If you want to know how a canny creative operates when the industry backs are against the wall, then look no further: UK-based club culture curator and house & techno producer Mella Dee [real name Ryan Aitchison] is here to blaze a brand new electronic path. This time, those paths are split between music and painting... and we’re all here for it. And while some of you will know him for his 2017 club hit ‘Techno Disco Tool’, if there’s one thing this pandemic has done for Ryan, it’s spurred him on to higher creative heights than ever before. His recent ‘Love It Or Not’ single and six-track EP ‘Whistle Posse Spangled In The Corner’ are full of euphoric vocals and massive club moments. Just don’t ask him to make another ‘...Disco Tool’ because he’s never looking back. “There's no point me trying to like attach myself to anything,” he shrugs. “I just like to follow my thing. I mean, there's a common thread and that thread is me... without sounding too freakin’ arrogant!”

Growing in creative confidence has led Ryan to approach art as a different, albeit equally important discipline. “I’m just not that interested in what people think of me or my art. I just have a feeling and try to find a way of putting that into practice, whether that’s in art or my music.” He’s also been commissioned to create custom artwork throughout the last year: but if you want to know why music and art are such beautiful bedfellows for him, the answer is simple: there’s just no pressure. When it comes to a sketch or painting, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there’s really no-one to judge you. So your creative muscles are being flexed but opinions aren’t waiting in the wings and social media isn’t swooping down from the proverbial rooftops. But during a pandemic, countless artists turned their creativity towards blank canvasses to help pass the time. We can only assume that it’s... therapeutic?