Mercer Artist

Melanie Lariscey comes from a long line of musicians, but she’s taking a different approach to the family tradition.

Her mother is a pianist, her aunt is a classical organist and her grandfather plays the organ and the piano. She’s a singer and a guitar player.

“My grandfather tried to teach me piano, but I’m a terrible student,” she said. “We’re just a very musical family.”

Lariscey’s grandfather was a part of a band while he was in his twenties.

“They had their own record label and everything,” she said. “He’s a modern day Jerry Lee Lewis.”

Lariscey wants to pursue music professionally as well, but for right now she’s content with performing for fun and to wind down.

Lariscey is a sophomore English major from Vidalia, Georgia. She’s a part of the ROTC program at Mercer.

“I think there’s a future for professional writing after my career with the army, and eventually I would like to teach English,” she said.

She plays intramural flag football and attends Wesley Foundation from time to time, but when she can, she sings and plays her guitar.  

Lariscey said she’s always sang in church, but in eighth grade, she picked up the guitar.

“Guitar has always been that cool instrument that everyone really wanted to play in middle school,” she said. “I took lessons for a month and it was pretty easy for me in the beginning.”

Lariscey said that she finds it difficult singing and playing at the same time. However, Lariscey isn’t allowing that to get the best of her.

This past school year, she won first place in Mercer’s Got Talent, along with classmate Connor Herne.

“I play in coffee shops around Vidalia and a few places in Macon,” she said. “I usually play with Connor.”

Lariscey enjoys taking R&B songs and making them acoustic.

“I love straight blues and more acoustic and indie sounds,” she said.

One of her favorite artists is Frank Ocean. You can find videos of her covering his music on her Instagram, @youhavegotmel and Twitter, @mlariscey.

“Every now and then, I’ll do a cover,” she said. “I get a good bit of feedback, and some people even request that I make a YouTube channel.”

Her favorite band is The Head and the Heart.

“They’re from the West Coast and a lot of their music is acoustic, indie and in a three part harmony,” she said. “It helps me train my own voice to hear where the harmonies fit.”

Lariscey said she played a few times in highschool, but she wasn’t nearly as confident then.

“I had a band,” she said sarcastically. “We weren’t really a band though. We played at the local pizza place twice.”

This year, she plans to do more open-mic performances.

“I want to try and get some people together to do battle of the bands,” she said. “I’m sure I won’t have trouble finding them.”