On Australian Accents, Collaborating With Pharrell And DJing

In 1999, during one of the periods when he temporarily left Mötley Crüe, Lee formed Methods Of Mayhem, which featured DJ Aero (real name: Chester Deitz) on turntables/electronics. Lee and Deitz would often DJ at Methods Of Mayhem after-parties and then went on to DJ on the main stage at Ultra Music Festival during the 2004 Winter Music Conference in Miami. Under the Electro Mayhem moniker, Lee and Deitz first toured our shores as part of Climate Festival, which travelled down the East Coast of Australia in 2008. The last time Mötley Crüe headed Down Under (alongside KISS in 2013), Lee and Deitz performed a set at Metro City for the Perth show’s after-party and their dirty techno was punctuated by high-fives.

"I can just tell you that it’s gonna be insane and I don’t think you should expect anything other than insane"

A self-confessed “closet dance music fan”, Lee is no stranger to collaboration and features impressively on Raw by The Bloody Beetroots. He’s also collaborated with our own Nick Thayer on a new track featuring Mikill Pane called Fly Shit. Yet another project, labelled WTF?, sees Lee and Deitz join forces with Steve Duda and Deadmau5. When Lee appeared on Deadmau5’s YouTube show, Coffee Run, the drummer revealed he would also love to collaborate with Pharrell Williams one day. Has he made any inroads? “No, but I met Pharrell and it was the craziest thing,” Lee reveals. “When you’re a fan of somebody’s work and you finally meet them, and then that person comes up to you and goes, ‘Dude! You’re, like, one of the sickest drummers and you inspired [me] when [I was] bangin’ around on drums and writin’ music,’ and I was like, ‘Wow! That’s cool!’ you know? Because he’s a super-talented guy. For him to return the compliment was just like, ‘Whoa, that’s crazy!’ And, yeah! At some point I’m sure we will definitely get in the studio and make some racket. I think that would be pretty hot.”

During the press conference announcing Mötley Crüe’s The Final Tour on 28 January, 2014, post-Crüe plans were discussed. Lee said he wasn’t really at liberty to reveal any concrete plans at that point, but what about now? “I have a lot of stuff that I’m working on and I’ve basically been compiling; I’ve been writing like a madman and just, like, putting it away and putting it away,” he offers. “And, you know, there’s nothing specific I can say about it, ‘cause I don’t want to, but I guess, haha, I can just tell you that it’s gonna be insane and I don’t think you should expect anything other than insane, you know what I mean? I’m definitely not done. We’re just done with Mötley come New Year’s Eve.”