Danny Mellin

By Resonate | December 5, 2024

Words By Liv Allen

Danny Mellin is a 21-year-old indie rock artist from Oxford who makes tunes with punchy riffs and infectious melodies that will practically pull you to one of his shows. Coming off the back of his latest EP release, Where Did the Time Go?, and currently storming through a headline UK tour, he is moving with momentum that shows no sign of slowing down.  

Before his headline at the Exchange in Bristol, I sat down with Danny over a cup of tea to chat about the EP and life on tour.

How has the tour been treating you and the boys so far?

It was cool, we tried to play Glasgow last December but the tour van broke down! We’ve never played a gig in Glasgow, so having 70 people there was great. People don’t know who you are when you do the first couple of gigs in a city, so you have to warm them up. You’re building that connection live with an audience because they’ve maybe only seen you on a screen before, so we always make sure we give time to chat with people at the end.

You’ve done a few UK tours before. Is there anything you’ve learned to do differently each time to make it easier?

It’s not just about making it more accessible; it’s about making it the best show we can. When you do one show in isolation, that’s it. You also don’t have the camaraderie of the tour as much, but you don’t pick up things as quickly. You start to think, ‘Okay, this is what I can do to improve here. This is what I can do here’. I love a lot of comedians, and sometimes, at the end of their sets, you can see them writing notes about what they can do better for the next one, and that’s what I do. I like to treat every gig like a sponge and try to soak up everything good and everything that didn’t work so I know what to do next time. Over years of doing that, you get to a point where you start getting good. There are things I picked up two years ago that I still do now because they worked once really well, and I held onto them. It’s when you get that moment of connection and knowing the types of interactions with the crowd that work. It keeps you constantly engaging.   

This year, you released your second EP, Where Did The Time Go? How did you decide to combine those four songs?

Well, I write a lot, and what often happens is I push the older songs away because they’re less new, but the reality is they’re outstanding songs. I’ve got an album I’m writing that will come out next year, which is 12 tracks long and feels cohesive. I think my favourite type of albums are less the ones with loads of hits but an accurate reflection of an artist at a certain period. This EP is like a mini version of that and encapsulates when I was 18 to 19. The tracks are about three years old, and most took time to get them ready to release. When we toured them, that’s when they came alive. I wanted them to all come out together because it feels like an authentic collection of that era for me.  

On Midnight Bus, the last track on the EP, we got to see a more intimate acoustic side of your writing that we haven’t really seen before. I’ve seen on tour that you like to get into the crowd and sing it entirely acoustic, which is a really nice touch. What was the thought process behind that?

Yeah, thanks! So I’ve had the privilege of supporting people like Jake Clemmons and watching artists online as a kid who do things like that and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s really cool!’. A song like Midnight Bus didn’t work with the band, and I felt rather than doing an awkward middle point of the gig-style track up on my own, I thought I’d do the song in the crowd to create more of a connection with me and the fans. After that song, we played Don’t Leave Me Lonely, which will be the lead song for the album next year. It’s so loud you can’t go up from it, so we purposely put that little rest in.

You’ve cultivated a really dedicated fanbase. How’s it been seeing that grow over the last few years?  

Seeing them in person rather than just a number on a screen is good. The great thing about it is knowing it’s working. Putting out work and seeing it reflected in real life is a really lovely thing. I think the only reason it’s worked so far is because I’ve not been trying to be cool. It would be inauthentic for me to go on TikTok, wear sunglasses, rock a fur jacket and be Mr. Cool. I am just going on, sipping tea and wearing a T-shirt. That’s my image. I make sure I speak to all those fans individually, as the whole point of music is to connect to something, so if you can keep them a part of that journey, it’s great. 

What artists and albums are you enjoying at the moment?

I’m really into Salad Days by Mac Demarco at the minute. I’ve been playing that a lot. I love The War On Drugs, they’re super cool. Joni Mitchell is great, and Olivia Dean is great. I really like her. I listen to a lot of soul music too. I try to listen outside of my genre, but I struggle to get inspired by indie rock as it’s too similar to what I do. You end up regurgitating something someone else has done. If you can pull from a melting pot of influences, your sound gets more significant, and you have a chance to create something fresher. This means that the newer tunes have fresher sounds. 

What’s next for you and the boys?

We’ve got another mini-tour that will happen in spring next year, and then singles will be released from January onwards. That’s going to be every two months leading up to the album. Just more shows, more songs, and keeping it just us!

Follow Danny Mellin on Instagram @danny.mellin