SKATES

Skates, born Melissa Samantha Moore, was raised and lives in Los Angeles, though she has also lived in Portland, Maine & San Francisco, CA. Her sound is a surrealistic lyrically driven electronic jazzy punk rap infused with performance art and comedy. Growing up, she was easily influenced by Missy Elliot, Siouxsie Sioux, Portishead, and The Velvet Underground and learned to sing those albums while driving in her automobile.

She has been writing songs since grade-school, her first band being, Purple Widow (with Adam), and second being not a band but a lie about being in a Jefferson Airplane cover band.
Before Skates, Melissa went by the moniker M.Q. Musik (with Michael on dance), playing several shows and releasing a 250 copy limited tape edition of original songs called, Melissa's Potato Contortions USA, and 100 prints of the c.d. called M.Q. Musik Demos. Both releases sold out.
So far Skates has put out three extended plays (Lord of the Rinks, Amethyst, Ghost songs) and performed a large number of awesome shows at venues such as the LA County Fair, the CMJ Music Festival and the Key Club supporting Nina Hagen. Ghost songs didn't pan out as the guy who wrote the music for it threatened to sue.
Now she is writing both the lyrics and music for an upcoming release of pop songs and playing shows in L.A. She is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a B.A. in Liberal Arts (Emphasis on Social Sciences), and writes short stories as well. - m.q. 2012