Claude VonStroke: "Nobody will care if you try a stupid idea"

Claude VonStroke plans to venture out of the house a lot more – house music, that is. 

(Yes, it's not the best joke in the world, but we're entering week five of lockdown... Cut us some slack!) 

VonStroke has established himself as one of the major names on the house scene – his certainly isn't hard to remember – but plans to diversify his genres on future releases.

In terms of his actual house, the producer is staying inside with his family and waiting for the night he can next hit the decks in front of a live audience.

We'll see you in the booth. 

Life

What upcoming project(s) are you most excited about?

I am making a record with Marc Houle who is one of the very first people who helped me get into electronic music back in the 90s. He lived in Windsor which was right across the bridge from Detroit and we traded a lot of emails and talked about how to get cracked software and everything that was going on at the time.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment?

Getting this record label off the ground which may seem easy to people now who see what it has become, but it was a super human effort to get it to work at the start.

If you could change one thing about your career, what would it be?

I would not be so narrow in my genres. A couple years ago I started making music under my real name and it was so fun and I realized that I had been really restricting myself too much living in the “all house music” universe.

I'm going to venture outside of house music a lot more now.

What do you hope to achieve that you haven’t yet?

Honestly, there is nothing left on the Claude VonStroke bucket list except playing for Cocoon, which was one of my original goals back in 2005. I succeeded at everything else except that small one.

So now I find myself making all new goals. I think I’d like to really make the Barclay Crenshaw project work out on a higher level because it offers me so much freedom.

Outside of your family, who is / was your biggest inspiration?

Green Velvet. he is the most positive force in dance music. He is a genius and I think he’s the best.

Tell us something nobody knows about you…

My first record release was a full length rap album in high school.

Lockdown

How are you finding lockdown?

Some days I'm loving being home and not having to travel, and playing with my wife and kids. Some days I'm like — jeeeeezz. When is this going to be over?

Best thing about lockdown?

Relaxation and relief from all the insane deadlines that go along with producing 20+ events and an 80 gig touring schedule.

Just chilling and watching shows, reading books, jogging, all of that.

Worst thing about lockdown?

Not having the 20+ events and the 80 gig touring schedule and worrying about how long we can last without any income.

The stress of changing our business model so we aren’t 90% reliant on touring and producing events as we were before.

Top tip for surviving lockdown?

Don’t get into your own head. Do something you always wanted to try doing. This is the one time nobody will care if you try a stupid idea so try it.

If you could be locked down with one person, alive or dead, who would it be?

My family - I can’t choose only one of them!

What are you most looking forward to doing once lockdown is over?

Playing a really intimate club for three or four hours where I can just rock it and be myself on the decks.