Fresh Kicks 186: DJ MELL G

In just two years, DJ MELL G has had quite the journey. From “helping with the drinks and stuff” at illegal raves in Marburg, Germany, to playing alongside DJ Stingray at RSO.aBERLIN, she’s had an impressive trajectory. Last year, she launched her label JUICY GANG RECORDS and released three vinyl records in collaboration with DJ Godfather, DJ Fuckoff and Karnage Kills. Then, she graduated from the ghettotech sound that caught the attention of locked-down ravers worldwide — primarily via HÖR Radio — during the pandemic. Today, DJ MELL G champions electro, although the shift in genre remains an evolving process. “My goal is just to play electro,” she tells DJ Mag from her apartment in Hamburg. “This is what I did for the last four or five gigs, and it worked out very well because my energy was there, and it was honest — how electro should be.”

These gigs included La Station in Paris, Revier Südost in Berlin and Gewölbe in Cologne. Despite her stacked schedule, travelling still feels unfamiliar for the 25-year-old. “It was so weird for me, because I only had two or three flights in my whole life before that,” she says. “I was born in a big family, so it was always hard to get a lot of money to go on holiday with the whole family.”

Born in Oldenburg, she moved to Marburg to study law and joined a local trap music collective, heading up bookings for their DIY parties. Having tinkered around with a DJ controller, she stepped in when a local warm-up artist couldn’t make it. “It was strange to be in the middle where everyone can see you,” says DJ MELL G. “Because I never wanted to be in the middle of everything, I just wanted to act in the background. But always, things happen for a reason.”

Keen to work in the music industry, specifically artist management, she quit her law degree in May 2020 on the cusp of her final year exams and landed a job at an artist agency in Hamburg. But in the end, they couldn’t take her on due to the financial impact of Covid-19. With no job or connections in the city, DJ MELL G focused entirely on music production.

In the following months, she expanded her self-taught skills, most of which stemmed from sampling, but she’s since moved away from that approach. Having met local producers who had a studio in Hamburg at the time, she explored different production methods. “They had all the equipment, and it really helped me a lot,” she says. “It was kind of a weird part of my life. But it was super important for me to find myself, and my career as well.”

When venues re-opened in September 2020, DJ MELL G played her first official show in OXI, Berlin. A slew of German bookings followed suit, but ghettotech lost its sparkle for her after a while. Intrigued by electro and artists like DJ Stingray and The Exaltics, she leaned into a sound palette where she felt her true self — and it’s paying off.

DJ MELL G recently played Tresor alongside Detroit In Effect and Galaxian, and this month, she’ll be hosting the first JUICY GANG RECORDS party at Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg. But it seems she’s never lost that behind-the-scenes streak. “Yesterday I received the test pressings for JGR 004 and 005, and I was like, ‘Ok, shit, let’s go’,” she says, laughing. “I was dancing here in my room, and it’s like the best present you can ever get. This label work and producing gives me more than just DJing. I hope, one day, I have more time to produce and do more label work, because this is what I really love.”

Listen to DJ MELL G's Fresh Kicks mix below. 

Tracklist:

Ben Pest ’8 Octavial’
Djedjotronic ‘Robot Fail’ 
Assembler Code & Jensen Interceptor ‘Afterflare’ 
JENNISEK ‘HELICON’ 
Detroits Filthiest ‘Scared 2 Death’ 
Human Rebellion ‘Astral Propaganda’ 
An Avrin ‘Paticake’ 
Manao ‘Electro Phase’ 
Saigg ‘Swift Garden’ 
Bicycle Ride ‘700’
Re:drum [Unreleased] 
Jensen Interceptor ‘MCP (Swallowed My Tab Mix)’
Kohan ‘Warning!’ 
DJ MELL G [Unreleased] 
Client_03 ‘Suspect Dispenser’ 
Ben Pest ‘Amirite’ 
Ctrls ‘Your Data’
Erhalder ‘Chip Stress 04 B’ 
CEM3340 ‘After Mutation’
Erhalder ‘Pirates’ 
French II ‘Frequency’ 
Nite Fleit ‘Sycophantic Romantic’ 
Raavel ‘Insect Replicant (Juicy Gang Records)’