Lee Curtiss makes his Australian debut

You've probably been asked this 1,000 times, but how exactly did you, Seth, Shaun and Ryan become friends? I met Shaun first while working with the Paxahau guys who organise the Detroit Electronic Music Festival for a short time. We instantly connected and then he moved to Berlin. Before that, he introduced me to Seth and Ryan and the ball of fire kept rolling from there. We started making music, after partying and DJing together and fell in man-love. When you meet three other people as weird as yourself, the tendency is to stick together at all cost. Shaun recently told us about the new Visionquest label, but he didn't give too much away. What kind of tracks do you have lined up for release? We are really proud of the first release. It’s from two close friends of ours whose music we've been watching for a couple years. The first EP is seriously some of the coolest and most forward thinking music I've heard in recent times. After that we have some really amazing and diverse records to follow, from folk to deep house to synth-pop, but all equally as beautiful and musically sound. Will vinyl be on the agenda? There will definitely be a limited press of vinyl copies for each releases. We love and support the vinyl industry as much as we can… even if it costs us money, we will make sure that there is physical merchandise for all releases. How long has launching the label been a goal? I'd say for two solid years it has been a realistic goal. We had the idea a few years before that but are glad that we've waited as long as we have because I think the market is ready for something new and the music we have will fill that void quite nicely. How often do you get back to Detroit? How was Movement earlier this year? I actually still technically live in Detroit. I have a house in Grosse Point, which is where my studio is. Though recently I haven’t been home as much as I like. Detroit is my favourite place in the world every year on the last weekend of May for Movement (DEMF). Our party "Need We Say More" at the Old Miami is always one of the highlights of the year for me, and this year especially so. We had Matthew Dear and Ryan Elliot playing back to back in the pouring rain with about seven hundred people dancing outside in back garden of the Old Miami. I can’t wait to do it again next year. You've mentioned that you met a whole bunch of Detroit luminaries – Matthew Dear and Ryan Elliot, for example – at a pretty young age, and that they've always pushed you in the right direction professionally. What kind of advice do they give you? I've worked on some music with Matt, but having time to get us both in the same place to finish it up has been a task. I am taking some time off to produce this fall/early winter and hopefully will get back to NYC to work with Matt again and hang out with his amazing bulldog Arthur. Any dog named after Arthur Russell has to a bad ass. I will definitely be doing more music for Spectral next year. Over the years both he and Ryan have been a huge guiding influence offering untold amounts of help and support. Finally, do you have any production in the works? We just finished remixes as Visionquest of D’Julz, dOP and a really amazing one for Tracey Thorn's new album. On the solo side I have a release on Guy Gerber's Supplement Facts label out in the next weeks, "I Can Hear You Arthur", which is my homage to the Arthur Russel. So far the response has been amazing. I then have a Martin Buttrich remix on the LA-based label Culprit just before the New Year that should shake things up.