Hey Lee, how are things with you? How have you found your lockdown experience overall?
The lockdown experience has been something I’ve tried to deliberately take in my stride and stay as positive as I could. From about March until May I moved from NYC to my house in the Hamptons and kept the music and positivity flowing and focused a ton on my masterclass company, FaderPro.com and how we were pivoting during these times. In May I rented a house in Portland, Oregon where my family is as there was very little Covid there. I’m now doing my best to stay 2 steps ahead of this Covid thing.
What is life like under Trump? Does he represent you as a president?
Trump doesn’t affect me any differently then any other president in the USA. When you spend the majority your life touring in international waters, you’re more of a nomad living on everyone else’s soil but your own. I am a proud New Yorker & American though.
Should dance music be more social and political as it was in the early days?
Music for me regardless of where I’ve been even at times of war (post 9/11) has been the universal sign for peace & love and when I’m touring, they don’t care where I’m from, they care about the music I’m playing for them and they respect my hard work at giving them the best show I can. I love how music brings us together, all of us and never divides us, at least in my experience.
Did the Black Lives Matter movement impact you, your thoughts and feelings in anyway?
I have big hopes that with time and change, we will get back to a much greater place in the world. I’m a firm believer in all my personal & business relationships that adversity strengthens us and builds a true love for each other. I hope that with Black Lives Matter the results will be the same with our nation and throughout the world. As a life-long athlete playing sports in every part of the US and now in Music, I’ve had the great opportunity to call ALL my teammates brothers (and sisters) no matter what ethnicity they were.
Tell us about your new Mayday EP with Funkerman for Flamingo – how did you link?
Yeah it’s my debut on Funkerman’s label. We are from the same camp and are teammates on the same management squad and Jorn my manager has linked us up as well as other teammates like Marco Lys who I have an EP finished with as well as Yvan Genkins as too so it was great to work with Funkerman and even have him add a remix to the package as well. I played Funkerman’s Boat Part at ADE and dropped MayDay there and he loved it and chased it since then.
What made you want to work with that Sunday Shouting sample?
Yes, Sunday Shouting was the 1st time I heard the usage of that sample back in my days at Strictly Rhythm and then I started playing the, “B Boys Shoutin Dub” almost every set and it would really translate well on the floors BUT it lacked the energy that I love to play with. I needed those strings and all that energy to be wrapped up nicely into a peak hour version so I cleared the sample which we have to pay respect to as its the same sample that Johnny Corporate cleared too which is BRICK-Living from My Mind and signed it off to Flamingo & Funkerman!
Are there rules to what you must and must not do to a sample to make it original?
Yes, there’s definitely rules but luckily in my career as Lee Cabrera & Just Us I’ve been fortunate with those rules and great managers like Jorn from Adapt and Dave Lambert for Just Us that know all those rules. I was managed by THE DON of House Music, Mark Finkelstein who gave me my hard knocks PHD in the music business too so I know the game quite well. Every territory & society has it’s own set of rules but if you play your cards right, clearing samples & publishing aren’t extremely difficult and then if you can’t, there’s some killer replay companies out there right now.
What else have you got coming up?
Yeah lots of new music forthcoming: I love getting something out every month. I have a new single with my boy, the legendary Richard F and I’ve convinced him to come out of retirement and our new single is forthcoming on Glasgow Underground where I signed my “Gimme Gimme” single too. I have a 2 track EP with Marco Lys too that we just started shopping as well as another with Yvan Genkins. Most recently I released a 3 track EP with one of the baddest dudes on planet earth, Steve Lawler on his Viva Music imprint and prior to that I redid, “Shake It” with Mike Vale and then added a brand new top-line vocal which is now titled, “Everybody” (Shake It) in which I added 2 new Lee Cabrera versions on which is out on CR2 Records. More Just Us Music forthcoming as well and another new alias, TalkBack with my friend singer/songwriter, Matt Hartke (Avicii, Tiesto, Cash Cash) and our new singles, “Astronaut” & “Feels” are debuting on the newest Cash Cash album.
Lee Cabrera and Funkerman’s Mayday is out 15th August via Flamingo Recordings. Check out the release on Beatport here and keep up with Lee on Facebook and Instagram.
