an interview with… Danny Mellin

@ Truck 2025

Bending timeless melodies with driving guitar riffs, Danny Mellin creates a sound which feels fresh and authentic within the indie scene, quickly establishing himself as one of Oxfordshire’s most promising young talents. Having just released his new single Don’t leave Me Lonely, whilst teasing the release of his highly-anticipated debut album, the 22-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down. Making his return to Truck Festival on the Friday, we sat down with Danny to discuss all things debut albums, his love for The Beatles, and why Wunderhorse is one of the most exciting bands right now. 

Hi Danny, thank you for joining me for a chat! How are you? 

I’m doing fantastic. Thank you very much for having me, I’m all good!

So, we’re at Truck Festival - you’re headlining the V&V Stage tonight. How are you feeling ahead of that? Do you have any expectations as to how it’s going to go? 

We’re just really excited for it, but I’m also quite confidently calm too. I’m not really nervous, I’m just looking forward to it more than anything. It’s a lovely thing doing Truck because it’s a hometown show, being an Oxford band. It’s just really good to be back on home turf, and being able to headline a stage here, even the V&V one, it’s just a really cool thing. Just really looking forward to it - it’s gonna be really really fun! 

You’ve played Truck before. What’s your favourite thing about the festival?

I think without saying anything really vague, it’s like the vibe. There’s an atmosphere when you go into Truck, which is kind of like everyone’s really up for it. I think when you play festivals, sometimes you’ve got crowds with people who you really have to work to get them into it, and that’s a bit on you as a performer, to be fair. But everyone seems really up for having a good time here, and you feel that when you walk around. You can’t really ask for anything better when you’re playing. 

It’s like how Truck call themselves “The UK’s Most Warped Village Fete” - it really feels like it, doesn’t it!

It does! It’s got that look, even though it’s massive - the car park’s crazy right now! - it’s got that villagey vibe to it. It feels like everyone is getting along - smile and wave at each other. And you don’t have to worry about your tent getting set on fire! It’s good stuff. 

Have you had a chance to catch any sets yet? Or is there anyone you’re most looking forward to seeing this weekend?

I’ve just got here if I’m being honest! My bandmates saw Bloc Party yesterday, and said they were really good. I’m really looking forward to Wunderhorse, that’s going to be amazing. They’re probably, alongside Fontaines D.C., mine and the band’s top two contemporary bands going around at the minute. We haven’t really seen anyone yet, but we’ve been getting our feet around the festival. Actually, I did see The Big Moon earlier! They were great - they sounded really good, and I thought that was quality. So it’s good so far. 

Where do you take inspiration for music from? Do you write from personal experience or do you take from fictional characters or media? 

I wish I was clever enough to be writing fiction, but sadly, I’m a bit too self-obsessed for anything more than that. I think for me, if I don’t write honestly, I don’t see the point in doing it because I think I find [songwriting] as a really great way of journaling what goes on. We recorded an album at the start of this year and a lot of the songs are from a very specific point in time. We didn’t do one of those albums where it’s like 10 years in the making, it’s pretty much quite condensed lyrically, making it these nice journal entries. I think a lot of my favourite albums are like that. When I write, I try my best to be quite specific in the moment about it, and as clear about things as I can, because as soon as you make it vague and away from being about you, people are like, ‘what are you doing? What’s the point?’

So you don’t think you’ll ever start writing about other people or fiction then? 

Not fiction. I mean, we’ve got one song called Ordinary Day (Ordinary Town) which focuses on, not me, but it’s still from my perspective. I think it’s hard to write honestly when it’s out of your vision because then you can either get a bit preachy or sound a bit… bland. 

You’ve already mentioned Wunderhorse and Fontaines D.C., but who else are your biggest musical influences, and how would you say they have influenced your approach to making music? 

I mean I grew up on The Beatles. They were like the ones growing up. My dad, I feel like ever since I could hear, every time I went downstairs a song would be playing by them, so they’re the biggest ones. I think Paul McCartney’s work ethic especially was always something I’ve been really driven by, because I don’t always switch off. The band is pretty good at getting me to, but… I’m free! [laughs] Sam Fender is another one. He’s really cool. I saw him 6 years ago, and the first time was in 2022 when I was 16. 

I was meant to go to that! My show got cancelled the night before. My first time seeing him ended up being at Finsbury.

You saw him at Finsbury? That’s so cool! We met him and his whole band at Truck that year, and his guitarist, Dean, was showing me on his phone all this new guitar kit he’d bought - they were a really good bunch. They were really influential to me as well. I currently like bands like Wunderhorse and Fontaines because I think within the indie scene, they’re artists that are trying to do something different. Even if they’re doing something indie related, still trying to push the boat out, because I think it can be quite easy to follow the trail of other people before. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, but I’m trying to be something that feels authentic to me, but also a bit exciting. 

Do you think that’s why bands like Wunderhorse are doing so well at the moment? 

I think it’s just something different. Teal is a beautiful song. One of the best songs of this last century for me, and there’s such a rawness to that song that just isn’t around as much now. But if I was to start doing that, it would be rubbish because that’s not me, but he’s doing that and that’s what makes it so good. I think people gravitate towards honesty. If you fake it, people can see right through that. 

It’s like songs that tell a story seem to be doing so well at the moment. 

Yeah, Teal is coming from a place of heart, which is probably why people are like, “Oh my God, I don’t know who Katie is”... that’s funny!... but people are like “What if it did?” and they love it because of the honesty and emotion in that. 

You’ve just released your new single Don’t Leave Me Lonely. What was the inspiration behind that track?

I was in a long distance relationship for 9 months, and it was mad. It was an international one across America and England, but at the same time. The song itself came about from me just trying to write prolifically, and I was writing another song on the album and I was trying to get the bridge but I just wasn’t getting anywhere with it, so I started writing another song, and in about 20 minutes, I had Don’t Leave Me Lonely done. I think the ease of the song remains and it made sense to come back with that one. It’s just a song about long distances and the hopes, the feel good side to it, and loving the partner but at the same time, the worries and all the anxiety. It’s just a realistic depiction of it and not trying to be anything more than that. Again, it’s just a good little capsule of what was happening at that point. 

Is that going to be part of a wider project then?

Yeah, we’re leading up to a debut album, which will be out early next year, but for the time being, we’re releasing loads of singles from it. We went away in January to the middle of Wales and just messed about, then got 10 tracks down. We’ve been doing this for a couple of years now and our fans are lovely and really loyal, so we just wanted to make sure we gave something back to them as well. We don’t want to play it safe anymore, we want to do something that’s a bit more of a statement. 

How would you say your sound has evolved over time?

I’ve tried to overthink it all less and be more open to my producer (Alex Quinn) a bit more. When I started out, I would often go into a studio and be like, ‘I’ve written a song and I want it to sound like this artist’, whereas now I think we’ve taken that away and instead I’m like, ‘I want to do a good song’ and then I describe the influences and the feel I’m after, so I think that’s made it more authentic. It feels more timeless. We’ve got a bit more of a 60s influence in it because I’m a big fan of The Beatles, obviously, and Mac Demarco too, s0 I’ve tried to broaden out the sound a bit more too, so it feels more accessible. It’s just a bit more me - more honest, and if you were to speak to me like you are now, then listen to the music you’d be like, ‘Yeah, that sounds like the same person.’ I’m not being performative anymore. 

You’ve mentioned The Beatles quite a few times - what’s your earliest memories of music? And how did you get into it and realise this could be a career? 

I think my earliest memories, again, are The Beatles. I was like 3 and used to spin around to these really weird songs or like niche deep cuts from countless albums. My dad got me a Mcfly CD as a kid, I remember thinking the Five Colours In Her Hair riff was pretty cool. I think I just grew up with that sort of thing. Then when I got to about 10, I started doing school fetes with the same drummer I’ve got now, then when I was in secondary school I started busking and making a lot of money, which was cool to brag to my mates about. I just started playing to my mates and in like school assemblies, and I realised it was quite fun and liked the buzz of it. It was something you couldn’t get anywhere else; being onstage is a surreal thing. 

You released your second EP, Where Did The Time Go? Last year. Can you tell me a little bit about the making of that project and the process of making it?

We released Ordinary Day (Ordinary Town) as the first single because it was the latest thing I’d written and just wanted to get it out straight away. All summer I recorded a bunch of songs. I’d love to be like ‘there’s such a big concept around the EP’, but if I’m honest, we had 4 songs that we thought were really good and played them for a year on tour and the fans really liked them, and we thought we’d put them out. The album itself is a bit more thought through than that, but even for that, it was a case of these are really good songs. I think the EP cuts off a really good time in my life where I was still like early, late teens, early 20s. I’m 22 now, but very specifically the 18 to 20 period is capped off in those songs and it’s nice to have that. 

You said about the fans enjoying the songs. With the album, do you think you’ll test out songs live before they’re released and see how that goes down?

We’ve kind of already started doing that. I think it’s always been a great way for us to figure out what works. We’re playing two today - we’re doing Don’t Leave Me Lonely and then another song which is going to be single two. I never write for the fans because I think in that way, you actually are doing it for the fans. If you’re trying to please people, you end up being the most boring version of yourself where you’re trying to be a people pleaser, and no-one wants that. We do go into sets playing new songs because it’s fun to play them live. It’s a relief [when the fans like the unreleased songs], but also I’d put them out anyway. I’d just moan about it if they don’t like them! [laughs]

What is your favourite track on the EP and why?

I really like Midnight Bus, which is the last song on the EP, because there’s a really nice memory around how I recorded it. I traveled up to Liverpool to record it and got it down in a day, and then we played in Paris the week after, and that’s where [the band] heard it for the first time and really loved it, which was a good feeling. But also You and Your Friends is a favourite because it’s the one that sums up that EP the best. And energy wise, I think it’s on point for what we’re about. I wrote that in lockdown, and it just came out of nowhere. I just picked up an electric guitar, and genuinely finished it in 20 minutes again. So it’s probably You and Your Friends, but Midnight Bus is also a good one! 

How would you say the new single relates to your last EP?

I think it still carries on the same Madchester inspiration like You and Your Friends has got a bit of that early Britpop scene, and I think we took a lot of drum beat influence for Don’t Leave Me Lonely from The Charlatans, and then we’ve just thrown over the top of it a bit of motown, and a bit of 60s on top of that. But I definitely think it still ties in with that sort of thing; it’s still about relationships and what I’m doing, but just a year later. I wouldn’t say that anyone who listens to it thinks it’s wildly different, it’s just slightly better produced. And I think real, which is what I’m constantly trying to do; just bettering myself. And if I can keep doing that, then we’re gonna be alright. 

Finally, what’s next for Danny Mellin?

Well, firstly, I’m gonna have a tea in about 10 minutes! But then after that, it’s Truck and Tramlines this weekend, which will be a lot of fun - big stages! Then just new music, announcing a tour, announcing an album, and just hoping the snowball keeps rolling. We’re just trying to have the best time that we can. We’ve got a plan, we’ve got a strategy, but if you don’t have a smile on the way, then there’s no real point to any of that. Onwards and upwards! 

Danny Mellin’s new single, Don’t Leave Me Lonely, is out now!

Find Danny Mellin at:

Instagram: @danny.mellin

TikTok: @dannymellin

X: @danny_mellin

YouTube: @DannyMellin

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0kmWqI1anuHvgq589NVsAr?si=_TRaCn1wQ4CTaZyB2Me_SA 

Website: https://www.dannymellin.com/

KATIE HILLIER