His unique fusion of old school uplifting melodic trance combined with a fresh new dimension of modernistic mayhem has seen Lee develop an impressive resume with his tracks featuring on Armin Van Buuren’s A State Of Trance, Above & Beyond’s Trance Around The World, Markus Schulz’ Global DJ Broadcast and (Ferry) Corsten’s Countdown to name but a few and counts the likes of Aly & Fila and Roger Shah as regular supporters of his productions.
Despite beat mixing still being the clichéd ‘cool thing’, it takes considerably more to be a producer. Tireless dedication, creativity and many lonely hours in the studio is in stark contrast to the perceived glitz and glamour of DJing but Lee found the transition to be a natural progression.
“I have been playing guitar and drums since I was young and the transition into production came naturally, as DJing has its limitations, and I was very interested in production when a friend showed me Reason a long time ago now, and since then I haven’t looked back! I enjoy the creative process of making tracks that I would like to hear on the dance floor at 3am.”
Lee’s philosophy when producing is simple yet effective, “make sure each production is better than the last one!” Simplistic yes, but then there’s the small detail of bringing an idea to life as Lee explains.
“My inspiration comes from the many sounds I have in my head on a constant basis, day and night. My mind is always thinking of some tunes, be it dance music or rock or anything in between. So when I get to production, I sometimes try re-create sounds, or it is a process of fiddling with lots of things and see what comes up. I know I’m onto something when I can’t get off the computer for hours! I have to really want to do the track or there is no point trying to push myself, it has to flow freely.”
With the advances of technology, production software is now readily available to anyone with a PC which has seen a deluge of sub standard tracks flooding the market. So how would a producer go about making sure that their tracks stood out amongst the others?
“I am a firm believer in having an excellent melody, which makes you feel some emotion,” begins Lee. “I think that is very important for the style of trance I am making, without a good melody there is no feeling. Also the best way to make sure you stand out, practice! There’s no substitute for it. Having a quality production is so important as there is much to compete with.”
Adding to the challenges of becoming a successful producer in Western Australia is its isolation from not just the rest of the world but even the rest of Australia, but as Lee relates, it’s not all bad.
“I think it can be difficult because of the relatively small amount of people into trance in WA, yet distance is no hurdle when trying to promote yourself across the globe. I have released on international labels as well as Aussie ones, so that is good to spread my music around to maximise exposure. Living in a remote area such as Karratha is sometimes a good thing as it allows me to focus on music when I get the time, unless the weather is great and then I’ll be out on my boat !”
Ten Questions in Thirty Seconds... Years Active: I began DJing around 9 years ago and production around 8 years ago
Age: 29
Inspirations (Artists): Ferry Corsten, Sean Tyas, Above and Beyond, Aly and Fila
Favourite Producer: Ferry Corsten
Favourite DJ: Ferry Corsten
Production Equipment: hp quad core, 4gb ram, windows 7, focusrite saffire 6 external soundcard, phonic p8a monitors, technics headphones and edirol pcr -300 midi keyboard.
Production Software: Ableton Live 8 rewired with Reason 3
Greatest experience/achievement so far? Greatest experience dance music related would have to be seeing Armin van Buuren for the first time at Two Tribes back in 2003, what an amazing night that was. You just had to be there to believe how awesome that was!
My greatest achievement music wise would have to be the release of my track “The Universe” on Amon Vision Records. That was a huge release with plays from all the big DJs.
If you were a kitchen appliance, which one would you be? A fridge, up here in the heat it would be the best place to be…. cool and full of beer.
Why aren’t you DJing? I don’t have time to DJ at the moment, and as I live up north of Perth there isn’t anywhere I can play trance out unfortunately. When I move back to Perth I would like to DJ again.
Lee concludes the interview with a quick snap shot of what to look out for in the next twelve months, “I’m going to try to fit in as much new productions as possible and really looking forward to the release of my track “Inertia” on Dmax Recordings, which is getting remixed by Adam Nickey and Avenger, that will be a huge release in June. Also my remix of James Williams track “Turismo” is being released on Trance Allstars Records later this year, which should prove to be a great release as well.”
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