With Dirtybird currently celebrating ten years in the business, Defected's Ben Lovett speaks to founder Claude Von Stroke and label manager Stacey Gamble about what has come to be one of the most essential house labels out there.
“10 years later I’m still busting my hump…I never let my foot off the throat of complacency” so opens Barclay Crenshaw, AKA Claude VonStroke, on the reality of his darling label DIRTYBIRD turning 10 in 2015. It’s an epic achievement but it means for nothing if the momentum isn’t carried forward. Reassuringly, Crenshaw has plenty planned for the months ahead, both in terms of anniversary and general DIRTYBIRD badness.
“We’ve got the DIRTYBIRD 10 compilation out next week, and we’ll be back on the road with our BBQ format as well” label manager Stacey Gamble takes up. “There’s a couple of bigger things planned but I can’t confirm them quite yet. Alongside that, we have a packed schedule of EP and album releases for 2015. We have a number of DIRTYBIRD regulars returning and some of the newcomers heard on the new compilation.”
It’s probably best that we start with said album, an expectedly kinetic, thumping, joyous mix of trademark DIRTYBIRD vibes (think speaker-shaking house) from the familiar likes of Justin Martin (who drops a new artist album this summer), Breach, Eats Everything, Catz ‘N Dogz and Iranian-born Ardalan (who slammed it last year with label EP ‘The Yeah/No’) as well as bright young things Shiba San and Bruno Furlan. Refreshingly, all of the tracks featured are brand new, including Crenshaw’s own contribution as VonStroke, ‘Big Ten’. Again, the focus is forwards, not backwards.
“I think Barclay mentioned in the press release [for DIRTYBIRD 10] - there’s no fluff here, everyone has brought their A game material” Gamble explains. “We started putting the feelers out for material late last year and everything we got was really good. It was really competitive in fact, the artists doing everything they could to ensure they were on here. I think there’s a nice balance between old and new…it’s a really pure reflection of the label. We just didn’t want to do a catalogue album; we wanted to kick off a great year with fresh sounds. Our focus is on the next 10 years now, and building a discussion around that.”
Gamble started out in the electronic music business in her mid-teens, a no-nonsense girl from Detroit inspired by her home city’s underground house and techno scenes in and around block record stores, grimy studios and abandoned warehouses. She progressed to promoting parties for Robert Hood and Kevin Saunderson and running her own label Fusion Technology Records (FTR), before questioning where, long-term, this still emerging, undecided industry could take her and switching her attention to college and a ‘real job’ in advertising. “Dance music was such a new thing back then” Gamble says. “At the time, there were fewer opportunities to have a career with it, particularly in America. Really, the only option would have been to move to Berlin. I nearly left music as a result.”
But she didn’t. In time Gamble became a respected studio owner, working with various local partners to create a top-drawer facility for major hip-hoppers Pharaohe Monch, Jay Electronica and Dwele. And then, in 2012, came her relocation to California, Gamble ready for new challenges first with Om Records and then, at the start of 2013, DIRTYBIRD. Within a few months she’d been promoted to full-time Label Manager. How has she found things there?
“It’s great fun,” she beams, “and such a great place to be with what’s going on in dance music today. EDM comes around and there’s so much attention on it. But then you get the kids going to these huge festivals and hearing all this other music at the other stages. Some of those kids will stay with EDM but others will eventually want to hear something else and it’s this that is benefiting us. You also have the popularity of dubstep, bass music and acts like Disclosure and those trends also help us. None of it directly impacts us but indirectly it helps…it opens people up to other types of dance music, including what we do.”
How much of a challenge has it been for DIRTYBIRD to distinguish itself fully from the relentless global onslaught of EDM? – huge cultural tidal waves like this often crush sub-movements or sweep them along, whether they like it or not. “Honestly, I don’t think there have been any big challenges” Gamble replies. “We have crossover at some of the festivals, where there are stages for a lot of different things. As I mentioned before, I think this is enabling the kids to check out different music, work out the differences for themselves and what they like best. You also have EDM names like Laidback Luke and Steve Aoki playing deep house records now and if you even look at our releases, we’ve had a few records that have crossed over to other places - ‘Okay’ released by Shiba San last year is a good example. Music is cyclical and I don’t think things are always clear-cut. Ultimately, everything is an opportunity for us. There is no difficulty with EDM. We lead our own path and people follow when they’re ready.”
How DIRTYBIRD has soared over the past decade. What does Gamble, one of Crenshaw’s closest label family these days, put its sustained success down to? “Barclay has stayed true to himself, he knows what works and sticks to that” she offers. “He knows that if the label follows trends then it is already behind them and out of touch. He’s a good A&R, he’s very close to music from all over the world. And he has a great team with strong bonds. It has always been about being original but having fun too…not taking things too seriously.”
Does Crenshaw himself have anything to add? “It [turning 10] means we didn’t take no for an answer, we didn’t sell out, and we managed to keep the family together through sun and rain” he states. “Personally, I remember almost everything about the first few months. I don’t think I have ever put more energy in or tried harder to make something succeed. I was so focused and so dedicated, there was absolutely no way to be denied. Best of all I’m happy to still be here with my friends.”
DIRTYBIRD first took off in January 2005, with debut release ‘The Southern Draw’, an EP from Justin Martin and Sammy D. Yet it was already spreading its wings – as an idea – three years beforehand. Crenshaw, then an aspiring filmmaker, had started making DJ documentary Intellect, which would seek to account for the rise of electronic music via extensive interviews with leading house and techno artists such as Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Timo Maas. A soundtrack was also planned, Crenshaw envisaging Dirtybird as the ideal platform to generate and supply music for it.
At around the same time, Crenshaw’s close friend Christian Martin started throwing outdoor parties in San Francisco under the ‘Dirtybird’ name – this was reinforced by the logo of a cartoon sketch bird, something Crenshaw had been drawing since he was 10 years old. Christian also introduced Crenshaw to talented younger brother Justin, hoping to spark his sibling’s own career. Soon enough Crenshaw was managing Justin – testing out, in Justin’s words, what he’d learned from Intellect to see if he could create dance music’s next big thing – and then realised his own artistic ambitions in the outlandish form of alias Claude VonStroke. DIRTYBIRD, the label, would pull everyone and everything, emphatically, together.
If Crenshaw remembers those early days vividly then so too does Gamble, despite being stationed thousands of miles away in Detroit. “When I think about label highlights, some of those early releases are right up there” she reflects. “There was a lot of good stuff right from the start…I remember when I first heard ‘Who’s Afraid Of Detroit?’ [VonStroke’s 2006 EP] and was totally blown away. You knew this label was unique.”
Crenshaw had already released stylishly twisted VonStroke groove ‘Deep Throat’ (2005) on the label to feverish acclaim (selling more than 11,000 vinyl units worldwide in the process). He would follow it with ‘Who’s Afraid Of Detroit?’ and other edgy, yet persuasive underground hits including ‘Beware Of The Bird’ (2006) and ‘Chimps’ (2007), not to mention the Martin Brothers’ delightfully jagged ‘Stoopit’ (2006) and a VonStroke album – also entitled Beware Of The Bird (2006). In subsequent years, DIRTYBIRD has maintained sonic craft and bite across a ferociously productive schedule taking in wider house-anchored efforts by Riva Starr, Style Of Eye, Julio Bashmore (2009’s excellent eponymous EP). Cajmere (2010’s re-brewed ‘Percolator’), Justin Martin (2010’s huge Ardalan collaboration ‘Mr Spock’), Eats Everything (another eponymous EP gem, 2011), Shadow Child, Breach (2013’s chart-scaling monster ‘Jack’), Catz ‘N Dogz and Kill Frenzy; as well as meaty label compilations and further memorable artist albums (three more from VonStroke, including 2013’s Urban Animals – remixed last year – and Justin Martin’s 2012 opus Ghettos & Gardens). The VonStroke EPs have continued to fly, too; most recently, last summer’s aptly-titled ‘Cali Future’. And there has even been time for experimental sub-labels – Mothership, specifically.
“There are too many highlights” Gamble suggests. “The releases…the Ibiza parties…the international tours. But I’m particularly proud of DIRTYBIRD’s BBQ parties. It took a lot of work to launch them last year; personally that mix of business planning and touring was absolutely crazy. But it’s a great concept, allowing people to hang out with the label in a more intimate setting and really engage with the music.”
Crenshaw and co.’s BBQs are set to hit a few new destinations this year, whilst the label benefits from a new website and an astute re-brand – complete with redesigned logo. It is dressing for the road ahead Gamble says: “It’s all about moving forwards. There are so many exciting things happening across our scene right now. Recently, we’ve seen an uptick in artists launching their own labels. Some will go well and others won’t; it’s absurd how many interesting things are happening, so many new ideas and developments. It’s important we keep moving forwards too.”
There isn’t, however, any chance of DIRTYBIRD losing sight of that which has made it so essential to dance fans over the past 10 years. “Perhaps the biggest misconception about us is that we have some big team of people driving all of these events and activities” Gamble laughs. “But it’s just Barclay and I. He has the vision for the label and listens to all the music and demos; I do all of the organising and help make the visions happen. It’s grass roots stuff…I mean, I work from home a lot but our relationship works. The label works.”
Final word to Mr Crenshaw – knowing how fickle, cut-throat and changeable the electronic underground can be, did he ever genuinely think he’d make it this far with DIRTYBIRD? “I have more help now but I’m pushing harder than ever” he concludes. “If I have to open up Photoshop or write a paragraph or call someone to ease their nerves I’m still here doing it. I still sign every single piece of music and listen to every single demo myself. It’s all about how much do you really care? If you’re asking me if I thought we would make it this far, I actually think I would have said yes. I know that’s not the humble answer but it’s the way to keep my head up when everything’s going down the shitter – I believe in what I’m doing 100%.”
Words: Ben Lovett
DIRTYBIRD 10 is released by DIRTYBIRD 27 January 2015
