Barclay Crenshaw, AKA Claude Von Stroke, began his career as an avid fan of Electronic music. It was his fanfare that ultimately helped him develop the craft to rival many of the producers he once revered. Barclay essentially studied DJing and Dance music by compiling his own six hour documentary, Intellect, by interviewing some of the world’s elite DJs, including the likes of Derrik Carter and Paul Van Dyk, and documenting their insights into the nuances and craft behind Dance music. “It was like going to graduate school in electronic music,” he says. Despite Barclay’s background, the success of his debut album, Beware of the Bird, which featured the tracks ‘The Whistler’ and ‘Who’s Afraid of Detroit?’ was still surprising for the fact that it showcased an essentially underground sound but was accessible to a broad demographic of music fans.
Beware of the Bird served to reinvigorate the Dance scene and introduce new conceptions of the House genre. “I’m really happy with the album, I really am,” Barclay says when I ask him about it. “I maybe could have put another original track on it as opposed to a remix, but the remixes are really totally different to the original, and I think they fit into the theme…I still like everything about the album.” When I raise the question of the struggle to carve out a sound in the ostensibly homogenous gene pool that is Electronic and Techno music, Barclay downplays the apparent challenge. “I hear so much music and it’s all kind of the same, but I don’t think it’s actually that hard to carve out your own sound,” he says. “You just have to not care as much about what people are thinking about you. You have to take a bunch of risks all the time, and hopefully they work out,” he says with a laugh.
Despite the jocular response, Barclay’s modesty must be put in perspective. If one cautiously places the Claude Von Stroke sound within Techno and House oeuvres one is confronted with so much music that is simply recycled and reduced to interchangeable DJing tools, nothing more than a ‘filler’ track for a DJ to play at a club. To transcend this process takes something pretty special. “Really I just made my tracks and didn’t listen to anything else in the process,” Braclay says. Since its release many of the tracks from Beware of the Bird have been remixed by some of the biggest names across different genres of music: Mathew Dear under his Audion guise, Detroit Techno legend Kevin Saunderson and Diplo. It is the Diplo remix of ‘The Whistler’ that Barclay nominates as a favourite of the remixes. “I like everything that’s sort of like Booty Funk, but I’m not so into the ‘hybrid rock electro’ stuff,” he says.
Growing up in Detroit, Barclay was exposed to a rich array of innovative Electronica which he admits he took fore granted. “I listened to Detroit Techno and I didn’t realise that not every kid heard that playing on the radio. It was just on at night so I just thought it was normal,” he laughs before adding, “but it’s not, is it?” Barclay’s relocation to San Fransisco seven years ago had a similarly profound impact on his music in terms of reinforcing the need to establish an alternative to the music that was playing in the clubs, which was predominantly West Coast House. “I did not like the music when I first moved here,” he recalls. “But it has actually helped me. It has given me a view of not making music so ‘evil’ so maybe some girls will show up to the party! I started my label because I hated the music in San Fransisco.” The label, Dirty Bird Records, has flourished to the point that Barclay has recently launched a second label, a more Techno oriented imprint called Mothership.
Barclay’s most recent release is the third instalment of the prestigious At the Controls series, following up the mixes from James Holden and M.A.N.D.Y. He openly admits he considers himself a superior producer than DJ, and doesn’t consider this a bad thing in the slightest. “I get more and more confident as a DJ,” he says. “I’m proficient but I just feel like there are better DJs than me. I like to feature tracks more than it be like one big mix.” He is candid in his assessment of the mix. “When I was asked to the mix it was at a time when I didn’t really have much new original material by me. I like to get my vibe onto a project and it was a little hard to find other stuff like that from other producers. I just feel like it came out a little bit on the Minimal Techno side. I still really like it, and Disc 2 I thought was really cool. Disc 1 I probably could have gotten a little crazier, it might have come out a little too serious for me but I think that I made up for it with the Essential Mix a month later. It’s a little more goofy and fun, so between the two mixes you get both sides of me.” Barclay is currently working on a follow up to Beware of the Bird and a collaboration album with the Martin brothers and Worthy. “It’s based on the Bay area Hip Hop sound…it will be more ‘booty bassish’ but still mainly House,” he offers. “It’s tough to explain because the sound doesn’t really exist right now.” You just kind of make it up as you go along? “Always!” he shoots back in rapid-fire enthusiasm. |
