Lee Burridge
Posted by ariadna on Tuesday, November 30, 1999

Lee Burridge is the antithesis of the superstar dj: He is rated as one of the top djs of this time but he doesn’t play the part. He seems content being the lesser known of the big name ‘brand’ djs as long as he’s able to do what he loves. For him, dj’ing is a trade and a passion, not an ego trip.


In most of the information I’ve read about you it is always stated how England was no match for Hong Kong. I have trouble understanding this. I thought that the crowd in Hong Kong would be more ‘conservative’ in their musical tastes and the record stores a bit behind receiving the latest imports.

When I was in Hong Kong it was a real mixture of people from everywhere in the world and ecstasy wasn’t illegal until 1995. Plus, there were no licensing laws; you could get a drink 24 hours a day. Plus, people finished work anywhere between six at night and six in the morning so there was always a fresh crowd of people so it was very hedonistic there was always, like, a lot of energy going on in the club… and people were away from the watchful eyes of their parents or the police or their friends and they just went crazy in Hong Kong and really lived their life to the full. So much so that they spent time in our club six nights a week but still go to work at nine in the morning, straight from the club. It was a crazy, crazy time. It was unique, y’know, it was just like that and you can’t ever make somewhere like that, it just happens to be like that; which kind of made it special, for me anyways… musically people just came and listened and danced and they weren’t being told by magazines and t.v. or anything what they should like or shouldn’t like. They just made up their own minds and now people are led by brand name djs or brand name clubs. There, it was just you liked it or didn’t and that was it.

You are quoted as saying that you try not to just beat match. I think that´s a big dividing point: some dj´s have technically stunning sets and some dj´s constantly experiment without really caring if they mess up publicly. Do you like going out on a limb when playing live?

Yeah, definitely. Hopefully I won’t mess up but I’m always prepared to. I don’t just want to make it neat because neat is clinical and clinical is pretty boring sometimes. It’s amazing how you can flow between all this music that sounds very similar and you’re not quite sure where the record finishes and where the record starts but it kind of sucks the funk out of it a little. .. I think mixing is as important as the record choice you make. You can really turn people on and people go crazy by finding the right records to mix together without it just being a seamless journey… which is why, I guess, I play house and breakbeat and tech-house; just to give different styles perspective.

Do you plan your sets?

No, never. And I rarely repeat a mix. Occassionally, if I find a really great one I might do it once or twice more after the initial one. I never know what I’m going to play, where I’m going to start, where I’m going to finish. I think I’d get bored otherwise.

Do you let the first dj guide you?

You have to be aware of what somebody before you does. You can’t just come on and mark your start by a long, dreamy intro ‘here I am, it’s me, ego’. I’d rather get on with it and try to keep the flow of the evening. I like dancing… and if between djs it’s like “Oh. Stop.” The next dj’s on and you have to start all over again. You, as someone dancing, may not be at that point anymore. So, I try to just fit in to where we already are.

You come to BC quite often. Is there any reason in particular why this is your first dj appearance in Vancouver?

It’s the first time they’ve asked me.

Did you like us?

Yeah, it was great. I’ve been wanting to come here for a long time but it’s the first time I’ve been asked and I hope I’ll be asked back.

I´ve always known you as a Cream dj but now you´re with Global Underground. Why the change?

I’ve played at Cream regularly because I was playing in England and it was a good club and that was it. Global Underground offered to me to do a cd and it expands the amount of people that will give you a chance and will listen to you. It’s a brand name, y’know… it’s just a platform to expose what I do to more people, hopefully. Some didn’t like it because… my Global Underground cd was a little bit different to what everybody else had done but then a lot of other people really liked it and it stood out because it was a big difference.

What is the main difference between your style when you are playing solo and when you are part of Tyrant? What is it about Craig that made you want to pair up with him?

When I play with Craig we somehow manage to put together a different energy although we share musical tastes completely. We’ve got a lot of different records in our boxes and there’s a lot of pushing and pulling going on when we’re playing between the record boxes and the energy it creates. It’s different… we play on three (decks)… intrinsically, it’s one record each but the third deck is for samples, screwing with people’s heads, playing a third record sometimes… it’s hard to say. Craig and I always get asked what we play and it’s always hard to answer because there are a lot of different styles and it doesn’t really have a name.

Interview by: Ariadna Peretz