Interview: Mella Dee on the Rave Reemergence

On an uncharacteristically warm spring day in west London, Mella Dee sits at the desk in his home studio. He’s just returned from the first Lost & Found festival in Malta. The window in front of him looks out across London, a city with a rich sonic history that he’s been re-appropriating over the past few years. Dee moved here from his hometown of Doncaster two years ago and with his Rhythm Nation tape – which landed on Shy FX’s Digital Soundboy record label in January – he has finally broken out of the underground.

The studio is packed tight with synths and drum machines. “I get bored pressing buttons on a mouse, locked inside a computer, so I like to use proper synths and analogue stuff. It is so much easier to twist a button and get the noise you want. It needs more space and money, but it’s definitely worth it,” he explains.

He settles in to play a few of the productions off his forthcoming EP on Lobster Boy Records, the label owned by Redlight. “I wake up every day and try to write some beats,” he says, before thumping out the first track. It has rolling breaks that echo and disperse into the mix, all laid on top of a chunky bottom end, with Rhythm Nation’s Helter Skelter vocal samples appearing intermittently. The track maintains the record’s harder edge, but drags his sound somewhere entirely new.

The second track he plays has an off kilter snare that snaps on top of a huge kick drum. It moves away from a pure rave vibe and more towards techno. “People that make UK techno have listened to grime, early dubstep and all that. Berlin might not say it’s techno, but it is to me – dark with massive drum machines,” he explains.

Before taking flight as a solo artist, Dee was a member of UKG duo Mista Men with Woozee. “I learnt so much from it, just because at first I didn’t have a clue. There was nobody around us to tell us what we should or shouldn’t do in regards to music. So we did whatever we wanted.” This is reflected in his London-via-Doncaster approach to his music – he’s as inspired by the bassline scene of the north, the dubstep and grime scenes of the south. Old school jungle and hardcore are as important to him as garage and 2-step. His productions, though, go further than mere nostalgia. Mella Dee is one of the most forward-thinking rave revivalists yet, positioning him at the forefront of a new breed of dark-edged bass music.

You’ve just come back from the first Lost & Found in Malta. How was it?

It’s the first time they’ve ever had anything like that out there, so they loved it. It was a really nice little venue – 7000 people or close to that, so it wasn’t over the top. I played on Saturday night and banged out techno in a warehouse space. It was a really good vibe.

Who did you play with?

The night I played was Special Request, Paleman and Shy FX, so it was more techno, bass and jungly vibes.

You’re playing back to back with Special Request at Bestival.

That is definitely the most excited I’ve been about playing a set. It’s going to be interesting, especially because The Port Stage at Bestival is insane. You’re on a massive ship in front of a sea of people. Being able to play hardcore, jungle and techno there is going to be perfect.

Do you think there is any prospect of you producing together?

There is obviously a good lineage between what we do, so I would love to if it ever came about, but he is in Leeds and I’m in down here.

How do you think the scenes differ?

Well, I came up through Leeds. In London you are spoilt for choice whereas when you are up north it is more limited, so you have to travel. I would say that up north the bassline scene is a very upfront party. I think what people want out of a night there is a little different than down here.

There seems to be something bubbling in the bass sphere at the moment.

It is definitely something that people are picking up on again. It is good but I think we’ve got to watch out for that breakbeat that’s not really got the rough end of the UK sound. It needs to keep that.

So not going the same way that dubstep went?

Yeah. It loses that real darkness, and it becomes a joke after a point. Rather than having real moodiness.

Is it nice having moved to London that it is really vibrant again at the moment?

Yeah, it is cool living in London now, there is a lot more interesting stuff coming through. Bristol has got a really interesting thing at the minute too. It always has that vibe of pushing different music though. I haven’t been yet, but there is a night that I really want to go to called Who??Cares. They are really pushing different stuff. They have residents like Pinch. That definitely seems like the spot at the moment.

What do you think happened to make breakbeat so vital again?

There is a big reaction to what I would call beige music. It feels like a lot of music out there is designed to not offend anyone, with no real energy. A lot of my favourite producers at the minute, like Hodge and Kowton and stuff like that, are really pushing it and trying to do something different and darker.

As a solo artist you do seem to focus on the darker end of the spectrum.

That’s what I have always been into, so it’s easier for me. When I made “GT Turbo” it was like the beginning of a new chapter, where I was really thinking about the music that has inspired me.

Do you prefer working solo then?

I wasn’t much of an engineer back in the Mista Men days. So it taught me a lot, but nowadays I definitely prefer solo. I like to have my own thing at the end. I always wish I had another pair of ears though. You can end up listening to something so much that it becomes almost impossible to decide if something is good or not anymore.

Rhythm Nation definitely feels as if it has a tight aesthetic. It is rare to get a tape that has so many tracks that can stand up on their own in a DJ set, but are so cohesive as a unit.

I didn’t actually create it as a beat tape. I kept making tracks and realised that I wasn’t going to do a single release for every track, but it was still something that I wanted to give to people. I was shocked at the reaction. “Heaven” became the biggest tune, but across the board people would play such different things from it.

Rhythm Nation itself is named after the record shop of the same name in your hometown of Doncaster isn’t it?

I used to go to when I was ten years old to buy whatever cheap Dreamscape or Helter Skelter tapes I could pick up. It is a big part of me, but I don’t want to make hardcore or jungle, I just want to use that influence.

Do you see what you do as more of a re-appropriation of those sounds then?

That is absolutely what it is. I’m trying to take that and do something different with it. There isn’t just jungle, or just hardcore in what I’m doing. There is garage and grime and all sorts of stuff in there. It is just my way of fitting all that together.

There seems to be a bit of acid creeping in now as well.

Yeah. That is a new thing but I do want to do some acid tracks. I’m just trying to work out a way to get it in.

What do you think has led people to react to that kind of experimentation again?

I get so fed up of hearing the same old beige tracks. I think it’s the reaction to that. When I’m playing out I’m noticing that kids are reacting more to the heavier and darker stuff now. It is as if they are getting fed up of music that is easier, the stuff that you don’t have to think about as much. That might sound a bit pretentious, but people just need to be tested sometimes.