Seth Troxler feels awful. He’s actually sick before our interview begins in earnest and it’s no surprise. Waiting at the airport for a flight to Berlin, his final jet-hop for a while after three relentless weeks of gigs, parties and promotions, he is an utterly spent force. Better not ask what’s next then. Troxler’s diary, thickened considerably in recent years by his immense clubland popularity, is enough to make grown men weep – or, rather, puke….
But, fair play, he is still keen to discuss upcoming plans; a reflection perhaps of his feverish commitment to the electronic dance cause; a commitment that has taken him far and wide, and now sees him leveraging his position to help those in Japan stricken by the recent earthquakes and tsunami.
“I’m a little delirious right now; there’s been so much going on, so forgive me if I don’t make a whole lotta sense” he apologetically pre-empts. “But the Japan thing is really important to me, and I think I can help make a huge difference because of what I do.”
Troxler’s Japan ‘thing’ is a simple fundraising premise entitled Red Dot Relief in acknowledgement of Japan’s distinctive national flag. A few weeks back Troxler, his Visionquest buds Shaun Reeves, Lee Curtiss and Ryan Crosson, the Crosstown Rebels crew and Jay Haze’s Tuning Spork team, collectively made contact with Peace Boat, a Japanese non-government organisation actively involved in its country’s current relief effort.
“The news in Japan affected me personally” Troxler takes up. “My fiancée’s family live in Japan and we were both shocked by the destruction. I looked at how I could help and thought that what with the money some of us in the music community make we must be able to do something. I sent a bunch of emails to friends and, with their support we asked all the DJs and artists we know to donate directly to Peace Boat.”
What with Troxler jet-hopping to gigs left, right and centre it has been left to Haze whose CV has as much to do with music as it does field charity work, and mutual friend Isis Salvaterra, a well-respected London promoter, to steady the Red Dot ship. Things are a little more organised these days, with direct fundraising appeals to peers effectively co-ordinated with charity gig plans and other spin-off initiatives around the world. And Troxler is still involved, but mainly as spokesperson not administrator.
Troxler puts the fundraising total at around £40,000 so far but bearing in mind how much some of his peers reportedly earn wouldn’t he have expected that total, impressive as it is, to be even higher by now? Does he have a view on DJ salaries?
“It goes both ways” he says. “Big DJs like Guetta [David] will earn a minimum of £50,000 for shows, but then when you note the amount of people going to see him; I mean people like Guetta and Tiesto are rinsin’ the stadiums man. I believe right across the service industry that the money someone earns should be reflected by the money made from the overall service they provide, that’s totally justifiable.
“On the other hand, people like me are in an enviable position and can use some of their earnings in a positive way. I think the DJ community needs to be sensitive to the current economic climate, and certain world issues. I’ve always believed that you should give more than you take, that generosity will reward you further down the line.”
Has it been difficult for Troxler and his friends to convey those sentiments to others? They are just back from Miami, which must have represented a good opportunity to spread the word? “It was fairly easy, no fist fights!” he smiles. “No, everyone we spoke to was real supportive and some of them have already donated or started up their own events to help raise other funds. That’s super cool isn’t it?”
Cool indeed but the sweetness and light won’t last for ever, something Troxler more than realises as his project gains serious momentum. “Put it this way, by the end of the year I’d like to think we will have hired someone to run Red Dot as a proper charity” he admits. “We’ve learnt a hell of a lot setting this up; there’s a lot of rules and regulations with charity activity, half of them we didn’t even realise at the start. I want this to become a proper thing, so it’ll need a proper set up. I’m always away so much, so recruitment is an inevitable step.”
Troxler, 25, is one of house music’s brightest young things. He’s as in demand as one can possibly get. How does he account for the huge surge of interest in him these past three or four years? “I think the classic house sound has faded because a lot of the people into hitting clubs in the 90s are older now and kinda over it” he suggests. “There’s a whole new younger generation of dance fans, and they’re receptive to new things. That, I guess, is where I fit in. I’m basically into underground pop - the kind of cool house and tech-influenced pop that the likes of Art Department and Benoit & Sergio are making right now. The kids like it, and there’s a lot of places you can take a sound like that.”
Raised in suburban Detroit by a mother and stepfather heavily involved in their city’s house scene, Troxler had no trouble finding his vocation. He bagged work at a local record store during his early teens, serving alongside Theo Parrish and Terrence Parker, and was DJing by the age of 16. Graduation from High School and increasingly high-profile gigs followed – several under the Tesh Club and then Visionquest banner with close friends Shaun Reeves, Ryan Crosson and Lee Curtiss – and, come 2005, relocation to Berlin with Crosson.
Today, Troxler is based in London, where his fiancée lives, but he continues to develop the Visionquest brand as iconoclastic club night, remix and production team, and art house record label. Away from Visionquest, Troxler has favourably remixed Radio Slave and Nicolas Jaar, and produced his own cuts for Wolf+Lamb (Aphrika) and Souvenir (Trust). Most recently he has contributed kooky vocals to Art Department track Living The Life, and Deetron’s Each Step.
“The vocal stuff is partly down to being too busy to do anything else” Troxler says, “but I am into projects that are new and exciting. The rest of this year is about releasing stuff through Visionquest. We’ve got some crazy shit coming - there’s an album from a cool genre-defying band in Montreal, The Footprintz, an album from Ryan [Crosson], a summer Visionquest compilation and an album from [Italian retro-tech duo] Tale Of Us.”
That’s not forgetting new signing Banana Lazuli, an experimental California folk singer who will front a double 12” positioning original songs alongside dance-minded remixes, exclusive artwork and a children’s story book. Not your typical club release….
“Visionquest is going to be a whole bunch of things, the Banana Lazuli release will help show that” Troxler stresses. “My background is art and design, I appreciate aesthetics. All of our releases need to be aesthetic if we want them to have longevity. The music industry is largely preoccupied with product and volume these days; we want to make a difference. Our releases won’t just be cool tools that people remember for a couple of weeks; we’re going to push some boundaries.”
In the short-term – next week in fact – Troxler will be throwing a fundraiser for Red Dot Relief at London’s Crucifix Lane venue. The late night party, also featuring Jamie Jones, Craig Richards and Ryan Crosson, will donate all profits to Peace Boat. It follows on from a photo-exhibition at the nearby Star of Bethnal Green documenting the last 10 years of London clubbing; all art works are for sale with profits, again, heading to Japan. What are Troxler’s thoughts about the event?
“I’m actually a little nervous” he offers. “I want to do more official fundraisers like this one, but the first one really needs to be a success to get us moving. We’ve got a great line-up and a lot of people have said they’ll come but it’s just really important it works.”
No doubt Troxler will be fully recovered and raring to go by then…
Red Dot Relief’s official London fundraising event takes place May 12 – visit http://reddotrelief.org/events/ for more details.
