A bloke of genius
Welcome to DMC Barclay. You were raised in Detroit, a city your family still live in. You are certainly one of the most creative people in dance music who always has his tongue stuck firmly in his cheek. What was life like back there in Detroit growing up?
“Let’s be clear that we were in the suburbs and it was a lot nicer than it sounds! I did live downtown for a bit but I cant pretend I had some tough urban childhood. My parents were into classical music and we had a big house. I had to ride my bike a few miles to the Detroit gas station in order to buy rap tapes because you couldn’t get them in my neighborhood. Even so, the radio stations I listened to were 100% Detroit.”
Your first love for a career was in films – can you remember the first film that made a real impression on you?
“Probably one of the stupidest movies ever made. Strange Brew. I loved that movie for some reason. It was my own personal cult classic. Loosely based on Macbeth, Bob and Doug McKenzie go on an epic quest to find free beer. It is poorly made, poorly acted and totally amazing.”
What a musical journey you have had. You wanted to play the drums in high school but because you were a year too young, plumped for the cello. But before you know it, you were running your own hip hop class at boarding school in Connecticut. So er, what’s the story there?
“I had no role models for what I wanted to do and that was always the hangup. The white rappers at the time were Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark who were both terrible and had no credibility. I was a middle class kid who wasn’t allowed to wear jeans to school and played the cello – so I think everything I did was in an attempt offset the dweebiness of that vibe. I’m still trying to make up for it my corduroy’s and hush puppies.”
So what would be the big Claude VonStroke Old-School Hip-Hop Joints 10
01. A Tribe Called Quest – Buggin’ Out
One of the greatest rap groups in history. Heavily influenced by jazz and even using a Ron Carter bassline, I’ve listened to this one more than 1,000 times.
02. Eric B and Rakim – Microphone Fiend
Rakim has the smoothest flow of almost anyone. This is one of the tightest rhymes of his career over a great beat.
03. Boogie Down Productions – My Philosophy
Also one of the greatest MCs of a generation, this is KRS-One at his absolute best.
04. MC Lyte – Paper Thin
Probably the most distinct New York female voice of all time, this is by far my favorite MC Lyte flow over a really hot beat.
05. Digable Planets – Nickel Bags
Not a traditional classic, but this jazzy vibe track came off one of my favorite hip-hop albums. I wore out a tape player playing this.
06. 3rd Bass – The Gas Face
When Vanilla Ice was hated and way before Eminem, MC Serch and Pete Nice were the only credible white boys I could look up to and this is their best work. Super hot Aretha Franklin sample.
07. Big Daddy Kane – Ain’t No Half Steppin’
Grandmaster of a speedy flow and copied by everyone, Big Daddy Kane was the original pimp of hip-hop. This is my favorite track of his.
08. N.W.A. – Gansta Gansta
Hearing this made me realize that all the shit I heard before it just posturing. These guys were actually hardcore. This was the first time I heard Ice Cube. He blows away everyone on the record…even Dr. Dre.
09. Public Enemy – Public Enemy Number #1
Another breakthrough track that made me realize that everything in hip-hop wasn’t just Kangols and chains. Plus, it was the first time I heard Chuck D.
10. EPMD – Strictly Business
The laziest flow in the universe is so cool it can’t be overlooked. These guys are rhyming at least a half second behind the beat over a Bob Marley sample here and it still sounds right on time.
You once made a DJ documentary called ‘Intellect’ after landing in San Fransisco from Detroit – where basically you interviewed a lot of major DJs. What was your motives behind that little exercise?
“As I said in the previous answer I had no role models. So I basically said to myself, “my biggest hangup for as long as I can remember is not having anyone to look up to. I have no mentors, no one to tell me if I am on the right path.” So how do you remedy that situation? Make a documentary/instrunctional video where you interview all the role models you want for 2 hours each and spend 3 years making it. When I finished that project I knew everything I had always wanted to know AND I had made a video for all the other kids without any role models in electronic music.”
Had you any idea what you had created with ‘Who’s Afraid of Detroit’? The whole world stopped with that record…
“Nope, no way. It was a b-side. I liked it but even the guys in my crew all played the a-side to that record. That was a truly grassroots thing. It’s almost impossible for a record to grow like that these days. It took over a year before it was even on anyone’s radar and it took 2 years to become a hit. I dont think it ever even made it to the top 25 on Beatport.”
How did the friendship with Anthony occur who tipped you off about the Detroit Youth Organization which you donated money to?
“Anthony Garth Francisco has been my friend for ages. We met on the movie Polish Wedding which was shot entirely in Hamtramck ( a polish suburb of Detroit.) We were the locations dept. He hated me at first because I had come back from LA and was honing in on his job (and honestly he did know the city better than me). But I shared a few mixtapes with him and I think he saw I was funny. He kinda introduced me to the Detroit rave scene as well. We are still great friends. He also directed the deep throat video for me and has gone on to be be a full time director. Very successful too.”
One of your labels Dirtybird has always been synonymous with sweaty bass-lines, off-kilter ideas and bass driven funk – what has 2012 got in store for us release wise…?
“Justin Martin, Justin Martin Justin Martin! Ghettos & Gardens album. Killer.”
One of DMC’s closest pals is Dan Pearce aka Eats Everything, he used to be a resident at one of our club nights in Bristol a few years back. What is it about this young scallywag that is setting the world on fire worth his production skills at the moment?
“He’s got a good attitude first off. We WANT to work with people like Dan and Catz n Dogz as opposed to a lot of artists who do a couple hot tracks and then pass us off to their manager or stop answering the phone. Dan is the opposite. He’s a big fun personality and he fits in with dirtybird perfectly. His style is more UK than most of our core crew which I think works really well for us as we all were highly influenced by the UK drum n’ bass scene from the 90s. Dance music is very much like high school where people try to put on fronts and act cool, but I try my best to look past that. I really want to work with people who are cool becuase they are good quality people not because they are trendy hipsters. You’d be surprised how many electronic producers are actually interesting nerds and not drug addicts.”
Point Blank are on board your mighty Dirtybird ‘Hatched’ Spring Tour, a seven date tour which kicked off last week and is taking in some monumental cities. Tell us about the tour…
“It’s very exciting to be able to put together line-ups that would have been previously impossible to do. For example in London it is the biggest db line-up ever assembled and that includes San Francisco events. I started taking some classes at Point Blank online and it just progressed from there. Now they are sponsoring our whole tour through Miami, Detroit, London, Paris etc. It’s amazing. I’d also recommend these classes to any up and coming producers they are well thought out and can even help out a seasoned vet like me.”
What are the biggest changes you have seen in the music industry since you started?
Time. The time it takes for a track to be released and go through it’s entire sales cycle is now a few weeks and maybe months if you are lucky and it is a hit. Before it could take a couple years for a track to go through it’s life cycle. This means everyone makes way more music so they can stay in the spotlight and hence the quality suffers. BUT this is also why you see some people like Pearson Sound for example really stick out because they take their time and only release bombs.”
Massive gig coming up in the UK at The Warehouse Project in Manchester on April 8th with Carl Craig, Loco Dice, Jamie Jones etc. – how does playing in the UK differ from the rest of the world?
“Yes this is a massive gig and I’m super excited about it but I would say for me, the even more massive gig is doing the largest dirtybird line-up ever assembled the night before. Whilst Warehouse Project will be absolutely amazing guaranteed, the day before in East London is a much bigger gamble for me. 12 dirtybird artists on a party we put together ourselves with Jaimie Ritchie from SPL and our awesome sponsors Point Blank Online School and Stunner of the Month. I guess the “gamble” aspect of it is much less now that we’ve sold out of pre-sales but it’s not nearly as easy to do the party yourself just with your crew only. To answer your question tho…playing the UK allows for a certain leeway on bass music you couldn’t get away with in Germany or somewhere like that. Just like the way we can drop hip-hop influenced stuff here in SF, we can play all our UK bass edits in London and Manchester and Leeds, etc.”
Not many people know this, but Claude VonStroke is really good at…
“Swimming. I even swam on my college swim team for a little while.”
DMC have been looking forward to this one…so we come back to yours after the club – what is the Claude VonStroke Back To Mine tunes you spin us to carry on the groove…
“It would be more chilled down but still super weird and interesting…less restrictions, less bangers. Some old soul, funk, hip-hop maybe, some very werid after hours house and techno.”
Who is the coolest person on your mobile phone?
“Justin Martin or Anthony Garth.”
Weirdest place you have ever been recognised?
“The best thing about being a DJ and not a singer is that I never get recognized outside of social evening engagements. I love this aspect of dance music.”
What is your guilty pleasure song?
“Wang Chung.”
What do you think about the news that Simon Cowell is launching an X-Factor style DJ competition?
“It’s going to be awesome to watch this go down in flames.”
Who are the producers around the world you are giving high fives to at the moment?
“Justin Martin, Eprom, Pearson Sound, Eats Everything, Dimlite, Subtrkt (cant stop listening to that fucking Subtrkt album!).”
And finally a question and who better to ask? What advice can you give to the thousands of people reading this who want to get into production, running a label and becoming a DJ. And please don’t just say ‘don’t’!
“The American answer. Save your money up until you have enough to do something but don’t spend a dime until you get focused and have the most amazing material to offer. If you have the best music AND a little money to get it out there properly you might have a chance. Dont sign up with a manager until you are making mad loot, if ever. Make sure everything is on point BEFORE you drop it (artwork, presskit, photos, facebook page, website, blah blah blah). I think I was pretty smart but if I had been even smarter I would have put out my first 5 records on other big established labels and then started dirtybird. I would have skipped over the whole first two years of trying to get everyone to listen to dirtybird. I see artists do this to us all the time. It works.”
http://www.dirtybirdrecords.com
Dirty Bird London bbq on the 7th April : http://maouris.co.uk/event-detail.php?e=115
Warehouse Project on the 8th April http://maouris.co.uk/event-detail.php?e=116
Hideout Festival in Croatia: http://maouris.co.uk/event-detail.php?e=115
