URN

Natasha Tompsett: He was a dream to interview, with a laugh more jolly than Santa. Also a big James Blake fan I found out chatting after.

So I’m here with Claude Von Stroke, Barkley Crenshaw, the man himself. Let’s start with the basics, how was your journey here today?

My Journey was pretty loooong, started in San Francisco, connected in Chicago, flew to Manchester and drove 2 hours with a very nice guy called Thomas, we talked about the differences between America and the UK.
I was basically blaming him for starting the whole tabloid culture and sending it over to America. I was telling him about the whole Charlie Sheen thing, I was saying “Why do I know about this!! It’s because of England!”
It’s because of OK magazine that I know everything about Charlie Sheen’s meltdown!!

We won’t be expecting any Charlie Sheen type meltdowns from you in the future then...

Ha no.... Winning!!

I win here, I win there. Now, you originally played hip-hop, how did you end up doing house?

I didn’t move away as such I just didn’t do music as a career until much later, I was into hip-hop my entire childhood I would say, from 12yrs old through to university. I had a radio show, but I wasn’t mixing. I would put on a record... talk... put on another record! I wasn’t the best at that but it was fun. I made rap music as well, I was a rapper for a while in high school!

Got any secret recordings left? Any evidence?

There is noooo way you will ever hear that! I would just die.
I think the bridge between the two genres was unconsciously drum and bass. I started listening to drum and bass at one point and was like... Electronic music exists.... Let’s get more and more into it... Justin Martin just made a track... Holy shit maybe I could do that.... Here’s my first house song.

Right, let’s go back... 14 years of the cello?

Yeah, my parents were very demanding... I didn’t even like playing the cello that much but I did it and it was definitely where I first got the bug to be creative. I had a really good cello teacher when I was a kid and she was all about expressing yourself so I wrote cello music when I was a kid, I have the first piece I wrote in a frame somewhere...
I think being on pitch is from playing piano and cello, I get crazy irritated when things are off pitch!

When you were being forced to play the cello... did you have any other career plans?

You make it sound like my parents had a whip! “Play it!!” ... It’s all my fault that I play the cello, I’m blaming myself because my parents were really cool, they took me to a music store and said “You just pick out whatever you wanna play and that’ll be your instrument.” I picked the drums, but in my middle school you had to be an 8th grader to play because so many people wanted to, so I couldn’t chose drums but my parents were like “You have to pick an instrument.” So I went with whatever I could get sound out of the fastest. I sat down with it, made a little sound and was like “OK Cello!”
Regarding career plans... Until 2006 I’d worked on film... Had my own DVD duplication company... Editiing... I would always be in something chopping up media.

You make it sound so easy! Your music artwork, it’s fairly hilarious?

Some people really didn’t like it! I’ve never been chastised as much as I was for my second album cover, they still talk about it 3 reviews later...! It’s pretty funny actually.

What’s with the bird theme?

I used to draw this bird character when I was a kid and I got to the point where I could draw it in under 3 seconds... it just became the name of the label, I went on trend! I just continued it and put it on steroids.

What’s your view on projected visuals/light displays etc during a live set?

I have mixed feelings, I feel in a club it’s a wasted effort because the best clubs are always with the least amount of lighting. I feel like the crowd is more comfortable if the person next to you isn’t fully lit and you can see the sweat and wrinkles...! The darker it is the better in my opinion, the music is made for the darkness! Although for festivals maybe they are needed.

There’s quite a debate about cities and the ‘sounds’ they produce and represent, what’s your view on this as artists start to relocate like you have done?

I get why people move to London, small town to big city, it’s natural, human instinct. I think if you can get your sound going where you’re from it’s ok to go once you are strong, but if you are weak it’s a mistake.
Tour manager interjects to say: I think it’s going to be interesting with the Hessle audio guys as they’ve mostly all gone to London, obviously James Blake’s from that crew, he’s gone down, so we’ll see...

Ramadanman was a student at Leeds...

Oh Leeds? That would make sense because Leeds is super cool, I love Leeds, it’s probably my favourite... They've just got something in the water up there! Leeds and Bristol, both really nutty.

It’s been said that the Bristol sound is called ‘Purple’...

There’s something really messed up about the UK genre thing! It’s insane. It’s just annoying to me, all I wanna do is hear some cool music. Do I have to know the name of this 4th generation post dubstep... it’s ridiculous. It’s exactly why we started Dirtybird! It’s like, just stop it!

J Phlip (Dirtybird) here’s a quote from her myspace... “House music has completely ruined my life, in the best way ever, and I’m a dirtybird!” now... does this summarise the labels ethos?!

Hahaha! I think it’s actually quite true with her because she was a valedictorian at her college, she was an electrical engineer, a real genius, and I actually think it did ruin her life! [more jolly laughter]

If you’re gonna have your life ruined it’s a pretty good way to go!

I will say that J Phlip is the only person to get in the Dirtybird crew after it had already started if you get what I mean, we were super tight nit. It was 5 guys and our whole thing was “we don’t have guests, we don’t trade gigs, we just do our sound whether there’s 5 people there or 5000 we don’t care”, talented!

CRACKING MAN