify or Apple Music and make their own playlists with their favorites. I’ve recorded four songs so far and I really feel like I’m capturing a very specific vibe; kind of sincere but also clearly lighthearted.”
“I grew up listening to pop-punk music,” he concludes, “so these songs are very familiar to me and mean a lot. I’m trying to maintain the spirit behind each song while giving it a whole new feel.”
To check out some of Melton’s work thus far, be sure to see below. Afterward, make sure to download the tracks on Bandcamp and support him on Patreon here.
