Lee Burridge: ‘San Francisco could be like Berlin’

Lee Burridge: ‘San Francisco could be like Berlin’

3 April, 2009 | 2.47AM

• Written by: Kamran Kafi
• Filed under: Music News: lee burridge

Lee Burridge is not your run of the mill DJ. Despite being one of the most famous DJs around, he has consistently avoided the limelight and instead enjoyed his time traveling, meeting people, creating new concepts and partying as much as he did 10 years ago. He genuinely loves what he does.

Lee recently moved to San Francisco following his recent trips to Burning Man, and he’s starting a new party concept there called Get Weird. He also belives that San Francisco is making a comeback and will reclaim its spot as the Mecca of great dance music, perhaps even to rival Berlin’s status as the capital of electronic music.

I met up with Lee at the Standard hotel downtown to find out what craziness he has been up to recently and why he believes in San Francisco so much.

How does your new party concept Get Weird translate into a clubbing scene where often people are there to socialize and pick up girls rather than experience collectively a fun time that depends on the individuals?

Get Weird is born from trying to build a specific crowd in a new city while encompassing the Burning Man spirit with people dressing up and contributing to the party themselves.

We’ve had great feedback and interaction from our crowds and [I believe] it is because San Francisco is a special city. When I start doing this party in other cities I will have to choose very carefully where to do it because it really relies on the participants to have an understanding that they have to join in.

Not everybody joins in at our parties but I feel like those were the ones who were left out. People have just jumped straight in and it makes it better, partly because you’re not just turning up to a room with a soundsystem to get drunk and meet girls. It’s a really interactive experience.

What made you decide on San Francisco?

A couple of years ago I had this project called 365 where I lived in different cities for two months, organized parties and made music with local producers. Last year I switched things around and chose less cities to visit and stayed a bit longer in each one and San Francisco was a place where I spent more and more time, partly because of Burning Man where before and after you need at least two weeks to decompress and become a human being again. 

I have had this overwhelming feeling that SF will be like Berlin, where it has amazing producers and an incredible underground scene. It’s relaxed, it’s liberal, it’s cool, it’s creative and it’s sunny in the mornings.

San Francisco has always been on the forefront of movements, from the 60’s where people dropped acid and had rock, to the tech house scene of five years ago.

There is an opportunity there, that, with a little bit of encouragement from myself and other people, it will be able to do so.

What’s the insider scoop on SF? What should we check out?

There is this label Auralism, which has been putting out some great music but in general, the reason I moved here is to encourage the scene to reshape itself. Unfortunately most of the great talent that is here up and left for Berlin, like Claude VonStroke and although there are all these great things happening, it’s not manifesting itself yet due to a lack of great labels. It’s a good two or three years away. I’m hoping to encourage this by creating a label of my own here.

Tell us the weirdest experience you have recently had.

I was DJing on New Year’s Eve in Romania this year and I actually was sick with food poisoning, throwing up and all and I didn’t think I could actually pull it off but there is something about spinning that makes you forget and you think you feel alright. So I’m there DJing for six hours, it was a great party, and then at 7:04 in front of 4000 people I farted, but I shatted too. I had to run and discard my underwear and carry on DJing.

I texted this to my girl who was in Mexico at the time who in return showed all our friends. Now it’s known as doing a 7:04. 

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