The MELISSA REESE Thread

[HBK]

Melissa Reese is an American musician and model best known for her involvement in Guns N' Roses and her collaborations with Bryan "Brain" Mantia.




Career



Reese began singing and playing piano at age 4. When she was 17, she learned Pro Tools, Reason, and Logic Pro and began performing and producing her own music. Her first EP, "LISSA", was released in 2007, and featured collaboration with Bryan Mantia and Pete Scaturro. Three of the songs of the EP were featured in various TV shows, including Gossip Girl and Keeping up with the Kardashians. Reese has worked with funk artist Bootsy Collins, rapper Chuck D, singer Vanessa Carlton, soul artist Goapele and singer Taylor Swift. In addition to composing, Reese has produced work for artists such as Drumma Boy.


Brain and Melissa



Reese has worked on several projects with Mantia, a composing team dubbed "Brain and Melissa". In 2010, along with Buckethead, they released the multi-CD sets Kind Regards and Best Regards. Brain and Melissa composed part of the soundtrack to the video game Infamous 2, for which they were nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Original Composition" by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awards.[3] Other video games the duo worked on include, Playstation Home, Modnation Racers, Twisted Metal, Fantasia: Music Evolved and Infamous: Second Son. They also scored the films Detention and Power/Rangers. They have worked with music video director Joseph Kahn on several television commercials, including NASCAR, SEAT, and Qoros. In addition, they scored a commercial for Johnnie Walker Blue which featured a computer-generated Bruce Lee.[4] They also worked on several remixes of songs off of Chinese Democracy for a planned remix album.

Guns N' Roses



Reese joined Guns N' Roses in 2016 as the band's second keyboardist, replacing Chris Pitman, as part of the Not in This Lifetime... Tour


Meet Melissa Reese, Guns N' Roses' New Keyboard Player



In addition to welcoming back Slash and Duff McKagan for the first time since 1993, Guns N? Roses also unveiled a new keyboardist, Melissa Reese, at their warm-up show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles last night (April 1). With her profile presumably about to increase as the band embarks on a new tour, this is a good time get to know a little bit more about who she is. According to the bio on her website, Reese received piano and vocal training in jazz and classical from an early age in her hometown of Seattle, and has been composing and songwriting since she was 14. Her music has been heard on television shows as diverse as Inside the NFL, Gossip Girl and Keeping Up With the Kardashians. She has also played on commercials with such artists as Bootsy Collins, Chuck D and Vanessa Carlton. ?Girlfriend,? one of the songs from her 2007 EP Lissa, was featured in the ad campaign for Just Fab Shoe. Her connection with Guns N? Roses likely comes via Bryan ?Brain? Mantia, who drummed with them from 2000-2006. As Brain and Melissa, the two have collaborated extensively, composing music for video games (Disney?s Fantasia: Music Evolved and Infamous 2, for which they were nominated for an award in composition by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences), commercials (NASCAR, Johnny Walker Blue and Audi) and the score for the horror film Detention. They?ve also performed on Best Regards, the five-CD set by another former Guns N? Roses member, Buckethead, and its follow-up, Kind Regards. In addition, they?ve provided remixes for Green Day and Taylor Swift?s Grammy-winning ?Bad Blood? video A brief film about Reese is embedded above.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/melissa-reese-guns-n-roses-keyboards/


@TheMelissaReese. Producer. Composer. Recording Artist. Singer. Song Writer. Model. Livemu.sc/GNRTour 



http://www.melissareesemusic.com
https://www.instagram.com/themelissareese
https://www.facebook.com/gunsnroses/events

[HBK]

[ITARocker]

Melissa and Brain look like brother & sister

[HBK]

[GnR-NOW]

I think she brings a level of fun to GNR. She added great backing vocals on the KOHD from the 2nd coachella set that I heard, and finally I think she's really pretty 

[jamillos22]

Now that?s a career.
Also, I wouldn?t ever expect I could say that a GN?R member is fucking hot!

[JAEBALL]

I follow her on IG... shes seems verrrrry appreciative of this opportunity.

She gets a check plus for that in my book.

[GNR4LIFEJD]

I would love to know who in the GNR camp discovered her im sure it will come out at some point whether its an interview she does or someone in the band does. I think her addition is as big a surprise as anything on this whole tour because not one word got out about this.

[jamillos22]

I would love to know who in the GNR camp discovered her im sure it will come out at some point whether its an interview she does or someone in the band does. I think her addition is as big a surprise as anything on this whole tour because not one word got out about this.

Brain.

[WAR41]

That girl is smoking hot.  Definitely digging her.

Anyone else think she was brought in to also make sure the wives/girlfriends didn't get in the way of things? 

[zombux]

I think we should add this pic, taken at Troubadour before the show, when we had no idea who she is and nobody would think about her as a new band member. somebody even asked if these two girls are Duff's daughters

[Voodoochild]

She's great. It really seems that she was related to GNR way back then - the 2007 release with Brain and Pete Scaturro (one of CD's Producer, Arranger, Audio Engineer, Keyboards, Digital Editing, Composer, Engineer and with songwriting credits in Shackler's Revenge and Sorry) indicates that.

Great topic, by the way. Thank you. Id like to know from where you took the first half of the text, tho. Doesn't seem like it's from the same Ultimate Classic Rock URL.

Her official site does have a bio that's worth reading - she's from a "racially-mixed household of Chinese, English, Spanish, Japanese, Filipino, Irish, Scottish and Danish in Seattle, Washington":

http://www.melissareesemusic.com/about/

Her 2007 debut EP is available on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/artist/7gN7qm3747eXjoJ5Iw3E3s

Anyone else think she was brought in to also make sure the wives/girlfriends didn't get in the way of things? 

No. That's dumb.

[zombux]

so she actually is from Seattle, that means another Seattle-born band member

[HBK]

I think we should add this pic, taken at Troubadour before the show, when we had  :hihi:no idea who she is and nobody would think about her as a new band member. somebody even asked if these two girls are Duff's daughters

True

 

[cc4sc]

She's totally unnecessary.  IMO, she adds nothing worthy.  No doubt she's a capable musician, but she doesn't fit this band at all which is one of the most testosterone-fueled bands in the history of rock.

Have no choice...only tolerating her because Axl and Slash are sharing a stage.

[aaronjcurtis]

Really digging what she's bring to the band these days.

[NickNasty]

Dig her bg vocals on Better 

[Sosso]

She should have joined GN'R way earlier?

[TheBaconman]

She looks like she would be a lot of fun

[Voodoochild]

I heard a different source on YouTube for Chinese Democracy in the second night at Mexico and it seems that she also sings the high pitched backing vocals of this song, kinda like it is on the album. Anyone noticed?

No doubt she's a capable musician, but she doesn't fit this band at all which is one of the most testosterone-fueled bands in the history of rock.

Why, do you think she will level down the testosterone?