Home News What's On Annual Poll Photos Forums DJs Features Music Venues Reviews Links

Features Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022!

Interview with Lee Haslam Reported by Harderfaster / Submitted 01-02-05 14:33 It’s been two years since Harderfaster has interviewed Lee Haslam and in club land that can be a very long time indeed. So much can happen and an artist's career can either progress or nose-dive in a shorter timeframe, so it is with great gladness that we discover that Mr Haslam’s career has gone from strength to strength and up and up. Last interviewed by the Harderfather himself, we at HF Towers thought it was high time we find out what this inventive producer and DJ has been up to in the last 24 months, and dig a little deeper into finding out a little more about the man behind the magic. Born and raised in Doncaster, Lee comes from a close family and has pretty much remained in the same locality for much of his life. When asked to describe his life “normal” seems to crop up quite a lot, and when meeting this talented individual you can see that despite enormous success in a very tricky market, he really does have his feet firmly on the ground. Conversation flows nicely and you are immediately put at ease by a gentle persona with a quick wit and kind nature. Hard to believe that this man has stood before thousands on a weekly basis for nearly a decade and played out across the world, and holds a powerful position in what has fast become the UK’s biggest hard dance empire, Tidy. So how did it all begin? Was he a musical prodigy chomping at the bit, gnashing away to get involved in the music scene and make it his life? Well no, not exactly. "As a child I as pretty normal I guess, I hated school and didn’t really show much of an interest in anything, not even music. Music is not really something that runs in my family so it has been a strange experience for them. Trying to explain what I do can be a task sometimes. At first they were all very sceptical about what I wanted to do, after all I quit a very good job in order to pursue DJing but they love it now and really show an interest in what I do... In fact my mum wants to come to the next weekender so she can see it for herself.” Curious and curiouser... there's only one way to find out what really makes the man tick and how he has achieved such dizzying heights of success, so let the questions begin: You have been around on the DJ scene for coming up to 7 years now. It seems that in less than a decade you have achieved a remarkable amount, and yet rumour has it that you only started to learn to mix to keep yourself busy when recuperating from a tonsil operation! Did you ever believe that you would achieve such notoriety through music? Not at all... DJing was something that really caught my attention early on in my clubbing days... I would go to Gatecrasher or Sundissential and stand and watch DJs play for hours and hours... It’s how I learnt how to do it. When I had my tonsils out at the age of 20 I had to stay in the house for a month after the operation so I thought I would give it a go and do something useful with my time... I bought some belt driven Gemini decks and mixer for £400 and I was off.. Within a month I could mix to a standard which I was happy with... I used to do tapes and give them to my friends but never for one minute though of doing it as a career, just a hobby. Everyone seems to learn at certain speeds when it comes to DJing – some take months, others take years and yet you took 4 weeks to get your first demo together and bag a residency – do you feel that there is an air of serendipity about your career? What do you put your good fortune down to? Of course you have to have the talent and the nerve to get up there and do the job.. Let’s face it if you are no good you will soon find out about it very quickly but I have always said that to get to the top everyone needs help along the way. You not only have to believe in yourself but have people that believe in you too. I am no different; I have had a lot of help in my career since day one. In my early years it was my close friends that really pushed me to do something with my talent.. More recently it has been the likes of Andy, Amo and Russell who have really given me some amazing opportunities at Tidy which have propelled me to where I am now. DJing is something that always came natural to me though... almost as if I had done it before I guess but without the people closest to me I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today. I see a lot of really good DJs week in week out but its all about taking the opportunities when they come along and a bit of luck. Your first residency was at AD43 on a Monday night – hardly likely to draw in large crowds at the beginning of the week! What did this residency teach you and what did you take on board from AD43 that stood you in better standing when you eventually became resident at Eden and The Doncaster Warehouse? It taught me a hell of a lot... DJing in your bedroom and DJing in a club are two totally different experiences. Obviously getting used to playing on technics decks for me was a bit plus... I had belt drives at home which are really hard to mix on so if you can do it on them you can do it on anything. The other obvious thing was it taught me to DJ when it was very loud... When I bought my decks I was still living with my mum so I couldn’t turn it on too loud so playing in a club was like my birthdays had all come at once. Most of all though the experience gave me confidence and if you are to be a successful DJ you have to have that otherwise it comes across in your performance. I played at AD43 every Monday night for over a year, for free and I enjoyed every second of it... I’m sure the 10 people I used to play to enjoyed it too… I hope! When did you move on to your residencies at Storm and Sundissential? How did these come about and what were your finest moments at these events? I used to play a lot but was never officially promoted as their resident... It was at the time that both clubs were weekly and the hard house boom was in mid flow so it was a great to get backing from arguably two of the biggest hard house clubs in the UK at that time. I have so many fond memories of both clubs with the pick of the bunch being Sundissential when it was a Pulse in Birmingham. That for me was the best club in the UK. What was your profession before DJ’ing? Has music always been a dream of yours or were you following another path before you stumbled onto dance music? I used to be a Nursery Nurse at a private school in Doncaster. I was there for four and half years and taught children between the ages of 3 and 9. It was an amazing job and a role which was very rewarding but after a while I started to loose interest. It was at a time when I had gotten into clubbing and DJing more seriously and I was beginning to think that I needed a career change. I took the decision to resign and then went on the dole for six months before getting a job working at Safeway’s as an assistant baker! My main job was actually to roll donuts in icing sugar. Not so show biz! Anyway, it was during this time that my residencies at Eden and the Warehouse really started to kick off and then I was then introduced to Andy Pickles by my good friend Steve Longley. Andy and I used to DJ together at the Warehouse and Eden and became good friends. He then offered me a job at the Music Factory which I took and the rest as they say his history. At the time of your signing with Tidy in November 2000 it seemed a little odd that a hard dance/trance DJ was being signed to a Hard House label, how did this come about? I wasn’t really “signed” so to speak. I never signed officially to tidy until 2002 when Tidy management was started. Basically I was given an opportunity by Andy which, if it went well, could lead to something for me. I started at the Music Factory Entertainment group in May 2000 and basically filled two roles. One was a part time position as Club Promotions manager for tidy which basically meant that I was in charge of the DJ mail outs and promoting of the releases. The other and main role was as a producer for Mastermix. I had to learn the studios and the software and go in and do Jive Bunny mixes for companies all over the world or do commercial pop mega mixes for pub DJs. Because of these roles and what they entailed, the music that I was playing at that time, which was trance, didn’t really have an effect on what I was doing. It was only when my time with Tidy became more frequent that my musical taste started to get harder. I still kept in touch and played trance but it seemed the natural progression for me to go in that direction. By 2001 I was a fully fledged hard house DJ playing week in week out in the big clubs and working full time for Tidy as there label manager. Towards the end of that year though and beginning of 2002 my trance roots began to call me back and I then made the decision to go hard trance. By 2001 you were promoted to Label Manager and through this Tidy Two was born – can you tell us more about your work in this role and what the aim has been in distinguishing the different sounds of Tidy? First of all I think it is important to state that tidy these days is not just perceived as a hard house label. We have so many different divisions from, from an events company to a publishing company and more recently a bars company with our newest venture “So tidy” bars. We have had to grow, adapt and develop with the scene and this goes the same for the label. Music does change and evolve and over the past ten years we have released all types of tracks from the likes of Signum to Tony De Vit and I think it has been this diversity that has been instrumental in the labels longevity. Tidy Two was set up at a time when a lot of the productions that the boys and particularly I was playing were getting very trance orientated. At that time, Tidy as an events company was in its infancy and generally we were still looked on by people as a hard house label. Because of this we felt it would be good to set up a sister label to give a definite divide between the trance and harder sounds as people were becoming confused. If you liked hard trance you bought into the Tidy Two label and if you liked it hard you had Tidy Trax. This worked really well for a few years but as time went and music developed the boundaries between Tidy and Tidy Two began to become more and more blurred. Amo and I were increasingly finding it hard to decide which track should go on what label. We were also faced with the situation the name tidy was now synonymous with so many different sounds at our events and as a result the musical barriers in peoplespeople’s minds wasn’t so much there anymore.. People had accepted Tidy as a quality dance music brand covering all genres rather than just a hard house label, so we made the decision to begin 2005 with one sole imprint which is Tidy. It is decisions like this that I have to make every day. My role as label manager (Now General Manager, Promoted Jan 05 ) is basically one of control over everything tidy does musicially. It is my role to project manage every vinyl release and every album from its inception to its release in the shops from licensing to manufacturing to promotion and to distribution. Tidy average 40 vinyl releases a year and 6 compilations so that in itself is a huge task. On top of that it is my job to promote our music worldwide and to get our repertoire licensed globally. We do this a number of ways; we can simply send our repertoire to company’s worldwide so that they are aware of our products should they wish to license it exclusively or non exclusively. The other way is by working with other labels in selected territories to develop the whole tidy brand out there. For example tidy has label deals with Avex in Japan, Dreams in Spain & Hi-Note in South East Asia. It is my job to work with these labels and promote tidy releases through them and set up in essence tidy Japan and Tidy Spain. We will do tours and events with these labels, send them our DJ’s and release albums with them all with the aim to raise the brands awareness and deliver a “tidy” experience globally. Another one of my many roles is the management of the Galaxy radio show. The show is weekly, is hosted by the tidy boys and gets broadcast to over 6 million people UK wide. I have to ensure the shows are arranged and programmed properly. I arrange all the DJ guests, competitions and news features for the boys to work with and generally make sure it all happens. All this and I still find time to DJ, Produce and have free time for myself and my social life. You have produced a number of tracks that became instant dance anthems – searching through the net I even discovered that you can get Lee Haslam ring tones! How does it feel to have so many people appreciate the work that you do in so many (random) ways? Its fantastic. Nothing beats the feeling of someone playing your records or buying your ring tones. It’s the ultimate pat on the back I guess! What has been your proudest moment as a producer? Out of all the tracks you have produced, which one stands out as your best work to date? My finest moment production wise has to be “Music Is The Drug”. It was the track that really brought pushed my name and the hard trance sound that I so wanted to be a part of and develop. It has sold over 20,000 copies to date and is the biggest selling ringtonering tone that tidy does, second only to TDV – The Dawn so to be in that type of company and to have the privilege of writing one of tidy’s classics is very much a proud moment for me. The track came together very quickly, coming together in about 6 hours from start to finish ! Other proud moments that I would like to mention are remixing Lost Tribe’s “Gamemaster” which was released on Liquid Assset Recordings. Being a trance head “Gamemaster” is one of my all time favourites and to remix it was a like a dream come true for me. Other remixes I am proud of and worth a mention are my remix of “Radium” on Impact Recordings and “Stay” on Tidy Two. Do you continue to aim higher as a producer? Do you try and break new barriers with each new track or do you just ‘go with the flow’ and see what you come up with? I always try and approach each thing I do differently be it a remix or an original track. If you played everything that I have done a lot of them are very different from each other and I think that is important for longevity. When is comes to my original tracks I do like to take time with them and really develop the plot of the record and the hook. I will never be one of these producers who can release 5 or 6 tracks in a year. I prefer to release 2 and spend a few months on each of them making sure they are the best they could be and something that a lot of people are going to play for along time. I think too many records these days are rushed and not much thought goes into them. Very samey samey and if music is to progress and our scene is to have longevity producers need to be more mindful of that. I am synonymous with the trancier sound and over the next year or so I want to develop that area of my productions a lot more. Some of my early productions like “Here Comes The Pain” and “I Need U” were very Hard House and even more recently my new single “El Diablo Adentro” which is out in the summer, is again on a harder darker tip but these types of releases will be few and far between from now on. I do love playing and producing hard edged stuff like these but my roots are with tough trance and I am keen to develop my own sound in this genre. What are the greatest pressures of being a hard dance artist? Do you find that the never-ending competition can take its toll or do you feel comfortable with where you are and where you are heading? To be honest I put a lot of pressure on myself... I am a perfectionist and my drive and desire to be the best I can be in everything I do has always been with me. Christ, I tried to win a sack race at TW3 and knocked myself out doing it!!! Seriously though there is a lot of pressure out there, from clubbers, fans & Promoters. DJ’s are in the very privileged position of getting paid a lot of money for playing records and having fun. It‘s a job that I love doing but never take for granted and I know that is shared by every DJ on the circuit. Yes, there is a lot of competition but I think that is good thing, otherwise things would soon become complacent and not try there best. Every DJ has there own agenda and musical direction but we are all friends at the end of it all. I am very pleased with what I have achieved so far but I have so many more goals that I want to fore fill and I am very determined to do it. I am very mindful that you can’t please everyone out there and you will always get slagged of by some group of people on message boards and even in clubs them selves for what you do or what you play so you do have to be thick skinned. As long as I walk away from the studio or from a gig knowing that I have given 110% then I am happy and that’s all you can do! You have toured the world with your music and profession – where has been your favourite place to play and where would you most like to play that you have yet to do? I love Australia and South Africa. I recently toured Oz with the Boys and fell in Love with Melbourne and Sydney. Both are awesome cities and I the people there are so friendly not to mention the climate. My other favourite City is Cape Town in South Africa. I have played there 5 or 6 times now and I have gained so many friends from trips out there. They really love there music and get fully involved when you play... it’s the closest to playing in the UK abroad except its alota hotter and cheaper! Your last interview on Harderfaster was with the Harderfather himself, Tom Allen, back in July 2002 – what have you accomplished since that time and how do you feel the scene as a whole has developed in the last 2½ years? I have done so much in such a short time... My production name has developed massively.. I am very fortunate to be playing at all the biggest events in the UK now... I have done a Live Essential mix on Radio One and won the Best Resident award at the Hard Dance Awards, the list is endless.. If you told me back then I would have done all of those things I would have laughed. It’s been a great few years for me but I have so much more that I want to do. Whilst all this has been going on the scene has changed dramatically both musically and in terms of how we approach our business. But both changes have been fundamental for the scene to progress. A lot of people are very cynical and saying the scene is dying and its all over but I see it more in the way of just evolving. Music tends to go in 7 year cycles and this dip is just the start of a big upturn as we approach digital distribution and the way of the internet. Tidy has so much on the horizon it’s amazing. Never before have we been involved with so many different and exciting areas of business all of which are pulling together to make tidy one of the leading forces in UK dance music. The futures bright, the futures tidy! Tidy Management has just been taken over by the Most Wanted brand and are now under new management. How do you feel about this change and what are you hoping you will see in terms of benefits and career progression being under the umbrella of this fast growing DJ agency I am over the moon and I know it is a very positive move for tidy. We have worked with Most Wanted for a while now as the gorgeous Kate Lynch has handled our press for sometime now and has done it extremely well. Both companies have a history and know a lot about each other so it is going to benefit both parties. Of course as well as press, Most Wanted have a huge track record for DJ management with them holding the diaries of some of the biggest talent in the planet so to have my diary and indeed the diaries of all the other DJ’s on our roster run by them is a big weight off my mind. I have mentioned earlier that I have a direction that I want to go in musically and professionally and I know I have a lot more to offer when it comes to my DJing. I strongly believe Most Wanted will get the best out of me and for me so I am very excited to work with them as it is obvious that they are very experienced and can help develop not only my career but the the tidy brand worldwide too. Having been working as a DJ since 1998 and having such a prominent role in what is arguably the biggest hard dance based label, you have stood witness to the development not only of production, but also technology. CD decks have become the norm in clubs and each year newer mixers, decks etc are introduced. What are your feelings towards this never-ending development? We have recently witnessed the advent of digital mixing, computer based mixing where the tracks are lined up by “clicking and dragging” across of tune information and mixed perfectly by a PC. Will this soon take over the DJ world? How will promoters be able to distinguish between the work of an artist mixing on decks and demos mixed on PC? I don’t think it will take over... For me DJing is about the performance of the person doing it. They are the focal point of the dancefloordance floor and who everyone looks to too fire them up. DJing is 80% entertainment & 20% education, the thought of going to a club and watching someone mix on PC make me feel sick. There is no skill involved as it is all done for you and when you lose that skill the performance becomes a lot less personal for me. I get demos sent to me all the time and I can usually spot which are done on computer and what are done live. Slight mistakes in mixing is comes with the job and that live feel makes the set come to life. I can understand why record labels mix albums for general release on computer, in fact we do it at tidy with a lot of ours but if I wanted to hear mixing as tight as that I wouldn’t need to go out. Where do you see the future of dance music in say 5-10 years time? Will you still be involved one way or the other or do you think that as with all good things, there must be an end? I would like to think I would still be involved with tidy for a long time to come but you never know what is around the corner do you. Life is funny like that.. can spring surprises on you at any time. As I said earlier I have done so much in the last two years I really wouldn’t like to say where or what I’ll be doing in another 2 years. One thing is for certain is I do want to stay within the music scene as I have such a passion for it... watch this space I guess. Tidy Addict is a new collaborative CD that is to be launched and features Tidy artists and tracks – can you tell us more about this? For 2005 we really wanted to up the anti on our albums... We have been releasing them now for many years but have never gone to TV for them. Tidy Addict will be our very first TV advertised compilation so it’s a very exciting time for all at HQ. For this special occasion however we knew we had to come up with a fresh concept which would encapsulate what tidy is about to its fans but also be inquisitive enough for people who are not aware of us to be interested enough to want to go and buy it. I think we have done just that with this compilation. The majority of the music on there is from tidy and features a few exclusive mixes and lots of forthcoming material from the label. It also has a bonus DVD containing new and old tidy TV footage from our weekender events as well as two booklets full of tidy info and the odd tongue in cheek comment. This album really promotes what we as a label and as a group are doing including right now including the launch of the new tidy.com website and the tidy digital downloads service on Feb 18th. What has your involvement been in terms of Tidy Addict? I project managed the whole project from inception to release. Its my job to make sure everything to do with the album happens the artwork, to compiling, to mixing, to manufacturing, to the TV advert production and airing, to distribution, to press and promotion, everything basically right through to it getting released on Feb 14th. I started working on this album in Mid November so its been a hard and long project to work on but one I have learned a lot from as its our first TV advertised compilation. What marks out this CD to be special? Why should we go to the shops and pick this up? What makes it a must-have for any aficionados CD collection? I think Tidy Addict has so much more to offer than anything else on the shelves at the minute. The tracklisting is really exciting, its very eclectic covering a number of different genres from trance to hard funk to hard trance right through to the hardest of the hard so there is definitely something there for everyone! A lot of the material is un-released as of yet and includes a never to be released mix of Heavens Cry’s “Till Tears Do Us Part” from Jon Langford which has been causing a bit of gossip recently on some message boards. Then of course you have the bonus DVD with its full of new unseen and classic Tidy TV footage.. what more could you ask for? The CD is being launched at Twisted on 4th February – are you looking forward to playing this event? How will this be launched within the event and do you know of any secrets which you can spill as a teaser for the upcoming promotion? I cant wait... I love playing in London and the Fridge is an awesome venue. I have played for Twisted twice last year and they were easily the best gigs I have had in the capital and I am sure this one will follow suit. The Line Up is really really strong and it will be great to stay behind after my set and have a few sherry’s with everyone. I’m playing at midnight so planning on dropping a few classics and a few exclusive bits I have been working on recently so make sure your there for it. It’s gonna be a belter! Any last comments? Never rob another mans rhubarb Photos courtesy of Most Wanted Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Harderfaster: HarderFaster Awards 2016 - The results are in! HarderFaster Awards 2014 - The results are in! Lashes, Dimples and the Brighton Music Conference HarderFaster Awards 2013 - The results are in! HarderFaster Awards 2012 - The results are in! The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: Stevi D on 1st Feb 2005 15:08.23 The DVD is funny as! And the sack race that Mr Halsem does is a classic, hahahaha!! Rock on Lee, i've seen him @ Tidy Weekender, Cape Town, London and you've always rocKed my boat, keep up the hard work and hope to see ya soon. From: Stevi D on 1st Feb 2005 15:11.09 p.s Foooooking brilliant interview, YES OK i love this guy, his WORLD CLASS!!! From: Matt Smallwood on 1st Feb 2005 19:29.13 A total legend, and one of the nicest guys you're likely to meet! Nice one Lee mate :-) From: maliksta on 1st Feb 2005 21:02.03 nice article bro. Nice to have met you *briefly* on Saturday and good luck with everything. malik From: Jim Wild on 1st Feb 2005 23:49.02 Great interview, complete legend From: Kamora on 2nd Feb 2005 01:42.31 Good stuff Lee, Looking forward to the new productions Still have to do a Tidy gig! Dont believe it! From: onthebass on 2nd Feb 2005 03:24.44 What a sound fella. I have always admired his dedication and the work he has done with tidy. Comes across as a true professional. From: Rainey on 2nd Feb 2005 16:51.43 Interesting read From: Danny Gilligan on 2nd Feb 2005 18:30.29 Great Interview Lee, very thorough. Best of luck in 2005! From: shazzabazza on 2nd Feb 2005 20:13.43 A real gentleman! Every reward thoroughly deserved - long may it continue From: Red5 on 4th Feb 2005 16:53.41 Top interview! From: UTH on 9th Feb 2005 09:17.32 Top stuff!! I started out the same: £450 for 2 direct drive geminis and a mixer. Obviously gonna be as succesful as him then. From: JW on 9th Feb 2005 10:27.37 Lee is one remarkable chap, it is a honour to know him. Top dj, top producer and most of all a top bloke. Well done Lee.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2024 HarderFaster.

Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement | Text Mode