During Symbiosis Gathering in Bradley, California, we caught up with Lee Reynolds, co-creator and resident "Papa" of the Desert Hearts community. Our free-flowing conversation (recorded during Tara Brooks’ set at Symbiosis) touches on everything from Desert Hearts, Lee’s life / relationships / other pro life as a BMX rider, and the creative processes involved in each. Here’s a map to the conversation for individual topic-seekers. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the sophomore episode of The Creators Series.
0:00 - Lee and Intro to The Creators Series, into the conversation.
0:15 - Genesis of Desert Hearts and meeting Mikey Lion for the first time.
1:45 - Feeling of DJing and getting emotional on stage.
3:00 - Desert Hearts, spreading the message.
5:15 - DJing w/ Desert Hearts crew together in the booth, inflections explaining personalities within the crew.
7:00 - Bringing in artists into the Desert Hearts family. (S/O Tara Brooks, Kevin Anderson, Justin Campbell, DiNK, Rybo, Atish, Dance Spirit)
8:00 - Pile Palace and connections to Burning Man.
9:00 - Desert Hearts relationship w/ Los Coyotes Reservation.
10:00 - How a set comes together - Lee’s process of DJing.
12:00 - Lee’s history producing music and why he loves DJing.
14:30 - Family relationships.
16:00 - Transition from Desert Hearts size to playing gigantic festivals and touring nationwide.
20:00 - Producing music with Machino.
21:00 - Process of producing music personally.
22:30 - Focus of Desert Hearts in the future.
24:00 - Desert Hearts and the importance of curating an environment of true expressive freedom @ Desert Hearts Festivals.
25:45 - Programming the Desert Hearts music lineup.
27:15 - Riding professionally in BMX and moving to/touring the USA as a teenager.
29:45 - History with Spike Jonze, how Spike found Lee’s teeth after a gnarly crash, and other BMX memories.
32:30 - After BMXing, on first discovering warehouse parties and electronic music in England.
34:30 - Wrap up, embracing experiences and people.