Written by the B&B Crew
Monday, 08 August 2011 08:10
Q&A -
Claude VonStroke talks about his recently released Makeovers remix compilation, his Dirtybird label, and talks about music that has shaped him as the DJ/producer he is today…
Among the huge batch of envelope pushing producers from the US, one man stands tall due to his never ending creativity and sometimes unorthodox view on house music: Claude VonStroke. The Detroit-born artist has established himself as one of the nicest, fun-adoring DJs in the scene, having released a number of smash hit over the years that have ended up in the bags of DJs who, like Claude himself, like to treat the crowd with super funky house cuts. His Dirtylabel, launched in 2005, now houses likeminded acts such as Justin Martin and Worthy, and continues to work on a catalogue chuck-full of kick-ass beats.
We recently sat down with Claude to talk about his Makeovers remix album, the future of his Dirtybird label, and loads-a-more.
Hello Claude, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. How’s life treating you lately? Good. I’m on a rare family vacation at the moment.
Let’s first talk about your upcoming remix album Makeovers. How did you came up with the idea for this album? The idea was conceived by all the cheesy American tv mid-afternoon shows where someone comes on and looks really dreadful and they try to do a makeover on them with all these professional stylists and make-up people. I thought it would be funny to do a reverse makeover. So start with someone very pretty and wholesome looking and show what would happen if she went on a like 3 day bender listening to our music...
Obviously the album is all about reworks of other people’s tracks. Why did you choose these particular songs and what is it you wanted to achieve with each remix? I had done a lot of remixes over the years but I was mostly re-making the tracks instead of just dropping new drums over vocals and things like that. Some of the material you could even say was very close to new original tracks. My goal was to always use the original as a starting point, a point of inspiration instead of the full mold or skeleton of the remix.
Let’s talk about another project you are working on; Grizzl. What’s that all about? What can we expect from the project in coming months? I’m not going to say too much until I am further along with this but it’s just a little more vocals, no house tracks, more bass, etc.
What where your influences for this particular project, if any? Well, for sure the main influences were the original tracks! But overall I just want to stay original and fresh, always trying to do something new. I put just as much time into these remixes as if I had made all original music so I wanted to release them all together.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane with the following questions...
What record/album served as the proverbial final push into DJing and why? The DVD I made called Intellect. It was a documentary about Dj-ing and I ran out of money forcing me to make a lot of the music for it. This basically turned me into a house producer, like house music boot camp... trying to make tunes that sounded like the producers I had interviewed.
What record/album did turn you into an electronic music junkie and why? Eric B & Rakim's Paid in Full I would say was the first full album I had bought where the beats were all made electronically. That was at least the point when I knew I wasn’t going to play the cello. I remember thinking things like "well it sounds like they are playing drums but I dont know any drummers who sound like that. And what the hell are they doing with these music bits, looping them, chopping them, it's amazing!"
What record/album never gets old and why? Low End Theory, Tribe Called Quest... for me, the most memories are from this album. I’ve listened to it the most of any full album and if you turned it on right now I’d be like... cool!
What record/album could be the soundtrack to your life and why? I wouldn't be able to answer this really. I like too many different things.
What can we expect from you and your Dirtybirds imprint over the coming months? We have sooo many amazing records coming out! Right now we have J. Phlip’s Barbary Coast EP, super bass bombs in there, then right after that we have Justin Martin & Ardalan’s follow-up to Mr Spock called “lezgo!” Then we have a really cool post dubstep/house crossover Ep from A1 Bassline, and a new signing from Bristol called Eats Everything. Not to mention my CD, which is out now. We are really busy!
Any final words of wisdom to our readers? Choose the right time to be serious but don’t take anything too seriously.
Q&A - 
