DJ/Producer and Music nerd Lee Struthers hails out of Cork,Ireland. Before producing music under the name Lee Struthers he released tracks under the aliases DJ Strutzip,Lee Strutz and Strutz Hop mostly producing songs in the Electro/House genres but since then he is developed his own style of music which can only be described as Hard Dance mixed with Hip Hop beats which will be sure to get you tapping your feet and pumping your fist all at the same time!
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
[Lee Struthers]: I was born and raised in Cork,Ireland.I started off making music at the age of 18 with FL Studio and just got hooked on it instantly and slowly gained enough confidence to upload my first track on SoundCloud after learning the program for about 3 months straight.I completely No-Lifed it so to speak.The process was basically like I would produce a few songs under a certain alias and then move to a new one and rinse and repeat.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
[Lee Struthers]: It was pretty funny actually because I got sick of tired of changing my “stage” name.I was thinking of starting over with a brand new alias and I was completely over thinking it trying to come up with a new witty artist name and then I thought why not just make my artist name my own name and that way I’ll feel more emotionally attached to the name and will have more willpower not to change it again.You can’t really run from yourself so it’s kind of deep in that sense.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
[Lee Struthers]: I think it’s a great tool because personally if I like the music I will listen to it for free but if I respect the artist then I will spend the money to show my support to them.My music is 100% free to listen to and download but my music is also available on iTunes etc so i’m also giving the listener a choice to listen for free and if they like what they’re hearing then they can spill out the cash and show their support.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
[Lee Struthers]: The biggest piece of advice I would give to any up and comers out there is to just stay consistent and be persistent with your dream.Never give up on it even if you go through the day and feel like you’re getting completely nowhere just hold on and stick with it and keep putting your music out there.Basically get in people’s faces constantly until they finally say “This guy so and so is popping up everywhere I go,Might aswell give him/her a listen and see what they’re about” but do it within reason haha!
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
[Lee Struthers]: I’ve done a few DJing gigs in the past but I they weren’t gigs where I would play my own music.More like 18th birthday parties etc where I would just play mainstream top 40 kind of music.Yeah I used to make mistakes all the time and the best way to handle them is to not take them too seriously even though they may seem that way at first and just laugh them off instead.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
[Lee Struthers]: Sadly no.At least not yet but I hope to play maybe locally at first and then maybe start travelling a bit more then possibly touring… Oh to dream haha!
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather inspiration for your music? What is your usual songwriting process?
[Lee Struthers]: Inspiration literally comes from everywhere.I could think of a melody while lying in bed at night or I could be bored and tap my feet and think of a beat or rhythm but most of the times it consists of me opening FL Studio and just messing up a bunch of times until I finally get something I can work with.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
[Lee Struthers]: Currently no I do not have a band website (Might be a good idea to create one) but yeah I have my music on various platforms but the main ones I use at the moment are Soundcloud and Youtube.
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
[Lee Struthers]: There’s nothing majorly embarrassing on there but there is some really heavy metal type songs on there that may disturb some people.There’s also some of Craig David’s music on there like the older stuff (The bedroom type music) that would be pretty embarrassing to be played out loud in public haha!
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
[Lee Struthers]: Shhhhhoooppiinggg! Nah just kidding to be honest it would take me more than a year to go through that money.I’m the kind of person where I will only buy something if it benefits survival (And maybe the small nice thing on the side) 🙂
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
[Lee Struthers]: No upgrades planned as of yet.Pretty simple setup: I have my desktop computer running FL Studio 10 and my brain (sometimes).
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
[Lee Struthers]: I mainly just upload my music and Youtube and Soundcloud and then tweet about it afterwards and throw up a status update on Google+.If it’s a song that i’m really proud of then I would go through the process of getting my music on Spotify,iTunes etc.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
[Lee Struthers]: That’s a toughy but If I had to pick I would choose to perform with Celldweller.That guy is a genius when it comes to music production and if I was on stage with him to be honest I don’t think I would even perform I would be just screaming questions at him haha!
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
[Lee Struthers]: At the moment on my Youtube and Soundcloud i’m re-releasing and old EP called “The Ketchup EP” that I produced under the name Strutz Hop.Also I have a few mixes that go on for about an hour long each and I was contemplating on whether I should post them on Youtube but we shall see…
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
[Lee Struthers]: I’m also an aspiring web designer/developer so if everything I’ve done so far in music went down the drain I would just focus all my attention into becoming a web designer.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
[Lee Struthers]: Yes, I do actually it was Eminem’s album Encore.I’m pretty sure I played that CD past it’s use and I knew every song off by heart haha!
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
[Lee Struthers]: For now music is pretty much my “little thing on the side” so I find it quite easy balancing out all of my other duties in life.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in the next year or so?
[Lee Struthers]: To put it in short… More music and hopefully shows!
