DJ Mallorca Lee
Back in the day Mallorca Lee made up one half of
cult rave group Ultra-Sonic and banging techno duo Public Domain.
His producing skills are continually pushing the limits of
electronic music and if it can be said, he seems to be getting
better with age. The 29-year old Scottish lad has progressed from
illegal raves to headlining some of the biggest parties worldwide
and is now releasing multiple singles under multiple production
aliases with production partner and long time friend David Forbes.
He will be in Sydney for yet another Utopia, showing off new tracks
and kicking on with the old and this time he will also be treating
House fans with some smaller shows under the Scanners alias. “Being
booked to DJ or perform our music live is a real honour,” a very
modest Mallorca says. So modest in fact that he says he is merely a
cog that helps make the rave world go round. He showers credit on
the House greats naming Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardie, DJ Piere and
Derrick May as being the “real innovators”. “We just took the lead
from where the house guys left off,” he says.
With production currently a focus in Mallorca’s life, it is no
surprise the focus of this Australian tour is the recently mixed
compilation by the duo, entitled Internationals. It contains their
latest production efforts including Gypsy by Scanners, released on
the Debunk label, which Mallorca says has a “sleazy, tuff house
feel” to it, and Quadra, to be released on Red Monkey Records in
May, which has a more “big room, trance/techno” sound. And that
isn’t even the end of the production stick. Mallorca has also
jointly set-up Inside Out in conjunction with a Scottish club night.
Boxed Off by Forbes Lee Foy will be first off the mark for IO
Recordings in May.
Since the late ‘80s Mallorca has been playing around with different
sounds and styles. “I am involved in a scene that keeps progressing,
using the technology that surrounds us is incredible,” he says. “I
will always try and experiment with new sounds.” This tour promises
to be as big as ever, with Mallorca saying fans can expect a real
kaleidoscope of tunes. “We will be playing a mixture of big room
trance, techno and hard dance, with some Ultra-Sonic and Public
Domain tracks thrown down for all the Techno Junkies out there”.
Anyone who has seen Mallorca in action knows how electric his stage
presence is. In answer to how he exerts such charisma time after
time, he responded, “It’s my feelings about dance music and on the
night, the raw, unpretentious energy that the crowd give in return
that keeps me hooked all night! But you should see the state I’m in
after a show!” Mallorca is full of the passion that keeps the dance
industry alive. And believe it or not, it all began with a few toy
keyboards. Back in the ‘80s Mallorca played the keyboard over the
top of the records he spun on his decks. “Acid and Ambient house had
just exploded into my world of hip hop and rock,” he says.
Thanks to a dodgy bank loan Mallorca was able to purchase a real
synth, sampler and drum machine and start creating tracks that were
to become Ultra-Sonic material. “I knew the scene would explode
because when it all kicked off for me it was around about the acid
house explosion in ‘88/’89. That really gave thousands of people an
‘anything is possible’ feeling and attitude. I was just one of the
many people that were inspired by this overwhelming feeling of
togetherness and was hooked on all these new sounds that people were
hammering out of machines. Then I became a dealer… and started
selling my music to other addicts,” he says with a laugh.
In his opinion the scene will start to head back underground. “The
big corporate money sucking machine has squeezed as much as it could
out.” Mallorca says it is R&B’s turn to be milked, leaving dance
producers more time to be creative. “Our new wave is coming in
dance, it just hasn’t got a name yet!” And watch how you label dance
music around Mallorca, it is a clearly a matter close to his heart.
“To me, House, Hardcore, D&B, Breaks, Techno, Trance, Hard Dance,
whatever you want to call it – it’s all House music – the bastard
son of hip hop – electronic music that makes you dance”. It makes
him laugh when “someone hangs crap on a certain style of music”
because it is all linked. “It al boils down to the same thing. It’s
just a lack of knowledge and understanding that makes some people
ignorant on many different matters,” he says.
But on a lighter note it looks like Australian’s will be guinea pigs
for future production projects by the duo. “When we return home we
will be working on the follow up releases for our labels. We will
start by editing some bangers that we will have road tested across
Australia,” Mallorca says. He even credits Australian bands with
providing subtle inspiration to his work. Would you believe the
artists getting a hammering in his home stereo are none other than
Jet and The Sleepy Jackson? “I know they’re not dance but chords,
sounds and structure grab your ears attention and before you know it
you start mixing these influences in with your own ideas,” he says.
“My partner in Stereo, Dr. David Forbes, is also a huge inspiration,
daily,” Mallorca says. They spend hundreds of pounds a month keeping
up with all the latest releases across all the relevant genres but
say they still don’t know how to produce that guaranteed X-factor.
“Everyone that creates music is inspired by everyone else’s progress
in sound and everything we all do has the same origins. Originality
is a fluke, a eureka moment, and it is the hardest thing to master
and bottle in a track,” he says.
Putting production aside for a moment, Mallorca remembers back to
some of the zanier moments in his career. He blames a cocktail of
sleep deprivation and excessive travelling for him flying home
barefoot from Germany, blacking out in Ibiza to wake up in Amsterdam
and getting spiked with PCP while playing at the Lime Light in New
York. “The list goes on,” he says, “fortunately for me I don’t
recall the entire chain of events!” He does remember forgetting to
take his headphones to a gig, “I had to borrow another DJ’s, now
that’s some real crazy shit!”
So from Ultra-Sonic, one of the most successful electronic outfits
of our time, to chart topping Public Domain, and now onto parenting
three new labels, Mallorca has his hands full of production
projects. But he says he always has time to visit our shores, even
with an “arse numbing flight” separating our two homes. “It’s my
11th tour and I still feel as excited now, if not more so, than the
first time I arrived back in ‘94/’95”.
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