Do you have a dream? Everyone has something. If you are growing up in Gozo perhaps an Olympic skier, a mountaineer or a musician is not the wisest of dreams.

The unemployment office told Keith to stop messing around with music – he would never make a living from it – and suggested he get a proper job! But if there weren’t those few among us who dared to look foolish in our dreams, how poorer the world would be without Joseph Calleja, Michael Mifsud, or Chasing Pandora?

For Keith, music is his life. For Melissa, music has been her salvation. Poetry is her way to let out her screams, her laughter, to exercise the tragedy holding on to her soul. Through poetry, Melissa has found peace, through music Keith is living his dream, together they are Chasing Pandora.

Melissa was born in Canada, moved to Malta when she was seven and even from an early age her favourite pass-time was writing poetry. She still has homework books and diaries filled with her poetry and has happy memories of singing to her father’s Elvis records, performing in front of a mirror in her sister’s clothes, pretending to be Madonna or Cyndi Lauper.

It was her brother who introduced Melissa to a different kind of music and she quickly became hooked on Metallica and Nirvana: when Kurt Cobain died she had a Nirvana shrine in her room. Her brother again changed her life when he bought her her first guitar at 13, and Courtney Love

quickly became her idol.

At school, Melissa was known as a notorious trouble maker, but her rebellious

tendencies could not overshadow her creative mind and she went on to do her A levels, with English Literature and poetry always being her favourites, even having some of her work published. University saw her hoping to follow a course in journalism – poetry did not seem a realistic way to pay the rent.

Her first interview as a journalist was with PL4Y front man Keith, now the other half of Chasing Pandora.

Keith, like Melissa, moved to Malta at a very early age. He preferred growing up among the quiet tranquillity of his grandfather’s fields to the hectic lifestyle he had left in New York. Like Melissa he was also known as a trouble maker at school, but still managed to be top of his class. Singing in church introduced Keith to music and after learning some simple chords on the guitar, he realised music was how he wanted to spend his life. After playing in a grunge band he joined PL4Y. With both bands he had always played electric guitar, but always in the back of his band – and sitting in the

corner of his room – was the acoustic guitar.

It was the tragic death of her brother that spiralled Melissa into the depths of misery and despair, and her only way of getting through the day was to write about that dark place she now inhabited, releasing the pain into her poetry.

It was not until her boss, Steve Brown (formally Elton John’s producer and creative manager), happened to hear her singing in the office that opportunity was thrust into her hands. Steve was setting up a recording studio and needed someone to help him – Melissa had recommended Keith. Somehow Steve saw Melissa’s potential and asked her to sing a couple of her poems to Keith’s melodies on acoustic guitar, promising that if he hated her voice, he would certainly let her know. But something magical happened and Chasing Pandora was formed.

Keith had never written songs before, he had always contributed with PL4Y, but never been given the confidence to explore his talent, but his sensitive, gentle character was allowed to breath through his new love, the acoustic guitar.

The combination of the three working together (Steve, Keith and Melissa) created a unique creative chemistry. Keith’s sensitive, soulful acoustic guitar melodies, Melissa’s beautiful voice and sometimes dark lyrics, coupled with Steve’s intuitive feel for a song and production, saw them write song after song. Their first single Feel the Rain reached number three in the charts and people began to realise that a serious talent had been allowed to flourish. Bay Radio recognized this and awarded them Best Newcomer just two months after the release of their debut single.

Chasing Pandora have brought us a remarkable album, Mocking The Mocking Bird, an album that will make you believe you can achieve your dreams if you just take hold of the opportunity when it arrives and breath life into it.

Mocking The Mocking Bird is a beautiful, dark collection of memories and emotions from Melissa’s life. From the bitter depths of despair, a melancholy cello draws us into Bedroom, the first track on the album, while Blue Leather Chair makes you want to punch the air as your spirits fly and a happy childhood memory is revisited.

The sorrowful tragedy of Bleed cannot fail to touch you, with the tragedy of a broken life, while Mocking The Mocking Bird re-builds that life and leads you into change, a growing awareness that all things move on, whether you want them to or not.

Last year, no one knew who Chasing Pandora were, now Melissa and Keith are constantly stopped in the street by people who want to shake their hand and say “well done”. After the Bay Music awards, their village in Gozo hung out banners congratulating them.

Both Keith and Melissa are ferociously proud of where they come from and feel that Gozo and Malta should be proud too. There are a multitude of incredibly talented people out there, who just need to believe that anything is possible!

Chasing Pandora are playing at St James Cavalier’s main theatre between 2 and 6 May at 8pm. Tickets cost Lm5.