Mella Dee is truly in a lane of his own. Anyone familiar with the British producer will be aware of the genre-defying dark sounds he manages to conjure up. Infusing the energy of jungle breakbeats with gritty techno basslines, the result is an all-out assault on your sub woofers. Last year’s “Keep On” was an underground anthem, followed by a full release on Redlight’s Lobster Boy imprint. Making his return with the “Deep Soul” EP on DEXT Recordings, we’re greeted with yet another slew of bass heavy heaters; it’s guaranteed that “Universal” will be doing damage in the clubs. To coincide with the release of that new project, we sat down with Mella Dee to talk about his myriad of influences.
When I first heard your music, it sounded like a giant concoction of jungle, garage & techno. Explain your sound for the new listeners.
Its basically just a mix of everything i’ve been inspired by throughout my life, trying to blend all the sounds and styles i’ve grown up listening to into my own take on it all. There is no doubt a big blend of Hardcore & Techno in there with that sort of garage swing though, all of them are a big part of what I do.
What were some of your early musical influences?
From being really young like 7 or 8 years old it was hardcore and happy hardcore, so that’s a major part of me, even though I lost touch with it as a teenager when I discovered hip hop. Aside from those, a big part of my early going out days was like stuff played in the Hacienda, that sort of house was around even though it was over 10 years after the early scene. I’ve always had a varied taste so to be honest there’s so many influences.
Travelling back in time, you had a pretty crazy 2015 in terms of the show front. What were some of your favourite parties you played at?
Glastonbury was great, i played 3 sets there last year and they were all really good fun, going b2b with Special Request at Bestival was another highlight, basically though anytime I get to go out and play the music I really want to play and get a good reaction it’s always a favourite.
The “Trellick EP”, released through Lobster Boy, had a crazy reception. Let’s talk about some of the inspirations for this project.
It was a continuation on what I’d already been doing really, just trying to build on my sound and what I’ve been trying to do in terms of finding the best way to make a Techno edge to the stuff I do with Hardcore/Jungle inspirations. Just trying to keep things as interesting as I could, I wrote most of the EP not long after moving from south to west London and living round the corner from Trellick tower being able to see that from my window when I was writing music was a strange inspiration to me, like the building is just so mad looking so that’s where the title came from.
We’ve seen through your social media you’re a bit of a vinyl collector. What are some of the most prized possessions in your collection?
It’s to hard to really select just one piece or solo records, but my collection of Confetti stuff is killer, early dubstep stuff is pretty prized also, like lots of DMZ stuff, a vast collection Tempa. Generally though all my records, because there’s days when you go through a collection and find something you fully forgot about that just so good.
Who are your top three producers that should be on our radar at the moment?
Boxia, Hugo Massien, Denis Sulta are all featuring in my sets a lot at the moment, and all making top music.
You’re quite the busy man. Any plans for 2016?
Release more music is the main goal, theres a fair bit lined up which i’m excited about. I’ve just moved studio so looking forward to writing new music in the new space. Aside from that its just more gigs and the festivals through the summer which is always fun.
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