John Melcher has preferred to remain on the periphery of the professional New Music world, following a creative path free of commercial cross-interests, and the traps that come with being labeled a success. Paraphrasing a strong and early influence, Charles Ives, he prefers not to “starve on his dissonances.” His music draws heavily upon many diverse musical styles and defies easy classification.

Born in Indianapolis in 1951, Melcher's earliest profesional experience came as a guitarist in rock bands in high school. After graduation, he began intensive studies with composer and lifelong mentor Thomas Briccetti, followed by two years at Juilliard, while concurrently working with the Buchla synthesizer at New York University’s Intermedia Studio.

HIs early work was extremely dense and dissonant, strongly reminiscent of the post-war generation of experimental composers (Xenakis, Berio, Ligeti). In the 1970's, he was influenced by Minimalism, and its return to tonality. This he combined with aggressively complex metric structures, often presenting major performance challenges.  After several under-rehearsed and disappointing concerts, he stopped soliciting public performances altogether.

Returning to Indianapolis after two years, he composed in his free time and enjoyed some regional performances, while holding down various sundry jobs. He moved to San Francisco in 1975, and was later employed as a piano technician for The Grateful Dead and other Bay Area artists.

In 1981, he got his hands on an Apple II computer equipped with special sound synthesizer hardware. He began writing music to be "performed" by the computer, and developing music software for Passport Designs, including the first MIDI recording applications available in the US.

In 1994, he produced a private album using then-new direct-to-disk recording technology, then lost all interest in performances or recordings of his work. He sold all his synthesizers and recording equipment, and moved back to Indianapolis, continuing to write ni his free time.

A job opportunity sent him to Thailand in 1997, where he currently lives and composes full time, producing finished recordings of hs musical output.

He recently released an orchestral song cycle, Play The Piano Drunk... based on texts of American poet Charles Bukowski. For more information, visit www.PlayThePianoDrunk.com. His work is available through Lomluka Music (BMI).