Why I Moved to Pittsburgh: For the Music

Singer-songwriter Melinda Colaizzi knew she wanted to get back to Pittsburgh someday.  Making her way through the music scene in L.A., she paused long enough to read a Pop City story on Derek and Jesse Burnell, the founders of Lawrenceville's Round Corner Cantina, who ventured back to Pittsburgh from San Diego.

"They were successful, trendy and hip," says Melinda.  "They made it work. I knew I could, too."

Pittsburgh 2.0 has been something of a revelation for Melinda, a blues-rock artist whose music can be found at listentomelinda.com and on the recently-released EP, "Don't Be Sweet."

"I'm realizing how many great musicians we have here and that blues-rock is a big genre in Pittsburgh," says the singer, a cascade of brown waves surrounding her expressive face.  "The music scene is really starting to grow.  We've got Wiz Khalifa ("Black and Yellow") and we needed someone like that badly.  His music is directly about Pittsburgh and that's getting a lot of attention and opening doors.  It's inspiring other artists."

Melinda's current focus is on getting a band together and she is auditioning talent.  With a gravelly voice that belies her good looks, the singer is cut from the mold of heroines Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams and counts the Rolling Stones as a key influence.  Wingman in the new band is boyfriend and guitarist Kristian Havenicht. A gig is already lined up at the Club Cafe in mid-April.

"I'm also looking forward to the International Blues Challenge here in April.  It's a regional contest and hopefully I can move on [to the finals] in Memphis."  Clubs like the Thunderbird Cafe and Moondogs in Blawnox are also on her list.  "There's so much going on, the challenge [for the public] is finding out about events and then going.  Once they're there, they say "Wow!  This is what Pittsburgh is?!"

This newfound embrace seems light years away from a time when all Melinda could think about was leaving Pittsburgh.  A native of Forest Hills, she performed in coffee shops and at open mikes on the South Side while in high school.  "Looking back, I can see how much the music scene in Pittsburgh shaped me but I couldn't see it then.  To me, Pittsburgh was a small city with little opportunity in the arts and all I could think about was getting to L.A."

After two years at Pitt, a summer internship at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston led to a scholarship and the singer jumped at the chance.  Upon graduation, a local music producer placed her in an all-girl rock band dubbed "Mass Ave" and the group landed a development deal with Epic Records.  Even so, "we were all serious musicians and our heart wasn't into pop rock.  I needed to find my own sound, my own voice."

The one takeaway from college that stuck was boyfriend Havenicht, a fellow Berklee alum.  Done with Boston winters, the two decided to immerse themselves in the music business and moved to L.A. in 2006.  Melinda took jobs with Universal Records and Live Nation and recorded an album at the House of Blues Studios.  She also played shows in the L.A. area.

"The weather was definitely my favorite thing about LA, " she enthuses.  "And seeing so many people with so much passion, people working on music and art.  But my soul wasn't in that city.  The realness was missing.  Growing up in Pittsburgh, people are genuine, hard working and grounded.  In L.A., it's just the opposite for the majority.  My music didn't connect, either, it's more pop out there."

Attuned to the vagaries of the music business, Melinda was unwilling to relocate to Pittsburgh without a solid job opportunity.  Her experience at Live Nation, which had since merged with industry titan Ticketmaster, made her a natural for ShowClix, the hot Shadyside event ticketing startup.  The company's creative atmosphere was "a great fit" and after a series of conversations, she assumed the role of Business Development Manager in the summer of 2010.

"ShowClix is growing so quickly.  We just signed a partnership with the MoMA in New York and launched a new ticketing platform.  We're the anti-Ticketmaster.  There are 25 employees now and Lindsay and Josh (company founders) are from here but they spent time in L.A."

In the best Pittsburgh tradition, the move has allowed Melinda to be true to herself.  "Now, I get to do the music I love.  I know the industry is more of a pop model, more fly-by-night but here I get to focus on creating music and performing.  A musician is a part of who I am."

The singer is eager to share the wealth and looking for ways to expand awareness of Pittsburgh's music scene.  "ThePittsburghScene.com is a good resource for musicians.  If you offer him a download, he'll write about you.  It's just harder to find out about shows than it is in Boston or L.A.  We need a group, network or industry conference to tie the scene together.  Right now it's mostly word-of-mouth."

In the meantime, Melinda and guitarist Havenicht have settled into an urban lifestyle in a Strip District loft and enjoy neighborhood shopping.  "I could not find an Italian grocery in L.A. and here I can walk to Penn Mac!  I love all the family-owned businesses in the Strip and Kristian and I go to the downtown gallery crawls and hang out at Piccolo Forno and the Elbow Room."  Not surprisingly, they're regulars at the Round Corner Cantina.

"We can be too quick to blame Pittsburgh for not providing opportunities," says Melinda.  "You make opportunities yourself.  No one place can pull you down from your passion and goals."

New Girl In Town Elaine Labalme can carry a tune but she needs to work harder on her next book.

Photographs copyright Brian Cohen