Meldal-Johnsen served as the touring bassist, guitarist, and keyboardist for Nine Inch Nails between 2008 and 2009, and was Beck's bassist and musical director from 1996 until mid-2016. In 2021, he began work as a bassist, keyboardist and musical director for St. Vincent.
Other artists Meldal-Johnsen has worked with include Garbage, The Mars Volta, Frank Ocean, Dixie Chicks, Tori Amos, Dido, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Goldfrapp, Blood Orange, Pete Yorn, Turin Brakes, Marianne Faithfull and Ladytron. As a producer, Meldal-Johnsen has worked with M83, Paramore, Metric, Tegan and Sara, Deafheaven, Poppy, Jimmy Eat World, The Naked and Famous, School of Seven Bells, Neon Trees, Young the Giant, Ken Andrews, Division Day and more.
Meldal-Johnsen grew up in Los Angeles, obsessively listening to his parents' records and received his first bass guitar at the age of twelve. Like most budding musicians, he spent his time playing along to his favorite bands' records and jamming in garages. His interests were wide, but centered on American post-punk (Hüsker Dü, Fugazi, The Minutemen, Sonic Youth) and UK post-punk, goth, and dream pop (Wire, Cocteau Twins, Gang of Four, Love and Rockets, Bauhaus, New Order, Joy Division). After high school at the age of seventeen, he worked the night shift as a janitor at Cherokee Recording Studios in Hollywood, looking in on late-night sessions, and occasionally invited to witness the proceedings.[citation needed]

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