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ARC Music Festival Artist Spotlight: Lee Foss

July 20, 2021 By Bianca Benjamin

In less than 50 days, the windy city of Chicago will be booming with the sounds of house and techno for the inaugural ARC Music Festival. ARC will feature globally renowned artists and local favorites at the famed Union Park for a major celebration over Labor Day Weekend, September 4-5. The debut festival welcomes an impeccable lineup featuring Adam Beyer, Cristoph, Camelphat, Eric Prydz, Eli & Fur, Fisher, Hot Since 82, Lee Foss, Seth Troxler, Will Clarke, ZHU, and many more.

As festivals approach, we like to spotlight some of our favorite artists headlining the events. ARC Fest’s roster is definitely one of the best we’ve seen this year, but the choice was obvious – our must-see artist: Chicago native and the embodiment of house music – Lee Foss.

Hailing from the birthplace of house music, Lee Foss found his love of house and disco in the late 90s. In 2001, he had his career-defining moment during a trip to the white isle of Ibiza. Here he met fellow DJ/producer, Jamie Jones which was the start of a lifelong friendship and musical partnership – collaboratively known as Hot Natured.

Lee spent many years in Europe, gaining inspiration from the seminal electro and deep house parties in Ibiza and East London. He took his experiences abroad and brought them back to the States, spending the better part of a decade making a name for himself in the competitive Chicago DJ scene and eventually making the move to Los Angeles to pursue music full time. His real break came in 2009 with the release of ‘Grinding’ on Wolf+Lamb, a track that was played worldwide by DJs across the dance music scene.

In 2010, the Hot Natured duo established the highly-acclaimed imprint, Hot Creations, which has helped pioneer a whole new wave of house and techno by some of the industry’s elite including Detlef, Nicole Moudaber, Patrick Topping, Solardo, and more. Six years later, Lee launched a second label stemming from his popular out-of-this-world, intergalactic-themed events, Repopulate Mars – which continues to create innovative records everyday. The year 2017 marked one of his biggest achievements, the release of his first full length solo studio album, Alchemy, out on his third imprint, Emerald City Music. Over the past few years, Lee has produced some of his best work which includes, “Only The Gods” with Disciples and Anabel Englund, “Gravity” with Martin Ikin and Hayley May, “Warm Disco” with Anabel Englund, and finally, our ARC anthem – “Summertime Chi” with John Summit and Hayley May.

Lee Foss has become known in the underground scene for redefining house music and that’s reason enough to name him our must-see artist of ARC Music Festival. Scroll through some of his top tracks on Spotify to get a glimpse of what’s to come this festival season!