About Me
Lewis Dene’s Solitaire alias has already enjoyed a trio of chart topping and dancefloors filling hits with versions of ‘You Got The Love’, ‘Thinking Of You’, and - ‘I Like Love (I Love Love)’. The latter a huge international hit, that spent 15-weeks in top 40 of the Australian sales chart, ending the year as the third biggest club record of 2003 in both DJ magazine and the Music Week club charts (it spent more weeks on the latter chart than any other). Now joining forces with Albert Castillo (a Houston-based producer who’s enjoyed crossover success in America as both Mynt and Al Be Rich), the two are currently reworking r&b hits into dancefloor club fillers withy much acclaim for the likes of Justin Timberlake, Diddy, Danity Kane, Musiq Soulchild and Ciara, that look set to dominate in the coming months. Add recent remixes for Jocelyn Brown, Pianoman, and the #1 club topping Audio Fraud with their version of ‘Ride Like The Wind’ into the equation and Solitaire are on a roll. Not least as his upcoming collaboration, ‘When You Love Someone’, with Davidson Ospina and songstress Kate Smith under the guise of NY-Lon, is already being tipped for crossover acceptance.Celebrating 10 years of club hits, Lewis Dene first reached the coveted #1 slot on the Billboard Dance chart in 1997 with ‘That Sound’ under his Pump Friction guise. He again topped the American Dance Charts as principle remixer on Duncan Sheik’s ‘On A High’ under his progressive guise of Westway, and gave the Beginerz a Hype Chart #1 with his remix of ‘Doin’ Me Wrong’.A respected DJ for many years, Lewis has played across three continents a mixture of chunky disco-injected house and funky tribal soundscapes – spinning at Erick Morillo’s Subliminal night at Centro-Fly in New York, MTV’s Dance Zone party in Sweden, Nervous Record’s 10th anniversary party at the Ministry of Sound and Australia’s acclaimed One Love night in Melbourne. His second Australian tour in 2005 closed spinning at the prestigious 2 Tribes dance music festival in alongside the likes of the Prodigy, Armand Van Helden and Grandmaster Flash, and was backed with the release of the mix compilation - Tinted Beats, Breaks & Melodies Mixed by Solitaire & Static Revenger.With a background in radio - Lewis produced Danny Rampling’s Love Groove Dance Party on Radio 1 for five years – additionally working on the station’s dance output with the likes of Pete Tong (news reporter), Judge Jules (producer) and the Essential Mix Live (producer). He initially started as a presenter on the now infamous pirate station LWR in the ‘80s; most recently presenting shows for Ministry of Sound and Trust the DJ, and a monthly guest on The Touch, Deli G’s Vibe 101 radio show.Lewis’ background also includes music journalism – currently he writes for DJ mag, Update, and Blues & Soul magazine, and the BBC and Beatportal websites. He has also compiled and written liner-notes on over a 170 albums encompassing everything from electro, hip-hop and rap through to disco, Philly, Salsoul and house. Currently he also acts as an A&R consultant for several international labels.
