Did you know Denis created MELT to hook up with Emma? This is the truth behind the world-first massage videos, as told by Denis.

MELT was my way to grab Emma’s attention… and personally speaking, I think it was a stroke of genius!

Back then we were so young (I was 25, she was 21). Emma and I would flirt and crush on each other but it never went further than that. We never kissed, or held hands… oh man, I was infatuated with her. I spent countless hours figuring out ways to make her fall in love with me! So I decided to play to my strengths.

At that age my massage career was beginning to take off; my massage business was sweeping through Melbourne and I was creating a bit of a name for myself, massaging super celebrities when they came to town on tour… Art Garfunkel, Pearl Jam… and a whole bunch more. I’d even set up a massage clinic in the snowfields and was rocking it during the ski season. I was busy running a business and managing staff and bookings… teaching couples massage just wasn’t on my radar. Hooking up with Emma… well, that was definitely on the to-do list – I just needed a clever way to make that happen.

I created the first version of MELT as a way to secretly woo her – my massage was brilliant (I knew that for sure), why not use my skill set to impress her? I told her that I was starting a new business (well, I wasn’t discounting that possibility) and needed someone to test the routine on. No massage-loving girl could resist that invite!

The first massage was intense. We were pretty good friends already, but this was intimacy on a whole new level. I’d promised her I wouldn’t make any moves, and I didn’t. But lo and behold, just a few short hours after we’d finished the massage, she kissed me!

We started dating after that. And the rest, as they say, is history.

For months I was referred to as “the masseur” among her girlfriends. As in, “And how are things with you and The Masseur?”

I massaged Emma a lot that year and the original version of MELT was far too raw to teach. At this point it was something that we were only using in our own relationship – and besides, my business was in a major growth phase and taking most of my attention.

I had no desire to release the MELT massage routine to the public; it was my little massage routine, created just for our burgeoning relationship.