The native Detroit head has seen his own stock soar in line with the collective and the label, and since first bursting on the scene some years ago, he's now widely considered to be one of his country's foremost house protagonists.
Indeed, his production skills show no sign of abating either, while his latest effort - a truly stunning remix of a Tim Green track on My Favorite Robot - a timely reminder of the man's talents. We decided to call up the man himself to find out what he's been up to...
How has your year been so far? What have been the highlights?
2014 has been great so far. I was really happy to start fresh in a lot of ways this year and get back to basics. The Don't Be Leftout dates with Matt Tolfrey were a lot of fun. He and I had never toured extensively before so it was a lot of laughs. We've been close friends for about 6-7 years now so who knows how it didn't happen til now.
WMC was a HUGE highlight, we were in Miami for one day for our Visionquest party and then I bounced. It was good to be away from all that for a change. We came in, did a great night at Treehouse then hopped out. Not sure if I'll do it like that again next year, but it made tremendous sense this year.
How has life been since Visionquest started – did it turn out as you had hoped and expected?
Life has progressed in amazing fashion over the past 7 years even before Visionquest. Once I made a commitment to music and moved to Europe, I really opened up and was a million times happier with what I was doing in my life and day to day experience. There was obviously a huge freshness with moving but I felt more relaxed than ever. Visionquest has definitely been the cherry on top turning out much better than expected and helping all of us involved to achieve many goals that wouldn't have been attainable otherwise. We should all be thankful for the experiences we've shared together.
Nothing has really changed with how the label runs or what we're doing week to week. We're still focusing on mixing a balance of established artists, friends & new talent...Now that you guys are doing your own thing a little more, like Seth with his labels etc. – what are you focusing on?
Shaun, Lee and I are still working together day to day on the label and Seth has left to do other things. Nothing has really changed with how the label runs or what we're doing week to week. We're still focusing on mixing a balance of established artists, friends and new talent that fit with a sound we enjoy. We're still doing Visionquest events throughout the year in different cities and at our favorite’s venues. Personally, nothing has changed either.
I try to balance label duties, A&R stuff and my own production time. We have added a vinyl only label called Visionquest Special Edition and are in the process of starting a digital label as well that will serve as another outlet for our artists. The Special Edition label spawned off the back of a remix project of an avant folk artist called Quilla. Matthew Herbert, Ricardo Villalobos, Mirko Loko, Agoria and a few others leant a hand in the three part vinyl series. Now VQSE will transition to 3-4 track various artist EPs over the course of the next 8 months.
How different is Ryan Crosson solo to Ryan as part of Visionquest?
I wouldn't say there is much difference.
What have been some of the most important moments for you musically since you first emerged? Have you ever had any eureka moments in terms of production or studio techniques, for example? Does living in Berlin influence your sound? If you were still in Detroit would you be making different beats, do you think?
Definitely not had that Eureka! Moment yet but could be coming now that I'm adding more and more gear to the studio. There are a few techniques that are personal to me that may have made my workflow improve but Eureka! It has not happened unfortunately. Maybe it doesn't need to happen?
Anywhere you live will dictate your sound if you're involved in that scene I suppose. But if you're not going out and hearing what's going on it will be in your collection or from sets/tracks you hear online. I'm happy I still like to go out and mix it up with other people and DJs. Keeps things fun and helps you to not become stagnant in your tastes. If I was living in Detroit now, I'd be playing and making the same music. But there's no way I'd still be there at this stage in my life.
After so much success, do you still have goals, targets and aims in your musical career? What are they if so?
The goals, targets and aims are there all the time. We'd be here for days/pages if I were to try and write down everything I'd like to do in the next 5 - 10 years. Some of it is completely farfetched some not. I'm just happy to be in a place where I can say that I have work in this industry and it seems to be steady for the moment. We all went through a period of time when we first moved over to Europe where it was Deadsville and it took a bit of time to get going. I don't think any of my crew has had so much success, or enough to sit back and take it easy. Even if we did, each of us would still have goals or else I don't think we would be involved with music any longer. Or at least it wouldn't be such a strong force in our lives. There's always another mountain to climb or an idea to unwrap.
I like working with other people to see what can happen. To see what I can bring out of them and see what they can bring out of me. Many times it's come about because of a conversation about a different genre of music or a track we both had always wanted to try and make and then we just did it.
Many times it doesn't work but that's part of the game. I haven't been in any monumental screaming arguments over how a track should be, it's just not that serious. Either the flow is there or it's now.
I feel like I can sit there for hours with someone and nothing seems to gel and we're both Ok with it because we're still working and trying to jam out. Then we break, have a coffee, come back and then all of the sudden with a turn of a knob...BAM! It's on.
Then the excitement comes back and a little bit more experimentation begins to dive deeper into what we're doing. Especially once we have the foundation or backbone of the track where you can just sit on a loop with a smile on your face. After you get that foundation you can try a million different things because you can always go back to that loop. Love that shit.
Working with Cesar Merveille is often like that, we can get locked in quickly because we've spent a lot of studio time together and know where we want to go with the foundation and what types of samples we want to layer for atmospheres. So while one is sorting that out, the other is free to mess around because we have the trust there that the sound will be where we want it to be.
I think Ibiza is great right now and still a wonderful place to hang out and play. Last year was such a crapshoot, & while some crowds were spread out thin through different night...You will be playing Rumors Ibiza this summer – who are you looking forward to it? Do you think Ibiza is still as vital as ever?
Am I playing Rumors??? Haven't spoken to anyone about that... Are they even doing a Rumors night? I think Ibiza is great right now and still a wonderful place to hang out and play. Last year was such a crapshoot, and while some crowds were spread out thin through different nights, I like a shakeup. It makes the big dogs become more inventive and it frees up room for next generation DJs like myself to try and do things on the island. Overcrowding is still an issue but that will never change in Ibiza sadly. I hope the after parties are a bit stronger though next year. I've heard some rumors that good things are in the works.
You're playing some Croatian festivals too this summer – how do the two compare and contrast?
I think Croatia has a long way to go before it's in line with Ibiza. I haven't spent loads of time there but seem to be reading about this festival or that festival all the time. When I have been there I don't think what I've experienced can compare to Ibiza. No offense to Croatia's emerging scene. It just has a long way to go. That could be a good thing. Maybe it shouldn't try to be the next "dance music destination".
As someone who has played all over the world, do you find people react differently or the same all over the world?
Differently for sure and I think that's great. If everyone was the same it'd be pretty boring.
You recently remixed Tim Green also – how did you approach that?
I approached it a lot of different ways at first. Always seem to do that, go every which way then settle. For maybe around two years now I try to listen to the pads, atmospheric noises and other freak sounds to see if the can set an alternate tone for the track. For the two remixes I did the vocal and a scratchy sort of background noise ended up being the center pieces Just a little snip of it to get what I wanted out of it and then added effects to get me going in the right direction.
What else have you got coming up/are you looking forward to?
Plenty of new music coming soon. We have another Sweatshop Boys EP coming out on Leftroom this month called "Wanna Be More» Sweatshop Boys are Lee Curtiss, Cesar Merveille and I. This one has been on the shelf for a while and was featured on the Don't Be Leftout mix and I'm so relieved it's finally coming out because it's a strong track. No deepness or wandering. Pumping house track.
Also have some remixes of Pezzner coming out on Systematic, an EP titled "Lost Tracks" on a new upcoming label. There EP comprises of two tracks that were previously released on Wagon Repair and Wolf + Lamb but only available digitally until now, plus a newer techno track that hasn't seen the light of day.
Really looking forward to the months of June and July. We have around 10 Visionquest showcases / parties / festival appearances around Europe in London, Ibiza, Barcelona, Beirut, Belgium, Paris, Moscow and others. We've been told to be tight lipped about it and I'm sure giving the city name away must fluster some promoters but it's not that big of a deal really is it?
If you could own one record no one else was allowed to play, what would it be and why?
Tale of Us & Bill Patrick - Nothing Left to Lose... because it's the greatest vocal ever.
Ryan Crosson - Ibiza Dates
06th June - Music On Ibiza Opening Party at Amnesia
19th June - Symmetry - Super Pleasures by Visionquest at Space
07th July - Origins By Luciano - Cocoon at Amnesia
20th July - We Love... Sundays @ Space Ibiza with Visionquest
29th August - Music On Ibiza at Amnesia
12th September - Music On Ibiza at Amnesia
21st September - We Love... Sundays @ Space Ibiza with Visionquest
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