Name: Shawshank (feat. King Cipher) by Melly Salt
Duration: 3 min 30 s
Description: This track is a blend of rap and dreamy atmospheric melodies. What sets this track apart are the odd time signatures, rarely seen in this genre.

I grew up in a family that struggled with addiction. My dad, Gino, was a NYC stand-up comic who died when I was 20, after a long battle with booze.

“Radio Down” is a road trip song that imagines a version of our story where he got the help he needed and made it through. I wrote it during the endless backroad that was 2020—my first year living in rural Canada—and recorded it to tape on a Tascam 388 with the help of my friend (and writer of beautiful songs) Jon Mckiel.

It’s the first single from a new album, coming this fall on my favorite label, You’ve Changed Records.

Radio Down

I can feel their eyes on me.  Somewhere near the water’s edge.  Maybe you don’t believe in signs but the gators do.

Deep in Daytona with Ronny Rocket, his Acadian blood magnetized by the bayou.  The air is thick with junk-sick mosquitoes and spectral neon, buzzing with the flicker of a bad dream that no one’s waking up from.  I rub my eyes.  Rocket orders from the dollar menu.  Rocket always has the right idea.

An F-150 croaks into the lot like a frog in February.  The radio tuned to static.  The asphalt sweats, rats run for cover.   I stared one second too long when the cabin burst open.  Boot heels punishing the black top.  Rocket’s on the hood making sense of all this mess.   The old man approaches.  Pistol stuck to dank blue jeans, faintly keeping time against his beer belly and heroic belt, a metronome beating out the rhythm of these dark times.  McDonald’s is America’s great piazza.  It keeps the peace, even if no one’s on their best behavior.   It’s a place to be. 

The old man leans in, his tank full of Old Grandad: “Listen boy, if you want to wake up greater…” He pauses, pulls on a Red, then we finally lock eyes, “go on and lick the alligator.”  

The wind makes everything hotter, heavy with salt and deep-fried promise.  The kind of promise you know you won’t keep.  Poor Rocket.  That burger was never gonna be enough.  

“Love’s a superpower,”  I say, as Marlboro embers flare.  The Red gets inhaled, flicked to the ground.  The old man is severe, absolute like a cul-de-sac:  “Love, here, gets hungry every hour.”  His boot crushes the butt and the door creaks open.  I nod my head and before I know it another burger is getting super-sized.  Another belly is getting tickled in the USA. 

McDonald’s is America’s great illusion.  Everyone gets fed.  No one really eats.  Except the gators.  

Please enjoy “Alligator” by Caged Animals.  Co-produced by Jon Mckiel on his Tascam 388 in the Canadian bayou and featuring Steven Lambke on melodion.

Alligator

Make Strange Friends

This track is a blend of rap and dreamy atmospheric melodies. What sets this track apart are the odd time signatures, rarely seen in this genre.

Shawshank (feat. King Cipher)

Summer Song

Away

Panda Bear - Venom's In (Jaime Rosso Siren Dub)

Melly Salt is a Swedish-Latin songwriter, producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist. She grew up on three different continents, and this influences her music, where she dares to mix various genres and is not afraid to use different instruments from different parts of the world. Her influences primarily come from rock, pop, EDM, and Latin American music, and this is distinctly reflected in her productions.

Shawshank (feat. King Cipher)

Melly Salt

Related tracks