Von Stroke should really need no introduction, but we’re gonna give him one anyway. The man’s a legend! Having carved out his own distinctive style of house and techno productions, he’s established Mothership and Dirtybird records and provided platforms of the highest calibre for like-minded producers to follow.
He’s graced our shores a host of times and the San Francisco native is back for more at the turn of the month. He hits the decks at The Button Factory for the guys over at Hidden Agenda & Big Dish Go on March 1st and his return is set to be yet another stellar sellout. On the night in question he’ll bring with him support from Dirtybird talent J.Philip and you can grab yourself a ticket for this tasty one over on Resident Advisor here : http://
Luckily, the good man took time out of his busy schedule for us and we had the pleasure of chatting to him in the run up to his Urban Animal Tour pitstop in our fair city. Check out what he had to say below.
First off, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions! Kicking things off with Dirtybird, you guys had a great summer, including a hugely successful first season in Ibiza and showcases at festivals like Eastern Electrics. How did you feel the summer went and what can we expect going into 2014?
Summer was fantastic on many levels. Ibiza was great and all the showcases were super fun especially Barcelona and Kazantip this were two big dirtybird highlights for me. In 2014 we will not sign on to do 12 weeks straight in Ibiza again because we want to focus on America a little bit more. Honestly we greatly underestimated the travel involved with getting to Ibiza 13 times last summer from California. Its kind of insane we even did it but we did!! Don’t worry there will still be showcases just not 12 all in a row in the same country, haha.
To cap off a good year and to coincide with Dirtybird’s 100th release, Urban Animal dropped in September. Can you tell us a bit about what the album meant to you and the approach you took to producing it?
It was much more quick because I decided to take a different approach. This time i started 15-17 track ideas all together and worked on them all at the same time. This let me bounce around and never get bored or super frustrated with any particular thing. Therefore I was able to make the whole thing in 6 months as opposed to the 1 year+ it took me to make the first two albums. As far as what it meant to me I have to admit i was i a little bit of a darker place mentally for this record than the previous albums. I was going through a lot of changes with management and agents and trying to juggle all the different personalities on dirtybird and it got to be a bit overwhelming. you can kind of hear it in the album a little bit and you can definitely see it in the artwork. Im happy to say that now my house is all in order and Im in a much happier place.. maybe the next album will be full of really happy trax.
In October, you were invited by Richie Hawtin to play the ENTER closing party. Do sets like this give you the opportunity to play a more diverse selection of tracks, and some tracks that might stray from the usual Dirtybird sound?
This was a great invitation from Richie. I got to close the terrace at Space which is my favorite room to play on the island. But the real truth is that i always veer away from the dirtybird sound in every set. Im not just a one sound kind of DJ.
You’ve got some incredible producers and DJs under the Dirtybird umbrella and 2013 was a great year for the likes of Justin Martin, Eats Everything and Catz and Dogz to name a few. Dirtybird aside – who were your 3 standout producers or DJs of 2013?
Eprom’s album impressed me the most.
Kink had the best live show I saw he is a maniac.
Just Blaze hip-hop set was some of the most fun I had.
We had the privilege of being in the Switchyard for the entirety of the Dirtybird showcase at Eastern Electrics. It was one of the standout moments of the summer for us and definitely one of the best venues. Do you prefer intimate rooms similar to those in Sankeys or do you get a rush playing to big open spaces?
That particular space was pretty cool. Justin and I just played Igloofest in Montreal for 7000 people in winter coats in a blizzard and it was amazing so it all just depends on the circumstances. Every party is totally different. Every venue is totally different. I kind of have the same answer to this that I do for music. I like anything that is good.
House & Techno aside, What is your favourite track at the moment?
Its not that new but i love it….. There He Go – Schoolboy Q
You’re set to come back to our shores in March for what is guaranteed to be a fourth Dublin sell out show. Are you looking forward to it? Do you enjoy a good Guinness while you’re here?
It’s got to be more than 4 by now for sure 🙂 I don’t drink much guiness because I already have a gut the size of new york but I really really do enjoy the people in Dublin. I always have funny conversations and a generally great time there. I think I’m even staying an extra day this time around. For me thats really rare. Lezgo!