{"id":6253,"date":"2014-10-18T13:30:13","date_gmt":"2014-10-18T11:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deephouselondon.com\/?p=6253"},"modified":"2015-05-14T14:08:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T12:08:16","slug":"exclusive-interview-ryan-crosson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/exclusive-interview-ryan-crosson\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview: Ryan Crosson"},"content":{"rendered":"

One third of the mighty Visionquest, Ryan Crosson is one of those guys we always love to go and catch when he’s playing in London (or anywhere else in the world if we happen to be there). As you might expect Ryan is constantly on the road with his fellow Visionquest members Shaun Reeves and Lee Curtiss, while also running their label and getting busy in the studio. Some of his first original works in a long time are due for release very soon, so we grabbed him for a little chinwag. Check it out below…<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what\u2019s happening with you? Visionquest EP due soon.<\/strong>
\nYeah it comes out next Monday \u2013 I\u2019m stoked because its my firstly truly solo EP in forever. I shouldnt\u2019 even say\u2026 It\u2019s not even truly solo…<\/p>\n

Yeah Cesar\u2019s involved [Merveille]<\/strong>
\nHe stuck one in there damn it! But ah, yeah it’s good \u2013 I’m happy about it, it\u2019s faster. One track’s at 131bpm, though it doesn\u2019t sound like it, another tracks at 129, and then ones at 124 \u2013 so it\u2019s a cool change up. There\u2019s a little bit of chopped up minimal weirdness, then there\u2019s another one that\u2019s a little bit proggy and theres another that\u2019s more like loopy hypnotic techno. I\u2019m pretty happy with it. Happy to get it done and have original music out because been doing a lot of remixes again which I tried to get myself away from but then I got sucked back into it again so it\u2019s good to get some original stuff done.<\/p>\n

How come its taken you such a long time to get a bunch of your own stuff together and put it out?<\/strong>
\nOne, I\u2019m hyper critical of the original stuff I tend to put out. Two, I tend to take on too much work and then it will work out with my travel that I\u2019m a bit behind – it’s always been like that \u2013 I keep telling myself stop taking on so many remix requests or stop doing favors for friends when you know you don\u2019t really have time but I always end up doing that and continue to put my original music on the backburner. Maybe I should stop doing that. It puts a dampener on stuff but in a way it’s still fun; you are always working with friends, you’re taking tracks you like and trying to rework them a bit \u2013 if that\u2019s a hindrance on putting out original music, at least I\u2019m doing for people I like and with tracks I like.<\/p>\n

How do you manage your time? Are you strict with yourself and getting yourself in the studio?<\/strong>
\nI try to be. Only so much strict is possible. I never try to (I did it a little this week) get into the mode of dawdling around with a track and if it’s not happen I try not to tell myself, ‘Oh well you\u2019re not feeling creative today’. I feel like making music is\u2026 If you really want to do it it\u2019s going to take\u2026 I mean some people really shit out tracks, I don\u2019t. It’s about sitting there and really working out if something\u2019s not a good idea \u2013 work out the idea more \u2013 or if there\u2019s something sitting in there that you don\u2019t like don\u2019t be afraid to delete or start a new project without that element in there to help keep you going along. Some people like to start with the groove, or fuck with the bassline to start. If you are focusing on one part try focusing on a different part. Or go out for a coffee. Coffee normally works pretty good. OK you\u2019re at home, you\u2019ve been away for the weekend, you are going to be lazy on Sunday hang out or whatever, when Monday kicks around get on top of your emails in the morning and then focus a little bit \u2013 don\u2019t dick around on the internet, be on Skype or do the twitter thing. If that really takes you off track, try and curb that. At least make an attempt and an effort to keep pushing forward. Some people say \u201cits not happening today\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m not feeling creative today\u201d but I\u2019m not like that. I like to sit up there and tinker around and see what I can get done.<\/p>\n

[youtube id=”uSAvQKZkh7k” width=”620″ height=”360″]<\/p>\n

So besides the EP do you have any other original stuff that\u2019s ready to put out there?<\/strong>
\nYeah you know how we started the Brachune label the digital label right? I’ve got one of those set and ready to go we\u2019ve just got to master it. Although you don\u2019t really want to release a vinyl plus a digital around Christmas time or mid December I think with Brachtune. It\u2019s a digital thing so we will plan that for the Monday before Christmas and maybe do a free track or special giveaway with it. That\u2019s set and ready to go. That will kinda cap the year with everything giveaway track too. After that happens, its get your head down and go right back into it. I want to do another EP.
\nMe and Cesar have already started the second album. That will be the focus for the first couple of months. November to February that will be the heavy focus<\/p>\n

How do you guys work together? Do you work remotely or send as much time physically together?<\/strong>
\nWe do both. Last album we would just do long sessions \u2013 we would really kinda go balls out and do long sessions. But those sessions were so few and far between that\u2019s why it took so long. While we worked away from each other we\u2019d dink around. When we worked together we switch it all around and get a lot done. With the new album we\u2019re going to do more of the same. Even though we\u2019re getting ideas remotely \u2013 this album\u2019s going to be based more around gear and about jamming. Doing a long jam and editing that long jam. We\u2019ve got a couple done already working with that process and it’s working well for us.<\/p>\n

We also want to get the live musicians back into this album. So that will take us being together. We\u2019re going to put a proposal together for Red Bull Music here in London and also a proposal for Red Bull Music in New York as well as I\u2019m going over there November and December. I\u2019ve got a chelloist in NY already. Paulus is there already obviously and then I want a couple of vocalists. Start with that \u2013 get those recordings. That will give us a lot to work with. A lot to play with especially if we have some backing beats already there. I\u2019d want him there for that. The ideas are like, ‘What do you think of this noise or this sound?’, then we really have a nice 10-hour session and chunk it out that way.
\nDo that once in January and once in February and then we should be ready to rock \u2013 as far as release goes.<\/p>\n

How important is it for you to incorporate hardware and outboard stuff into your production process?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s becoming more and more important for me now. Lately I\u2019m getting more and more of a feel for and enjoyment out of using analogue kit. I\u2019ve had the Juno for a long time I\u2019ve had my SE1X for a long time but this year I\u2019ve added more stuff like a FX pedal and stuff. It\u2019s a lot more fun I think – going back and reworking that stuff. When you can get your board right and moving and working everything together it helps the process go a little bit more quickly. That’s why I think getting this solo EP together for Visionquest didn\u2019t take me as long as in the past just because I was working with gear that was fresh and giving me more idea than the same software I\u2019ve been using for five or six years. Incorporating the newer gear, I mean it\u2019s not new gear its old gear but it’s new kit to me, to play with \u2013 that helps certain things go a lot quicker \u2013 as with the remix I did earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Cesar’s on this huge modular tip right now he\u2019s buying all these modules and everything. I don\u2019t want to go down that road \u2013 I don\u2019t want to start obsessing over getting this one little filter to work properly. It stifles what you were doing in the first place. Incorporating gear has helped me exponentially. Ideas plus workflow I think has been great.<\/p>\n

Yeah, you can hear it coming through in the music.<\/strong>
\nGood that\u2019s a great thing \u2013 that\u2019s a positive.<\/p>\n

[youtube id=”XepOv58_VUc” width=”620″ height=”360″]<\/p>\n

Is there anything at the moment or in the last year that has inspired you in particular?<\/strong>
\nFor some reason this year, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the places I\u2019ve been playing or the times slots I\u2019ve been play, but playing a little bit bigger venues has made me want to make music that’s a bit more ‘peak time’ or more dramatic music. Maybe that\u2019s rubbed off on me a little bit. This year for some reason I\u2019ve listened to a lot less music. Seem odd to me because normally I\u2019m listening to a lot of music that\u2019s isn\u2019t dance music when we\u2019re making dinner and things like that.<\/p>\n

I was looking through my newer records and it was very dance music centric this year \u2013 so maybe that had an impact on how and why I\u2019m making the tracks that I\u2019ve been making. I noticed a sharp decline in the jazz I\u2019ve been listening to and I\u2019ve been buying hip-hop records again. I haven\u2019t bought hip-hop records and R&B in like forever! Weird. I can\u2019t really explain why I\u2019ve made what I\u2019ve made apart from that I\u2019ve been listening to more dance music for the first time in a while<\/p>\n

When I was still living in Detroit and still had a car, I was listening to a lot of mix CDs as well as artist albums in addition to everything else. Once I stopped having a car my electronic music spectrum went down a bit but my jazz and my rock and classic rock went back up again. Whereas this year my electronic music spectrum has gotten higher again and gotten wider. It\u2019s strange but its definitely a good thing. Obviously with my work it\u2019s the most relevant genre. But everyone goes through phases of listening to one thing more than another.<\/p>\n

What have you been picking up hip-hop wise?<\/strong>
\nBuying a lot of old stuff \u2013 I love The Roots stuff to death so picked up some of their old albums. I\u2019ve picked up some stuff for these west coast group called Little Brother who came up just after Jurassic 5. A couple of D’angelo albums. . Some of the old J Dilla albums. Stone\u2019s Throw. Peanut Butter Wolf, Mos Def. I went back home and saw my parents and they had a load of old crates of mine and brought a few things back including Prefuse 73 etc.<\/p>\n

Tell me a little bit about the artwork \u2013 the picture of you with a flamingo on your head?<\/strong>
\nWe were trying to work out where do we want to go with this as far as artwork is concerned. We\u2019ve done the whole esoteric thing to death. John Cook was doing a lot of the art direction for us last year. He was doing a lot of cool work with photos and design with photos and fonts. But we like to switch gears. We were on a schedule of switching designs every 10. We had Pilah Zadar was doing the geometry stuff with shapes a bit surrealist stuff. Then we had Petra Peterffy who was doing a lot of digital stuff with vectors combined with really glitch artwork. Which we thought was cool and then we moved on to John Cook who was doing straight photo art. Sometimes he was matching up really well with the music and sometimes he was going in his own direction. January we had two records when we weren\u2019t really sure where we wanted to go with the artwork so we jumped into a new thing photos of artists. I hate photos of myself.<\/p>\n

You know Kim Booth right, Kimmy loaned me this hat at a daytime party at Burning man and I was rocking it. I was looking through some photos and saw this with the blue sky and the pink flamingo I thought it was a nice stand out image. We are probably going to do a few more of those to round up the year.<\/p>\n

We’ve got this new guy Joe Miller from Chicago \u2013 we\u2019re going to do a new thing – he\u2019s going to do a series of 9-10 hand drawings or paintings. It might even end up being that when you put the 10 together it will create a big collage. We might bring back a one off insert to have posters of that collage. We\u2019ve got him working on that right now. That will probably be our next switch again.<\/p>\n

[youtube id=”uATSF1AgyN4″ width=”620″ height=”360″]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Visionquest 5th birthday next year?<\/strong>
\nWell we\u2019re leading into the 5th birthday. Old Ryan jumped the gun on that! I wanted to do a five year celebration where it all culminates with the fifth birthday. So we\u2019ll be in the fifth year. All the guys were like, ‘Whoa whoa whoa – lets not jinx it \u2013 let\u2019s not shoot ourselves in the foot. I know you\u2019re itching for this buddy but let\u2019s calm it down’. It was going to be that but they put the old kibosh on that. When it hits 2016 that\u2019s when we\u2019re going to start the five yr celebration stuff then. Gives us more time to plan. I\u2019m still going ahead with certain bits of merchandise just for the hell of it \u2013 like I want to do these collector boxes, some hats, that will be the precursor to the actual birthday.<\/p>\n

What does next year hold for Visionquest as a crew, collective and label?<\/strong>
\nI want to set up a couple of key events and bring production back into the fold. Not massive production but work with some promoters that we have an understanding with and really good relationship. We don\u2019t want to set a number on it but talk to to these people and say we want to x y z amount this year. We don\u2019t always have to be the biggest and the baddest and have multiple thousands of people. Maybe just we want to do a special afters, little things that we like to do best.<\/p>\n

Maybe we do a whole party where it’s just the emerging artist. We\u2019re there but we\u2019re not even playing. Maybe we\u2019re working the lights. I\u2019d like to do a couple of joint label events at fun spots like Club De Visionaire \u2013 maybe with the Apollonia guys or with the Wolf + Lamb guys. Just have the diversity to decide we\u2019ve made it this far. The good thing is we\u2019ve got a good handle on.. we\u2019ve got three or four places in the UK who are always up for it. Maybe Visionquest could take on the after party role attached to a big festival. Germany, France, Belgium… we\u2019ve got a nice foothold on both sides of the pond.<\/p>\n

Artist Page<\/a><\/span>Soundcloud<\/a><\/span>Visionquest Page<\/a><\/span>Visionquest Soundcloud<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One third of the mighty Visionquest, Ryan Crosson is one of those guys we always love to go and catch when he’s playing in London (or anywhere else in the world if we happen to be there). As you might expect Ryan is constantly on the road with his fellow Visionquest members Shaun Reeves and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":6254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3971],"tags":[4659],"class_list":["post-6253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","category-interviews-london","tag-ryan-crosson-london-2","post_format-post-format-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}