Chris Mellides is a writer who first got his start penning record reviews and interviewing touring bands in the fall of 2003 for Under the Volcano Magazine while actively participating in the New York punk scene. Surrounded by colorful musicians and rock ‘n’ roll aficionados, he created and maintained two independent print publications.

In 2007, Mellides worked as a reporter for the ninth largest weekly newspaper in the country, producing over 75 hard news and A&E articles for the Web. Three years later he started his career as a multimedia journalist with the hyperlocal news organization Patch, owned by Hale Global.

While freelancing for the American Music Press (AMP) Magazine, a national alternative music publication that was based in California, Mellides turned to the other end of the media spectrum and worked as a copywriter and public relations professional for Tattoo Lou’s, a nationally recognized tattooing and piercing giant that once served Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties.

In 2013, he decided to return to news writing and regularly contributed to the Long Island Press, the region’s only alternative monthly news journal. Next, he worked as a political reporter for WSHU Public Radio Group, a National Public Radio member station based out of southern Connecticut. 

Mellides would later work as a contributor for Times Beacon Record News Media, a media chain serving communities located on Long Island’s North Shore and continued to serve readers living on the North Shore when he worked as a staff reporter for Long Islander News in 2015. 

Mellides also worked as managing editor for Vape News Magazine, a former international trade publication serving the vapor product industry, where for five years he managed a team of writers and photographers and traveled extensively covering industry events in the U.S. and abroad. 

Currently, Mellides works as a freelance writer and photographer and has been working extensively with media company, INNOTECH, where he writes investigative features dealing with everything from artificial intelligence to commercial space travel.