Melleefresh / About Melleefresh

"... one of the pivotal figures in North American dance music."
-Clash Magazine

Melleefresh has been an avant-garde artist and producer in the Canadian arts scene for nearly 30 years. She is currently the President of Play Records (US/UK).

Her earliest forays into the music industry were live performances at Toronto's Bubbalicious Lounge in the early 1990s, producing and collaborating on a rowdy melange of ribald and re-arranged classics under the name Melleny Melody.

Playfulness is the common theme in all of Melleefresh's work. In 1995, she founded two record labels: Gay Records, devoted to kitschy and cartoon-like music, and most notably, EDM & House Music label Play Records.

Among the many artists with whom Melleefresh has collaborated through Play Records are Dirty 30 aka Alixander lll, Billy Newton-Davis, Calvertron, Hoxton Whores, 40oz Profits, Gettoblasters, Jerome Robbins, MC Flipside, Boy Pussy and SpekrFreks.

In 2004, Melleefresh was looking for artists to remix a Carole Pope album and was introduced to a young DJ from Niagara Falls using the moniker deadmau5. Signing him to Play Records, Melleefresh and deadmau5 collaborated as freshmau5 on many tracks in the label's repertoire, including the 2008 Juno Award-nominated Afterhours.

Around the same time, EDM web portal Beatport launched, providing labels with a centralized distribution platform. Melleefresh brought Play Records on to the platform in its second year, quickly shifting her primary distribution model from vinyl to digital format.

Most recently, Melleefresh opened Play Deep with Zach Brown-Smith (DJ Spydabrown). Located in London's posh King's Cross neighbourhood, Play Deep is a 3-storey, 3-room state-of-the-art recording studio that has served as a recording venue for The Spice Girls, the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora, Wretch 32, Giggs, Emeli Sande, Canada's Keiza, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Popcaan, among others.