A year ago, he was working with a songwriting think-tank, rushing to come up with material to complete an album in time for Christmas.

That's an incredible amount of pressure for a guy who's never recorded an album. And he was still recovering from the summer-long ordeal of Canadian Idol.

The album, Living It, sold about 35,000 copies -- not bad considering very few artists are selling anything these days. But it didn't reach the gold album threshold of 50,000, which every major label wants, and it undersold many Canadian Idol releases from previous years.

Now Melo is working on his second album, and he's giving it the time it deserves.

"I'll probably be writing for the next few months, until I feel comfortable with the material that I have," Melo said this week from his west Toronto apartment. "The difference with this is that I have the luxury of time, which I didn't before. (The first album) was rushed. I understand that you had to hit the iron while it's hot and it's a real fast, fast-paced machine that you're in right after the show.

"I was happy with the album, but this time around I'm going to be expressing myself, and you're going to see a lot of growth and maturity in where I'm going. It's going to sound even more like me. There are things that I want to talk about, things that I've experienced. In the past year and a half, I've learned so much -- maybe more than what some people would learn in 20 years in this business -- not just about music, but life, the ups, the downs, everything."

He's got about six songs ready to be performed, and fans might hear some of them Thursday when he performs an unplugged show at the Studio at Hamilton Place.

"You don't even know if these songs are going to make the album," says Melo. "So some of these songs you may never hear again."

Melo is playing Thursday with two Hamilton guitarists -- Andrew Mactaggart, formerly of the Tomi Swick band, and Joe Cacioppo, from his old band Stocked. He'll have a keyboard player and a cellist from the Canadian Idol band, and his brother Larry, playing percussion.

"It's unplugged, but it will have a lot of depth," Melo says.

The concert kicks off the Hamilton Music Awards weekend. Melo is nominated in five categories at the HMAs, which will be announced at Hamilton Place Sunday night, including album of the year and male vocalist of the year.

He's up against tough competition such as Daniel Lanois, Kathleen Edwards, Teenage Head and Fred Eaglesmith. He's aware Canadian Idol competitors have not done well in awards competitions. Idolists, for example, have yet to take home a coveted Juno, despite the fact that artists such as Kalan Porter and Hedley have been nominated several times.

"To find out that I'm in a category with people like Daniel Lanois and Kathleen Edwards is amazing," he says about the HMA nominations. "I'm the new kid on the block, just scratching the surface and trying to learn from people like that ... As far as the Canadian Idol thing, that's just the pros and the cons that come with it. If I go away with nothing, then fine. I'm not slowing down."

grockingham@thespec.com

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