“Lee Christian is one of my fave lyricists!” - Ace (Skunk Anansie Guitarist/Producer)
Lee Christian was a prominent figure in the Oxford music scene for over ten years as an artist, producer, remixer, event organiser and radio DJ. He’s probably best known for fronting Oxford’s “One Band Riot” (Nightshift - legendary local zine) Smilex for over a decade, but also involves himself in countless diverse musical projects like The Prohibition Smokers Club, BoyWithAToy and Chateaux69. He now lives a semi hermitic lifestyle in Bath UK, developing his eclectic musical and artistic influences.
Once the scourge of the underground gig scene, riotous rock outfit Smilex were hand-picked to support punk legends The Damned and many more, released 2 albums and a string of EPs and Singles via many indie labels including on Lee’s own Quickfix Recordings via Plastichead distribution. Produced by Ace of Skunk Anansie fame, Smilex also released collaborations with MC Lars, The Young Knives and Mr Shaodow (for the Love Music Hate Racism charity) and garnered support from XFM, 6music and a whole host of others, including being awarded Playmusic Magazine’s Best Live Unsigned Act in 2010. All of which sounds very impressive but is really nothing on just watching them destroy a venue or festival with Lee stripped to the waist covered in blood, sweat and anything the crowd might have thrown at him as he baited them.
Since the decimation of the rock band industry and Smilex’s resultant hiatus, Lee has spent the last 7 years (and albums) in Bath, (Somerset, UK) predominantly focused on his solo career, not shying away from any genre, style, or instrument - playing and producing almost everything himself. The result is a sprawling and experimental yet cohesive body of work, including Rock, Acoustic, Electronica, Dance, Hip Hop , Soul, RnB, Funk, World Music, Industrial, Punk, Trip-hop and more all in the mix.
Taking his lead from Prince (his first and foremost musical influence), and other solo pioneers like Bowie, Beck, Tricky, PJ Harvey, Bjork, Goldie, Terence Trent D’arby and more, He makes each album a new experience with new themes, songwriting processes and sonic palette while establishing and retaining signatures and signifiers that make it obvious you couldn’t be listening to anyone else. His lyrical and vocal dexterity are a rarity in today’s genre fixed and topical generalities led era. Inspired by a lifetime of classic bands and songwriters. When circumstances allow, Lee still tears of stages in a different way with his festival favourite funk battalion The Prohibition Smokers’ Club, supporting Roachford (quote: “real Musicians”), Nouvelle Vague and headlining outdoor stages at Truck, Cornbury and Wychwood and more…
His music, film and reading collections are broad and exhaustively completist and feel like a walk through a record store not a home which explains his dalliances as a music critic/writer (reviews including The Mars Volta’s first ever UK show and intimate gigs from Bob Geldof & PJ Harvey).
He has also worked as a producer, engineer, mixer, mastering engineer, remixer (a diverse list of over 30 remixes including Kellindo, MC Tunes, Shed 7, Foals, Akira The Don, Shinichi Osawa, and many more) and spent decades in radio, live event promotion and even a spot of artist management alongside his work with Quickfix Recordings (Youthmovies, Half Decent and recently Kellindo with much more to come).
Lee has produced 2 short films (one award winning) plus online shows, videos, podcasts and radio shows and co-wrote and edited a compendium book for Free Comic Day.
He also found time during Covid-19 to produce and present a Lockdown show meets InfoDump called Covideo Breakdown bringing together all types of people from all parts of the world to share their talents and skills for the education and entertainment of viewers in isolation. It grew from strength to strength each week and featured musicians from Living Colour, Skunk Anansie, Janelle Monae, Lauren Hill/Sly Stone, Desert Storm, Sinead O’Connor, Grace Jones and Frank Turner.
When circumstances allow, Lee still tears up stages in a different way with his festival favourite funk battalion The Prohibition Smokers’ Club, supporting Roachford (quote: “Real Musicians”), Nouvelle Vague and headlining outdoor stages at Truck, Cornbury and Wychwood and more.
This Year Lee released 4 singles, ‘2020’ , ‘U Work 4 US’, ‘The Sun, The Sound And U & Me’ and ‘Goth Girls Do It Better’ plus two instrumental albums, £xp0$ur£ T0k£n$ and newest release ‘Four Disastrous Acts of Judgement’ - A four track concept-instrumental album that represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse. As with most of his work, there are striking videos to accompany it. His next album z0z0 is released at the end of the year - a diary of the year that was 2020.
"Lee, you are pure genius"
- Brando Palomino Bronzino (creator of The Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame)
