Interview: Lee Van Dowski

The very name Lee Van Dowski exudes style and intrigue—a country lord, perhaps, who at night throws open the manor gates to host all-night bacchanals legendary for their wine and song. But Lee has earned a reputation as a kind of dark prince of uplifting electronic music—a trickster who spreads his mischief via long, undulating DJ sets and bewilderingly funky releases. His new LP ‘Cerca Trova’ is out on Mobilee and you can buy it here. We thought that this a great conversation starter, so we talked about the story behind it’s name, his friendship and collaborations with Miss Kittin and future plans, among other things. Enjoy!

Let’s start with your new release. Your first LP in ten years “Cerca Trova” is released on Mobilee, congrats! Tell us a bit about it – why did it take so long? What inspired you to do an LP and why “Cerca Trova”?

I’ve had at least 2 techno albums projects almost ready during those 10 years but I’ve never been happy enough to go further, and I’ve always ended up splitting the all tracks into separate EPs.
Something was missing somehow and I came to the conclusion that dance music is more fitting the EP format. Every time I’m listening to a so called techno album I feel the guys had just put a bunch of tracks together and call it an album.
Over the years I’m feeling the album format became just a pretext for a lot of artists to make a promo buzz around their names and then make a tour. This is a bit sad…That’s a bit why the idea to make something totally different came slowly.
Anyway I’ve released so much techno music in the last years that it was making no sense to go again in this direction for a long player. I’ve started to work on the project 2 years ago without a proper idea where I really wanted to go. At the beginning I was just compiling music waiting to get a better picture of what was coming up. I’ve finally ended up with 38 songs.
A lot of people probably think that the producing part would be the most difficult, but the biggest work for me was to select the 14 final tracks. The album could have go in so many different directions actually…I had to make lot of compromises as there’s really great tracks I didn’t select just to keep a coherent flow. It took me 2 entire months to get to the final tracklist.

The Title “Cerca Trova” which means („He who seeks, finds“) is a long story i’m gonna try to make short…
“The Battle of Anghiari“ is a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci, which some specialists believe to be still hidden beneath one of the later frescoes from Vasari in the Hall of the Five Hundred in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.
During his researches on the actual painting, Maurizio Seracini, an Italian expert in high-technology art analysis has found a small florentine soldier character waves a green flag with the words „Cerca trova“ written on it.
These enigmatic words are suggested to be a hint from Vasari (the artist who supposedly painted over Leonardo Da Vinci’s Masterpiece) to mention that the painting would be still remaining under his work.
Vasari truly revered Leonardo’s work and for the experts, it’s impossible to believe he would have painted over a significant work from him.

Till now this is of course still a theory, but I really love the idea of this humble artist who maybe simply couldn’t destroy the work from one of the most iconic artist of the Renaissance and maybe found a way to preserve his work over centuries.

This is the story of the title…

Beside this, „He who seeks, finds“ has a very strong message…This is basically what every human is doing during is life…Searching for things hoping to find them.

There is one collaboration on the album, ”I.L.A.N.E.N.O” with Miss Kittin, I know you’ve been friends for a while… What can you tell us about the track? How did it come to this collaboration anyway?

We have been very good friends for years and she simply came to my place to spend a weekend off. We had a wonderful time together in the mountains close to Geneva with my kids enjoying the beautiful well-known landscape of the area and walking around with her famous dog disco.

Few days later while chatting, the idea to make a track together came naturally…

I’ve had this track I’ve done a few years ago which was missing something to me and I sent it to her. The next day she sent me the song with this beautiful vocal part about the nice time we had and that was it. I’ve done nothing more on it, the song was just perfect.

We got the chance to listen to your remarkable album, there are many great tracks, so I have to ask could you pick a favorite?

All the tracks of this album are belonging to very particular moments of my life with very personal resonances…They are all connected to each other and are forming one single piece of work to me. So It’s very difficult for me to pick only one…

In your interview with Deep House Amsterdam you said that you love Mobilee and Leena because they give you freedom, but how did you start releasing for them?

I’ve always loved the music they release. They are very versatile and surprising. Nobody can pretend to know how will sound the next Mobilee. You just know it will be quality music. It can go from very deep house to big techno bangers and that’s what people like I believe. I’m a very versatile artist too and this is exactly what I’m expecting from a label.
I’ve just sent demos to them and luckily they liked my music. I’ve release my first record with them in 2008 on Leena. Since then I’ve never stopped. I feel home there.

You have a long-standing career, is there something you still haven’t done and you want to do?

My passion became my job so I can say I’ve already reached my goal. Nowadays it is really quite an achievement, specially in this business. I’m living my dream since more than 10 years now and I’ll just try to keep it going the longest I can. I don’t know yet where all this will bring me but this is the exciting part.

You released “Elle” recently and it has great success. What was the starting idea when you were making it?

This song has kind of a sad story… I’ve actually started to work on it the day my girlfriend’s dad passed away. I was in Egypt for a gig and I wasn’t there for her at the moment she would have needed me the most. I was feeling so useless there. This was really a terrible moment for her and for me I must admit. I’ve checked with my agent any possible solution to find a flight but there was nothing I could catch in time as I was 3h away from the first airport. So I’ve just opened my laptop and started this song. It all came like this. I think people somehow felt it was a special track and that’s a bit why it had so much success. There’s a lot of love in this song, some melancholy too but most important, a lot of hope. That’s all the things I would have love her to feel that day.

What are your future plans when it comes to music?

I’m having a production break now. I’ve worked so much the last two years that I need a little time off to think a bit about what could be next.
I already have few ideas but I wanna enjoy a bit life with my family for a while.
I’ve been really a ghost for them the last past 6 months…
However, I’ll release a EP I did in collaboration with Sabb on Suara in spring…So you’ll hear from me soon again hehe..

And lastly, which advice would you give to young DJs and producers who are trying to make it in the techno industry?

The scene has changed so much since I’ve started. 12 years ago there was a maximum of 200/300 vinyl releases a week without any digital releases, so it was a little bit more easy to pop up and make a name. Now I’ve heard there’s over 7000 releases a week on Beatport…That’s pretty scary. However, I really believe that good music always find its audience. It’s of course a lot of work and dedication to make a life of it, but if you make it honestly with your heart without trying to follow the trends there will always have a place for you.