Interview Under Fire Podcast · Interview Under Fire

S.18 E.18 - Interview with Melissa Bonny

January 7, 2026·45 min·3 clips

Melissa Bonny's advice to her 2012 self: 'trust your guts' — she adds she had to learn her own value after it was 'taken advantage of.'

1. Interview Under Fire host Sonny speaks with Melissa Bonny about her debut solo album 'Cherry Red Apocalypse,' set to release January 23. 2. Melissa Bonny is a Swiss vocalist known as the lead singer of modern metal band Ad Infinitum and a featured vocalist with Rage of Light and Dark Side of the Moon. 3. The episode centres on what creative and personal freedom going independent for the first time actually means for an artist who has spent her career in collaborative bands. 4. Melissa explains that with Ad Infinitum there is implicit genre constraint — 'we are a modern metal band' — whereas the solo album has no genre label at all. 5. She describes the working title 'Shades' being replaced by 'Cherry Red Apocalypse' when a lyric in a song felt too strong to stay confined to a song title. 6. The album includes 'I'm a Monster,' 'Snake Bite,' 'Snow on Mars,' 'Highs and Lows,' 'Mama Let Me Go,' 'I Don't Like You,' and 'Afterglow,' spanning metal, pop-rock, organic, funky, and cinematic styles. 7. Producer Jacob Hansen — who has worked with Melissa since the first Ad Infinitum album — handled vocal and drum recording plus mix and mastering. 8. Vikram Shankar was recommended by Hansen; Melissa connected with him on a day off during Ad Infinitum's North America tour, somewhere in Utah, and he transformed her rough guitar demos into the final album arrangements. 9. The first song Vikram completed was 'I'm a Monster,' which convinced Melissa the collaboration would work: 'he understood so well what this album needed.' 10. Guest musicians include Corbinian Benedict (bass on all tracks, Ad Infinitum bassist), Adrian Cohen, Fabian Ernie, Jonas Wolff, Adrian Thyssenwitz, Hans Platz, and — new to Melissa — Umahara. 11. Adrian Cohen's contribution to 'Highs and Lows' surprised Melissa: he added extra acoustic guitar details beyond what she had requested, which she called 'more than what I expected.' 12. Melissa's stated influences include Bad Omens, Bring Me the Horizon (especially live performance honesty and generosity), Lady Gaga (for performance as well as vocals), and Hayley Williams and Paramore — she says the song 'I Don't Like You' is directly inspired by the Paramore 'After Laughter' era. 13. She traces early influences to Britney Spears, Shakira, and Rihanna, noting that influences 'evolved or changed a lot through the years.' 14. The album's first and last tracks — 'I'm a Monster' and 'Snow on Mars' — were both released before launch, an unusual sequencing choice. 15. Melissa's Patreon has tiered memberships named Minty Meadows, Emerald Spring, Lilac Sky, Ivory Starlight, Scarlet Blaze, Silver Haze, and Amber Gleam. 16. She told her Patreon community the album's commercial success depends entirely on fan support since it is self-released with no label, and the response was fans pledging to share, playlist, and attend. 17. A 60-person release-day listening party in a Manchester bar — also Melissa's birthday — was announced on Patreon, with Morten able to attend because Amaranth plays Manchester the same day, and international fans from Germany and the US also signed up. 18. The interview format is relaxed and conversational, with the host sharing his own concert experiences (seeing Bring Me the Horizon in Dallas at what he believes was their biggest North American show) to build rapport. 19. Fans who follow Melissa's Patreon community for behind-the-scenes content or who enjoy the intersection of metal and pop-rock songwriting will find the episode most rewarding. 20. Listeners expecting a technical deep-dive into gear, production tools, or songwriting craft mechanics may find the interview stays more in personal and motivational territory.

As heard by us

A warm solo-debut catch-up that puts the studio process front and center.

Melissa Bonney's return to Interview Under Fire lands as a story about starting over alone and bringing a first solo album into view. The plainspoken nerves, the added responsibility, and the way the demos are shaped into a finished album with a collaboration that clearly works…

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Why you'd press play

Melissa Bonney's first solo album gets the catch-up and the studio breakdown.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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