Get to know Mollie Collins, the breakthrough drum 'n' bass sensation

From the £1-a-pint student mash-up at the Tap ’n’ Tin in Chatham to the international festival circuit in less than 18 months: Mollie Collins’ volcanic rise is as unprecedented as it is thrilling. So fast, in fact, has her ascent to the upper echelons of the d’n’b world been that despite lining up alongside Andy C, Roni Size and 50 Cent this summer, she still holds down a weekly residency at the pub in Kent where it all began.

“I still play every Monday,” she laughs. “It was my training ground. There’s only room for about 100 people on the dancefloor and it’s absolutely rammed every week.” No danger of getting carried away, then – although the magnetic 20-year-old could be forgiven. With a name that rolls off the tongue, a skate-punk aesthetic and a lightning-fast three-deck mixing style that saw her crowned Best Breakthrough DJ at the National Drum ’n’ Bass Awards in March, Collins appears so ready-made for the big time she could have been created by a marketing agency. “Seeing fans wearing T-shirts with my name on is mad,” she says almost apologetically – as if she’s somehow undeserving of the hype that has enveloped her ever since she won a mixtape competition, earned the reward of a gig in Belgium, and promptly got snapped up by Mampi Swift’s Charge Recordings stable without having produced a single track.

But to see her mix live – a blur of tattooed arms and whirling locks, dressed in the edgy tees and snap-backs of her clothes sponsor Concrete Junglists – or listen to her DJ Target 1Xtra live takeover, or April’s Radio 1 Friction guest mix, is to understand why promoters and labels have been queuing up. Playing all styles of d’n’b from pogo-tastic jump-up to big-

room vocal bangers and crunchy tech, and with a giddy sense of bashy abandon in the mix, the girl has got something special – even for non d’n’b crowds. “The maddest moment was doing a grime event, Eskimo Dance in Croydon, and they gave me a 15-minute set like all the grime artists! I thought, what the hell can I do in 15 minutes? I told the promoter, ‘You know I play d’n’b?’ He said ‘I know. Wicked’.”

Guided by some of the scene’s biggest presences including label boss Swift, man-mountain MC legend IC3 and SASASAS chief DJ Phantasy, Collins has begun to produce tracks alongside her increasingly hectic DJ schedule. If the last year is anything to go by, as well as owning festival stages this summer she’ll probably be soundtracking them too.

‘Minions’ by Mollie Collins and Rushmore is forthcoming on Charge Recordings