Sitting by his music equipment on Saturday, Oct. 9, Marcel smiles. “My style of music is wavy, vibey and the chill and people in school look at me for my music and it’s really cool when people call me Lil Marcelo and not by my first name,” Meljanac said.
Senior Marcel Meljanac finds passion in making music
Marcel defines himself through his main hobby of writing, producing and releasing original music under the stage name "Lil Marcelo."
After spending hours recording, editing and creating his new song, a smile spreads across senior Marcel Meljanac’s face as he listens to the final product. Marcel, more commonly known to the public as “Lil Marcelo,” has been making rap music for over two years. He posts his music to SoundCloud, and currently has produced about 130 songs and released almost 30.
According to Marcel, music has defined him as a person because of the passion he feels for it and the way he is now perceived by his peers and fans.
“People in school look at me for my music and it’s really cool when people call me ‘Lil Marcelo,’ [instead of my] first name,” Marcel said. “I mean it’s just awesome, the persona, how much its grown and how much people actually like my music.”
Marcel became involved in the process of making music through his family and their Croatian heritage. Specifically, his father, Željko Meljanac had the largest impact on his music.
“[I got involved] through my dad, he showed me different genres of music. One day he showed me Croatian rap and he said ‘How awesome would it be if you became a rapper,’ and that’s what really stood out to me,” Marcel said.
“It’s not a joke; I take it really seriously because I know I’m good at what I do. My priority is school, family and then music,” Marcel said. I am humble and I appreciate every play [on SoundCloud]. I don’t look for millions. I don’t look for money. It’s all free because it’s for the people. — Senior Marcel Meljanac
“I had CDs [of] German music and Croatian music from the 90s that were mostly rap and he fell in love with my Croatian CDs,” Željko said.
After being introduced to the music field, Marcel found musical inspiration from rapper Post Malone. When enduring difficult times, Post Malone helped Marcel overcome hardships and release his first album, “Contrast,” on Soundcloud.
“I got really depressed and I was about to quit the whole music scheme, but once [Post Malone] released ‘White Iverson,’ I said ‘You know what, I’m going to change my style,’” Marcel said. “I came out with ‘Contrast’ and ever since then it’s been all good.”
When making music for albums such as “Contrast,” Marcel sets aside time every day in order to keep his music fresh and new.
“Making beats takes anywhere [from] up to three hours to a whole day, depending on how many presets I want to do,” Marcel said. “I record for maybe an hour and then the mixing, maxing and equalizing takes [what seems like] forever.”
According to Željko, Marcel doesn’t mind the amount of time it takes to make music because he uses it as a “get away” from reality.
“[It] takes a lot of time when he is upstairs on the computer with music,” Željko said. “I think it gives him an escape.”
According to Marcel, although the process of making music is time consuming, his skills have improved significantly over time.
“If you look back at the first projects I made, they were horrible,” Marcel said. “Practice makes perfect, so now I’ve been making songs that are over 1,000 megabytes, which is amazing quality.”
Over time, Marcel has used music as an outlet of self expression to make a positive impact on the people around him.
“Music can change the world in a positive way or a negative way. [It] just depends on how you do it,” Marcel said.
While dentistry is Marcel’s first career choice, he still plans to producing music on the side, since it has made such a large impact on his life.
“I definitely want to minor in production,” Marcel said. “I still want to do music throughout college and make that my escape because I know college will be stressful.”
Although he finds joy and fun in making music, Marcel is also very professional while developing his music, in order to make his content the best for his fans.