The Victoria based multidisciplinary artist released 13 musical projects in 2025
Photo via @jp.meldrum on Instagram.
Artists are often judged, fairly or not, through metric of “quality over quantity.” While it’s up for debate whether artists who labour over a project for years at a time, or those who have a maximalist output are necessarily “more dedicated” or “more creative,” sometimes, an artist simply finishing a project — or multiple projects at once — speaks to their enthusiasm for the work itself.
JP Meldrum is a Victoria-based musician, multi-instrumentalist, author, and filmmaker who released thirteen musical projects in 2025.
“The idea was to do one per month, but I ran out of music,” Meldrum said in an interview with the Martlet. “It was a way for me to finish all the half-baked things I have in my Google Docs.”
In anticipation of his 30th birthday, Meldrum knew he wanted to “own it as hard as possible,” while already working towards completing several projects at the beginning of the year. Over the course of 2025, he intended to finish and publish all the unfinished projects he had left around.
“I think around August I ran out of music. So in September, I didn’t release anything, and in October I released two [projects] and caught up.”
Besides releases under his own name, Meldrum has released music as part of multiple bands, including Perfect Match, Really Loud Free Jazz, and (formerly) SCHOOLGIRL.
Many of his other, independent releases are under monikers like Formidable Liquorice, Big Bird, or his rapper persona, Phillip Morris.
“I started playing in [SCHOOLGIRL] when I was 17 or 18. At the same time, I was making a lot of experimental music,” he said. “I got really obsessed with harsh noise and avant garde jazz — stuff that felt like it was more about expression and less about virtuosity.”
The diversity of Meldrum’s creative projects shows an impressive creative range. His body of work varies from singer-songwriter acoustic tracks, piano compositions, and instrumentals, to electronic hip hop.
Meldrum states that his music is definitively genre-defying. Nevertheless, he describes a persistent focus in noise and genre experimentation across his musical career.
“Who I am is very manic, in a general sense. I’m not a perfectionist. I find high volume output satisfying; it’s a dopamine rush,” he said.
Many of Meldrum’s releases are characteristically rough around their edges, and go through one round of mixing and mastering before being posted to one of the several Bandcamp pages he runs.
“I don’t need to listen to any noise that suggests … ‘you gotta labour over this.’ It’s nonsense, at least to me,” he said. “It’s just not how I’m ever going to work; it’s not how I live my life; I’m embracing this part of myself, warts and all.”
There is a striking range in the genres of Meldrum’s releases. down the line and at my expense, two albums he released in 2025, exemplifies his skill for electronic production. down the line, which he completed in a single night, features floating ambient textures using samples and heavy layering of sound and glitch to create an evocative liminal soundscape. Meldrum has compared the record’s sound to producers like Oval, and the subgenre of Intelligent Dance Music (IDM).
at my expense is a more accessible demo tape that touches on the realms of electronic and ambient music, each track drastically different from one another. Meldrum describes it as “a true photodump of a record,” on the album’s bandcamp page liner notes and which is made evident by the more instrumental tracks on the latter half of the album.
Meldrum’s creative endeavours extend far beyond music. He is also an author and filmmaker. He released his debut novel, HOG, in January.
“I just did it for me … it’s definitely hyper idiosyncratic. I don’t need everybody to read it.”
Meldrum attributes his prolific output to what he describes as a practice of “pecking” at projects, or in simple terms, spending as little as five minutes on one creative task, before moving on to the next.
“You can work on different things in the same night,” he said. “It’s just doing five minutes of work. That’s how I finished my book over the course of four years. I just pecked away.”
In the Land of Fish and Honey, a film he assistant directed and produced with filmmaker John Ledingham, was previously screened at Little Fernwood gallery. Meldrum is one half of Destroyed Cinema + Music — an events and film distribution company with a described focus on “DIY, underrepresented, and unconventional cinema” — along with his associate Nick Workman. At the Victoria Film Festival in February, Destroyed hosted three multi-media shows for the films Foreigner, Levers, and Camp, featuring local bands and artists like Niloo, Ghost Darling, and Pet Retina.
Going forward, Meldrum says he will focus less on music and is instead turning his attention towards writing. Meldrum’s own advice for young creators is to have confidence in their work, while remaining flexible to inspiration when it arrives.
“I would say all ideas are equal, but some ideas take more time. Don’t discount the two-day idea in favour of the ten-year idea.”
As Meldrum poignantly asks of himself on his website, “Is variety the spice of life or have I spread myself too thin?”
Perhaps audiences and listeners will be the ones to judge, but Meldrum doesn’t seem concerned enough to slow down on his output just yet.
