My shoes squished with each step I took and as my soaking t-shirt clung to my body, a gust of wind flipped an already worthless umbrella into something I later left at a party with disgust. I was nearly to the Wythe Hotel, where I was to meet Ryan Crosson before he played Output with fellow Visionquest member Shaun Reeves and I was already imagining how awkward it was going to be strolling in like I’d just emerged from a pool. But it was dry there, and really that’s all that mattered. A few black cocktail napkins and a condescending look from the Asian bartender later and Ryan appeared at the bar. It wasn’t entirely how I’d envisioned kicking off an interview with a guy I’d known peripherally for a few years as laid back and a talented DJ/Producer, but it would have to do.
Ryan had arrived earlier that day after spending some time with his brother’s family outside of Chicago after the Wavefront Music Festival. He’d landed and promptly made his way to Halcyon Record Store in Dumbo, a refuge for nearly any DJ steadfastly adhering to the gospel of vinyl. “ I got a few things but wish I could have found some more.” He explains he had to leave earlier than he’d have wanted to make our meeting time of 8pm, but I appreciate the effort and am confident Ryan Crosson has no real difficultly finding as much cool music as he wants.
We polished two beers and grabbed another pair to take to his room. The bar was far too loud for me to record our conversation and the bartender was still giving me the evil eye.
Since all of my experiences with him had been at gigs or parties, I began our chat by mentioning something that had stuck out to me from a conversation I’d had with Bill Patrick a year prior in which he’d referred to him as the “hardest working man in techno.” He shrugs, and recounts how he often caught a hard time for spending so much time in the studio. “Some of it is because I used to procrastinate and part of it is that I took on so much shit and, instead of focusing on one thing, I’d just have too much on my mind and always be dabbling, dabbling, dabbling.”
He recalls assigning too much value to each record or remix he was working on, feeling the need for each and everything to be something mind-blowing. It would get to the point where it felt a bit straining.
“Putting expectations on anything can fuck it all up” comes out of my mouth before I even realize I’m saying it. “I totally agree.”
“I work all the time but I don’t feel like it’s a burden.” Ryan points out its usually Seth that gets the most frustrated when he works too much and doesn’t hang out when they are all together. After speaking with him for a few minutes it’s clear this was more of an issue in the time preceding a year or so ago - during the period when he earned another nickname from Mr. Patrick: Ryan 'Gotta get a remix done' Crosson.
“I wish I could come to ideas real quickly [snaps fingers] and that’s that - but I can’t. Maybe I don’t have that capacity but it just takes me a minute… Since I’ve been in London I’ve gotten better at it. I live with my girlfriend and have my studio in a guest bedroom. I have everything I need within a 20 minute walk, the label, the mastering studio. It’s nice.”
I offer, “Where you’re at now is definitely as high as you’ve been so far, career wise. So I think that now that the ball is fully rolling and you’ve got the momentum behind you, that must be a relief. Maybe it takes enough pressure off for you to concentrate on just the process of making music.” He nods in the affirmative and takes a swig of his beer.
It’s clear this problem of overcompensating or trying too hard is something many artists establishing their footing within the industry grapple with, but with the undeniable momentum everyone within Visionquest is experiencing now it’s decidedly less of an issue. A new goal on his horizon is learning Logic well enough to mix projects down, but for now all of his creations are a product of Ableton, “some gear, my board and various plug-ins that I use.”
On Monday, July 15, Ryan released his “Into Later Habitats EP” on vinyl through Visionquest featuring collaborations with Tale of Us and Aquarius Heaven. I was curious about the processes involved in making records with entirely different musical entities. He told me his collaboration with Tale of Us, “Angel,” was one of three records they all made in Berlin a couple years ago. After listening to it a few more times Ryan called them up and told them he felt it could be something more. They had him send the project over and they brought it to what you hear today. “They get in there and they do it. That’s why they’re able to put out so many tracks. They’re focused. Karm is really good with the melodies and Mateo is a programming genius.” At first it looked as though they’d release it through Supplemental Facts but Guy Gerber ultimately wanted more work done to it. There was a period during which they thought it’d be a Crosstown Rebels record, but then through a series of strange events that idea never came to fruition. “Then they (Tale of Us) kicked off and got really busy and then the Visionquest thing started happening and it sort of fell by the wayside.”
“In the meantime, I was splitting a studio at Wilde Renate with The Samantha Fox guys and Brian [Aquarius Heaven].” He speaks of approaching Aquarius Heaven who was “hardly ever there because he was always bouncing around to Paris or whatever” after he’d completed a record and asking him to record some vocals. “He had some really heartfelt deep vocals about some shit he had going on in his life - and it was cool-but it didn’t work.” So Ryan pulled out another record that, no doubt, came from that vault every producer has of cool shit that’s almost complete but still needs something. “And when I put it on this other track he’s like [snaps his fingers] now you got it. So I sent it back to him, he messed with a few things and he sent it back to me and there it was.”
“It was the sort of thing where with Tale of Us I got in there before it was way too hectic, it’d be possible now but it’s just about balancing schedules a bit more. And Brian is great because he’s like...easy like ‘hey I’ll throw some vocals on it’ and then we’ll send it back and forth.”
Each record stands on its own, with the influence of the collaborating entity shining through, delineating one track from the other. If there is a common thread to each though, it’s evident to me only when cross-examining them with the podcast he supplied to accompany this interview. It’s heady and melodic but the dubby and shifting percussion ensures that while your mind gets lost in the sounds you won’t be able to stop moving your feet.
I ask about another project he’s been involved with, Birds and Souls (something I’m ashamed to admit I was only made aware of from Ryan’s email signature. An oversight on my part made all the worse by their self-titled offering “Birds and Souls” being selected as #21 of Mixmag’s top 100 tunes of 2010).
“Birds and Souls is me and Sergio from Benoit and Sergio, Benjamin Meyers. Me and Benj have known each other since before he was making music. [At the time] Benj was teaching at this very prestigious all-boys private school. I saw the school. It’s fucking immaculate, there’s this old church - just...wow.” Then as if taking the opportunity to point out the knack nightlife has for bringing people from disparate backgrounds together, he finishes, smiling “we met through partying, raving and all that shit.” He goes on to tell a funny story about the first time the bug to create something together struck them after largeing it at Club Der Visionaere with Seth Troxler, Matt Kingsley and “some girl.”
He speaks about their production process and details how one of the tenants they adhered to was to try to get the most out of each piece of synth hardware they used. No doubt a result of each of their own individual successes, Birds and Souls haven’t been tremendously prolific since releasing two EPs on Spectral in 2010 and so much has happened since then that Ryan is difficult to recognize in press pics for the project. Given what the pair are capable of creating after a long night at CDV though, I suggest keeping your ears open for their next project.
With so much talk about production I venture, “Music theory wise, how much training do you have?” “0 Theory,” he replies. “I still go back and listen to stuff and cringe. Certain things sound good, but I feel like when me and Cesare [Merveille] did the album it sounds like I was starting to find my stride.” He’s referring to “DRM,” the ten-track LP that was released on Visionquest in November of last year and received a 4/5 from the impressively fickle folk over at Resident Advisor.
I suggest we talk about his recent time in Brazil because “that country is kicking ass right now.” “Yeah, they’re on fire. I was just down there in April doing D-Edge in Sao Paolo on Thursday, La Folie in Rio on Friday and Warung on Saturday. The people down there are amazing - super nice.” He then mentions with refreshing humility, “I think the thing is that I was the main event at D-Edge on a Thursday and I just don’t think I have the clout to draw them out on a Thursday - I’m not there yet.” Looking forward, he continues, “I’m supposed to go back there with [Matt] Tolfrey in the fall so we’ll have another go…”
He gets up and walks over to the phone to call room service. We’ve made our way through the two beers by now and he’s trying to get two more sent up. I don’t disagree with this course of action. Room service doesn’t play ball and we’re left to split the one beer in the mini-fridge into our pre-existing glasses. It’s romantic.
I’d recently seen a rather epic lineup for Ryan at Gipsy club in Moscow where he played with Laura Jones, Wolf+Lamb, Slow Hands, and Tanner Ross and ask him about his thoughts on the city. He recounts a 16-hour B2B set he did at Arma 17 with Dejan, Markus Linder and Audiowerner. “It was kind of a nice rotation, just hanging out and playing. People were really feeling it.”
The structure of the interview begins to fall apart ever so slightly, but we arrive on the subject of Ibiza. “July I’ll be there for tINI’s thing [tINI and the gang], DC-10, Kehakuma, ENTER because we’re going to be doing the Visionquest ENTER thing.”
I interrupt with an understatement: “ENTER seems to be going well.” “I think they have, on paper, the best lineups for our music this year…He [Richie Hawtin] booked it really well.” He mentions several big name artists are living there this season, Bill Patrick, Shaun Reeves, Cassy, Guy Gerber and as he continues to name people I start cycling through what I’d have to rearrange to get there within the next two weeks and am overwhelmed. I drink more beer.
The ease with which our conversation glides from Moscow to Ibiza demonstrates just what kind of lifestyle these guys lead. Given the caliber of experiences he’s privy to, I’m justifiably interested to learn what events have blown his mind over the last year. “Timewarp. Timewarp was by far the standout this year. It was amazing last year because they gave us a stage. This year they gave us a stage and were like ‘go for it.’ And we went for it. It was great, we took all our fee, and dumped it into it (the stage and production) - we had a big pyramid. We had Jamie [Jones] and Magda too - and the openers were really good. So it was those guys, Jamie, Magda, us! It was just like [claps hands] fucking nice one. That was a standout.” He continues, “Warehouse project was great, you know - doing that with the boys and that was like the first time we were able to fuck with the space and we had Tale of Us, Dinky and Laura [Jones] with us..great. And then we [Visionquest] had our own room where we went start to finish and we really...” You can see him flipping through it in his mind, “We went on a rollercoaster ride throughout the night.
Miami was great this year but it was a mess, I was all over the place on a personal level.” He segues quickly, “Detroit was really good this year - didn’t play the festival this year, played a couple after parties. I think the [Movement] Festival was fantastic even though they got some rain on the last day.” In speaking about Visionquest’s signature Memorial Day shit show (in the best way), “Old Miami was probably the best we’ve ever done - musically. It was really solid, I was really happy with the show and even with the rain people stayed ‘til the end.”
2013 was my first year doing the Detroit thing and after checking out a bunch of Movement Festival and afterparty shenanigans I felt like I was qualified to chime in with my thoughts. “Detroit was great” I said, “it even seemed to have more going for it musically than as your facebook feed might have you believe 'Three White Guys and Seth.'” This sent Ryan into laughter and I realize it’s funny but I don’t know if I would (I did) print it. “I’ve never heard that one before,” he says, “and I like it.”
His neighbor got him into the music when he was around the age of 18. Ryan had just moved to a new school and was still getting acclimated to his surroundings when he showed up with turntables at a party they were all at the light bulb went off. His musical diet prior to that point had consisted of “tons of hip-hop and classic rock” while “smoking a ton of weed.”
It’s safe to say that things have changed a lot in the ~12 years since then and I’m eager to see what we’ll see from Mr. Crosson in the future.
Right Click and "Save As" to download Pulse 135 - Ryan Crosson here.
