Société Perrier DJ Mix: Lee Webster
With his introduction to dance music based around the house music being shared across London’s pirate radio stations and records by the Detroit and Chicago elite, Lee Webster moved to Spain, where his love affair with house music was cemented fully. But his own productions span far more than just house, taking in techno, hip hop, garage and all manner of other styles, with Webster refusing to be pigeonholed into a singular genre. Though it's fair to say that Lee may be a relatively new face on the scene, it seems inevitable that his infectious genre-hopping tracks will soon be bouncing off the walls of many a club.
After he recorded an exclusive mix for Société Perrier, we grabbed some musical chat with Webster.
Tell us about your mix.
Lee Webster: I recorded the set live in my house whilst drinking gin and tonics. The tracks are tracks that I like to play out. No favoritism, just stuff I like, new and old.
Give us some musical background on yourself.
I have an addiction. Making music is something I spend a lot of time doing, it all flows out of me too quick sometimes. Often when making a track, I will start individual side projects off the back off ideas I had whilst making the original track. It’s always been like that for me, I used to make hip-hop instrumentals using records and a Yamaha SU200 sampler. I’d run it all into a four-track Tascam tape recorder and then play the beats back and scratch over them. I was fairly recently introduced to dance music and have been engaged in a love affair ever since. I’m currently releasing on a few really good labels at the same time as growing my knowledge and learning how to transfer what I have in my head on to paper. I have so much to learn, I’m probably doing it all wrong but the eureka moments come in daily doses. It’s fun!
Did relocating to Spain have an effect on the music you were producing?
Quite simply, before I moved here I was not interested in house music. The people I’ve met here and nights I’ve enjoyed have helped me discover where my heart currently is in terms of music making.
How does the club scene in Barcelona differ from London?
I haven’t been clubbing in London since I was about 17, so I wouldn’t know where to begin comparing the two. The scene here in Barcelona is in its early stages. There are some great parties and in the summer it goes CRAZY but there is, as always, room for improvement.
You’re known for producing in a range of styles — would you say you’re more closely aligned to one particular genre?
Yeah, vagina music… It’s a new genre that lays somewhere in between garage, disco, jackin’ house and '90s hip-hop. All joking aside though, I’m not keen on genres, it's such an irrelevant thing, generated by Beatport’s need to pigeonhole-a-track, or a blog needing to describe a piece of music without having the vocabulary to do so. For me, genre labels are vague overviews of music that can never fully capture the essence of something, and serve only to give people pre-conceptions of what they are listening to.
Give us an overview of your Freaky Bitches EP.
It’s a collection of tracks I put together for the label Glasgow Underground. The owner of the label, Kevin McKay, has been, and continues to be, a massive help to me. These are some tracks that we chose together for my release on his legendary label. He’s like a much-needed quality control to the sea of varied creations I spew out on my SoundCloud page. They kind of sum up my lack of adherence to a particular style, yet work well together in different situations. In a way, this EP was my first introduction to a wider audience so it was important for me to show people that I’m not sticking to any particular line, but rather making music that I’m vibing off.
Société Perrier DJ Mix: Lee Webster
Audio: Lee Webster — "Lee Webster Societe Perrer DJ mix" Download MP3
1. Jamie Jones - "Havana Good Time"
2. Flubba - "Want You Back"
3. Tom Demac - "Jackapella Bowles"
4. Chris Carrier - "Higher Education"
5. Brigante, Ali Love, Luca C - "Different Morals"
6. Phil Weeks - "Funkin Around"
7. Cozzy D - "Pass The Percy" (Kabuto & Koji Nocturnal Remix)
8. Gregorythme - "Isola"
9. Ekkohaus - "Unsound"
10. (Unknown white label)
11. Mitch Murder - "Glass Cities"
Lee Webster’s Freaky Bitches EP is out now on Glasgow Underground.
