Meet Melissa Chapman

Melissa is the owner and president, negotiator, creative business maker, and licensor extraordinaire of Groove Garden.  Groove Garden is an ambitious all-girl operation specializing in music supervision and licensing for film, advertising and other media. Helping their clients achieve the perfect synergy of music and visuals is their M.O., and they work with everybody, from household names to indie upstarts.  Melissa prides herself on an honest approach to music licensing and giving credit where credit is due.  She started Groove Garden in 2009 in order to fully honor her knowledge, ethics and passion for music, which had been stifled at other companies.
 
Melissa has licensed music for big brand commercials and little specialty projects alike since 2007, including major campaigns for Target, Estee Lauder, New Balance, Wrigley, Tecate, Hershey, JC Penney, Vizio, and Kohl's. On the big screen, Melissa has worked on indie favorites The Fits, Donald Cried, LOEV, Listen Up Philip, Damsels in Distress, Francine, The Longest Week, and many more upcoming films.
 
In her spare time (HA!), Melissa is also a mom to a little boy and two dogs, a wife to an amazing hunk of a man and an avid but futile doer of all the fun things.
 
Q+A
 
If you had to change careers what would you want to do?
I would want to be a Paleontologist, Archaeologist or maybe even Egyptologist. Definitely some sort of ologist.  I think that digging up things and figuring out how past beings lived, died, etc is insanely cool.  The only thing I’d worry about would be digging up something that has a spell on it…and then I’d be cursed, and that would be freaky.  So that’s kind of a deterrent…never mind, I’d also like to be a Jane Goodall type person and study monkeys in the wild.  New studies show that apparently gorillas make up little songs as they eat.  
 
What makes you laugh?

  • Potty humor
  • Awful puns
  • Piñata blooper and news blooper montages
  • Different names for animals a la - http://boredomtherapy.com/funny-animal-names/ especially “Danger Noodle”
  • Drunk Uncle on SNL
  • Stupid jokes
  • Funny faces
  • My friend, Dana

 

What do you believe?
I believe in Karma and kindness and that the energy you put out in the world will come back around.  It’s so amazing to see what happens when you are just kind and real.  But I also believe that laughter is the best medicine and that we can’t take anything too seriously.
 
What do you geek out about?

  • A cappella music (I was in an all girls a cappella group in college called The Rip Chords and we practically invented the hilarity and weirdness that is Pitch Perfect)
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson and Stephen Hawking and SPACE!!!!!
  • Nova on PBS
  • Rescuing dogs
  • Game of Thrones
  • Girl power
  • Musicals

 
Who helped get you here?
My parents and grandparents encouraged me to get an education, and then more education, and supported me while I did numerous jobs for no money.  Later on when I was finally getting paid, the boss of my 9 to 5 music job wasn’t exactly doing things kosherly.  My family urged me to go out on my own.  Along with my teammate at that poorly managed company, Annie Pearlman (aka my soul sista, the peanut butter to my jelly), we started on this amazing adventure in 2009.  Annie is the best partner a girl could ever ask for and I’m eternally grateful for all of the help and kindness from family, friends, clients, and even competitors.  Together we are making this garden grow!

Want more?  Check out Groove Garden and connect with them on Facebook and Twitter

 

Photo Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis Photography