AWOL Sun 2013 talent Lee Foss is some kind of Superman. Simultaneously acting as a full-time DJ, producer and label manager, he has become one of the leaders of the nu-school house movement (alongside artists like Art Department) in just a few years. The success was not undeserved by any means. With a seemingly endless arsenal of successful solo productions and collaborations, and not to mention his hot imprint Hot Creations, Lee Foss has been perpetually flirting with the top of the house scene.
Born in Dekalb, Illinois, Lee grew up in Chicago, the birthplace of house. As his output suggests, Lee’s musical influences have always been vast. “My parents listened to pretty standard white 60s stuff mostly around the house. Beatles, Momma’s and the Papas, Jim Croce, Beach Boys, stuff like that. As a child that is what I grew up around, I do remember really liking Michael Jackson songs that I heard. As soon as I was old enough to buy my own tapes and CDs, it was hip hop and r&b and new jack swing, and that was pretty much the only music I was into throughout the 90s, Daft Punk and Stardust and going to a few raves started getting me into house towards the end of the decade just before I moved to Chicago. The house stuff got me into disco when record shopping as Chicago is a great city for that.”
Initially a house/techno/electro DJ in Chicago, Lee began opening for big DJs rather quickly, but later worked with venues playing old school hip hop and 80’s funk and disco – an experience that has undoubtedly helped shape his productions today. After sinking his teeth into some wax for a decade in the Chicago DJ scene, Lee moved to Los Angeles, soon falling in with the trio Droog, who were just setting up their label Culprit Records. Culprit would later release Lee’s debut with Jamie Jones as Hot Natured for the h.e.a.d.s. EP. It was Lee’s release “Grinding” out on the respected Wolf+Lamb imprint, however, that would be Lee’s international breakthrough, being played by DJs all across the dance music spectrum.
Lee’s rapid rise to prominence was just as much due to his all-encompassing approach to DJing as his pioneering take on nu-school house and synth-laden techno, often working with familiar hip hop samples. “To tell you the truth it takes a long time to get the notes right as a producer. It’s trial and error for a long time and gradually you just start to do everything better, so for a long time, samples were the best and only way for me to really start a track and not get bogged down. They sort of worked like sculpting around a mould, forcing me into a key, then from there the sample might not even end up in the track in the end but it would have helped shape the creative process, that happened in almost every song on my album.”
With this many accolades under his belt including multiple “Tune’s of the Month” by Mixmag and U Got Me being listed as one of DJ Mag’s favorite records of 2010, Lee isn’t one to rest on his laurels. Still currently celebrating the success of his remix of Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness,” Lee is riding out 2013 with gigs all around the world, including TomorrowWorld just a few weeks before our vacation on October 10-13th. We’re excited to get grinding on the dance floor with Lee Foss and all you other Lifers at AWOL Sun 2013 in Cabo San Lucas. Book your suite today before it’s too late!
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