Q&A: Matt Tolfrey and Lee Curtiss Dive Into Each Other’s Minds

It felt almost destined for Matt Tolfrey and Lee Curtiss to cross paths, and end up forging a close musical relationship.

They’re both forward-thinkers in their home regions, responsible for a couple of the finest imprints in house music today: Leftroom and Visionquest. Both are known for their non-conformist approach to dance music, and their often off-kilter productions in house, techno, electronica, and beyond.

Having met on the party circuit throughout the years, their first musical meeting came from Lee Curtiss remixing Tolfrey’s 2010 “Hollywood.” A 2011 collaboration, “Candy,” followed, and “Who’s Ya Daddy” came a couple years later. Clearly, the two share a deep chemistry in the studio. Their most recent collaboration now comes as a full EP: For Your Mind, which lands on Desert Hearts and introduces Lee Curtiss to the label family. Both tracks show their collective adoration toward gargantuan sounds, with the title track built to explode in an open-air setting and its closer taking on a more eclectic, quirky note that feels fit for the day time.

Curious to dive deeper into their partnership, we sat Tolfrey and Curtiss down for a brief chat with one another. What they came up with was quite cheeky — and insightful.

Lee Curtiss to Matt Tolfrey:

At what point in your life, did you hold your hands up and say to yourself, ‘That’s it, this is what I’m going to do with my life,’ in regards to dance music?

Sat 8th May 2004, the first time I ever played at fabric. I had played at a club called the Bomb in Nottingham not long before this filling in for Lee Burridge at a Tyrant night, and luckily for me, Craig Richards liked what he heard. He called me up the day after and asked if I fancied playing at fabric, you can imagine what my answer was, although at first I didn’t believe it was actually him on the phone!!!

Now that we have that out of the way, what is the most annoying thing about a lifelong career in dance music?

Humans are built to have routines, mainly sleeping when the sun is down, and being awake when the sun is up, but forget it as a DJ! My sleep pattern hasn’t been the same since I started traveling a lot, I’m either awake for a few days with only a couple of hours sleep a night, or sometimes in bed for 48 hours.

If they were to make our production duo into a WWF/WWE style wrestling duo, you as the British grafter with a heart of gold, and me as the ‘all American salt of the earth’ characters, what would our individual wrestling names be and what would we call the duo?

As a duo we would be called ‘The Legion Of Womb.’ We’d wear those male breasts that you can feed babies with while we ran into the ring to Stan Bush ‘The Touch.’ I think I’d be called ‘The Touch’ and you’d be called ‘The Power.’

Did you know that some music producers choose NOT to produce in the nude?

I run on a very simple and basic formula. For every extra person that is in the studio with me at any one time, I wear an extra piece of clothing. So you’ll just have to shut your eyes and dream about what I do in there on my own…

I feel you’ve really developed a sound of your own in the past years. What has been the motivating creative force and what equipment or software has helped facilitate this?

I’ve been blessed with two daughters now, Beau who is 3 and a half, and Arla who is 4 weeks old. They both motivated in a way that is hard to explain, but I can’t imagine being without them now. A lot of people find motivation in the studio from drink or drugs, but mine is from my family, and wanting to provide for them in whatever way I can…

Matt Tolfrey to Lee Curtiss:

‘For Your Mind’ or ‘Who Said That?’

‘For Your Mind’ for me. It’s a true testament to hard work and effort, and never letting a dream die. We worked on it 1st in London, and it was nearly written off as going to my humongous ‘techno graveyard in the sky’ with all the other unfinished tracks we have started that never see the light of day. I wasn’t buckled in for what you sent me back. You turned it into a major jam and with a few tweaks, we had something special.

What’s the worst thing you’ve done in the desert?

Stripping down and running into a sandstorm, then not being able to find my Burning Man gear. Thank God my then girlfriend, now wife, had the wherewithal to run behind me and grab my shorts. In the immortal words of Cat Stevens – “If you want to be free, be free.”

Favorite piece of studio equipment and why?

My 1983 Roland Jupiter 6. Her name is Lola and she sleeps under a blanket in a custom designed cherry wood cabinet I had made for her. Our love affair aside, she’s always come through for me, from bass lines, to weird raps, to bizarre effects, I always get something great from it. I also have this weird, ‘Biff Tannon’ touch with her, where when other people use it, they can’t get the same sounds I can. We love each other.

I think the way we work is perfect, we start things together, then we take them away and work on them solo. Would you change this process?

I love it too. I would like more face time for us to finish the records together, and also more time for us to start new ones, but you are in London and I’m in LA, and we’re busy. This is the new way to work for the modern producer.

Seeing as we do all our own vocals when we work together, who’s got the better voice?

You, when you’re on. You can do the weird Ozzy Osborne thing with your voice. Polyphonic overtone singing. I keep saying it, but you should take vocal lessons and go sing for Black Sabbath in my opinion.

For Your Mind by Lee Curtiss and Matt Tolfrey is out now on Desert Hearts and available on Beatport