Reactions, travel, bucket list adventures, personal projects, and everything in between. This is where you’ll find videos from across the years, along with new ones as I keep creating, exploring, and checking more things off the list.
From the channel
Watch the trailer and read Melvin Maya's investigation context →
Watch the entire investigation and read the filming notes →
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A brief use of “Quiet” in Heart of Stone sent Melvin Maya straight to Shazam, then into a first listen that left him focused on the beat, the production, and a voice that reminded him of K Flay.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction is less about surprises and more about the force of the message: Jacob Banks’ voice, the moody production, and a song that says a lot without spelling everything out.
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Melvin Maya starts out wondering if The Big Push are covering a familiar tune, then ends up appreciating how little the video needs beyond a brick wall, a camera, and the band’s chemistry.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction to AURORA’s live “Heathens” is as much about immersion as it is about vocal control. He keeps coming back to the same thing: the performance makes him want to stop talking and just listen.
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Melvin Maya watches Harry Mack take a hesitant first response, earn the room, and build a lively freestyle from three plain prompts that end up carrying the whole clip.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction to Sam Tompkins’ Nest Audio Sessions cover turns on a simple idea: some songs are performed, while others feel like they belong to the singer from the start.
CXM PRODUCT
A Travel With Melvin design inspired by days on the water.
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Melvin Maya reacts to Romain Axisa’s Nancy Sinatra cover and finds a performance that feels calm, soulful, and well matched to the singer.
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Melvin Maya holds off on reacting to Ren’s new release until it has had time to breathe, then zeroes in on the beat, the lyric-video effects, and the track’s off-kilter humor.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction to Maria Hanciuc watching Ren and Sam Tompkins perform Blind Eyed becomes a small study in live energy, rough conditions, and why the setting matters.
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Melvin Maya and Maria Hanciuc move from first impressions to full repeat-listen territory as Ren and Chinchilla’s live take on “Chalk Outlines” reveals what the studio version only hinted at.
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Melvin Maya and Maria Hanciuc react to a busking session that mixes familiar songs, strong vocal control, and the kind of street performance energy people often walk past without stopping to hear.
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Melvin Maya shifts from Ren’s emotional solo material to The Big Push’s busking energy, and the contrast is what gives this reaction its shape.
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Ren turns an internal argument into a piece of music, theater, confession, and self-acceptance. That combination is why “Hi Ren” keeps hitting first-time listeners so hard.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction to Harry Mack’s Guerrilla Bars clip becomes a useful guide to what makes the freestyle work: speed, crowd awareness, and the strange ease of turning strangers into raw material.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction works because Maria Hanciuc experiences Harry Mack the way many viewers do: shocked first, then fascinated by how much he can build from almost nothing.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction to Eden Nash’s cover of Billie Eilish’s “Come Out and Play” becomes a clear defense of her voice, her range, and why he thinks she has been overlooked.
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Melvin Maya spends this reaction doing two things at once: praising Alex Melton’s cover and reconsidering how Post Malone’s newer material sounds compared with the songs that first made him familiar.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction to Hollow Coves’ “Anew” is part music response, part creative reset: the song’s build, the film-style visuals, and the setting all push him toward travel, photography, and cinematography.
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Melvin Maya comes at Sam Tompkins’ Beyoncé cover with limited familiarity and a clear opinion about the original artist, which makes the reaction more revealing than a simple fan check-in.
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Melvin Maya’s take on Tessa Violet’s “Bad Ideas” is part music reaction, part visual critique, and part creative reset. The song’s playful awkwardness and the video’s monochromatic design give him something real to think about.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction to Ren’s “Down On The Beat” focuses on the production first, then on the playful visuals and the mystery of Viktus.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction is less about shock than craft: Harry Mack reads a distracted Omegle chat, grabs three simple prompts, and builds a freestyle that keeps its shape from start to finish.
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Melvin Maya’s reaction is less about surprise for its own sake and more about watching a familiar punk song get rebuilt into something that feels convincingly rural, layered, and strangely natural.
