“The constant ‘no’s make you tough. They make you say, ‘f**k everybody, I’m still gonna do it’” Claude VonStroke on building a career on his termsAfter over 20 years of touring the world, producing music festivals, and running record labels, Claude VonStroke is living his life of leisure. He is now a 100% independent artist, releasing the music he wants the way he wants.
Broken down individually, “the music he wants” could mean everything from wacky house music as Claude VonStroke, or hard-hitting beats under his birth name, Barclay Crenshaw.

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“How he wants” relates to his staggered release plan. The Detroit-born producer shared his latest EP, I Was the Wolf, first with his pay-to-access website, Claude’s Club. Next, he put up the tracks as a Beatport exclusive for DJs wanting to play them live. The final tier, or rather, “the mass-consumption tier” as he describes it, is for Digital Streaming Platforms (DSPs), which will get the EP on 25 April, the same day his Life of Leisure tour begins.
“Life of leisure is my overall philosophy now,” says Crenshaw. “I call it my Moodymann phase. Maybe I’m a little harder to get hold of. Maybe I’m not answering all the emails. I’m only playing shows that I actually want to play. I’m just living my life. I’m not trying to get any gig, be in some crew, or be in some movement of hot trends. I’m just making songs, and that’s how I started.”
Image: Press
Crenshaw may have started his career that way, but he was forced to hustle for many years. From 2005 until 2023, he oversaw the musical vision for his record label Dirtybird, personally A&Ring over 300 releases and signing culture-shifting artists such as Julio Bashmore, Hannah Wants, FISHER and John Summit in the earliest years of their projects.
“I find [artists] before they figure out the formula; I find them in their raw state. I’m trying to get back to that raw state myself,” Crenshaw says.
Under the Dirtybird name, Crenshaw also organised events across the US. He curated two music festivals: an outdoor camping weekend, Dirtybird Campout, and the resort event, Dirtybird CampINN. He also launched the Dirtybird BBQ tour, a run of single-day events in cities like Los Angeles, Denver, Detroit, and New York.
Then, after selling Dirtybird to the San-Francisco-based distribution company, EMPIRE, in 2022, he set his crosshairs on the Barclay Crenshaw project. Under this name, he released the album Open Channel and played major US festivals such as Lightning in a Bottle and Shambhala.
As proud as he is of everything he’s accomplished, at this point, he realises he can continue making music and touring without nearly as much stress.
“There was a little bit too much riding on every decision back in the day. Everything was like, ‘If we don’t sell these festival tickets, we’re gonna have to sell our house.’ I had that mentality for so long,” Crenshaw says. “If you’re always freaking out you can make it happen. But I did that for so long that I almost thought that was normal. Now I’m realising everything doesn’t have to be full panic mode. You can take four months off, make really cool music, and then go out and do the dates you want.”
Image: Press
Having broken through in the early 00s, starting with throwing free parties in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Crenshaw acknowledges that artists beginning their path today are entering a vastly different landscape. One where new aspects, such as social media, are required for growing a project. When he was growing Barclay Crenshaw, he did what artists are “supposed to do.”
“I was posting [to social media] almost every day,” he says. “It kind of works, and eventually way more people are looking at your stuff, but it totally fucking sucks. It’s not even making music. It has nothing to do with anything. It’s stupid.”
One strategy that works for him — and that he recommends to other producers — is stockpiling. Spend the time making tons of music to hone your skills, but then only put out the best tracks you have at a staggered pace. Get them on the right label or get a bigger artist to do a remix if possible, but overall, it’s better to have a release catalogue of your best music.
“People think that the consistent output is better than the good output. Just keep hammering until something catches,” Crenshaw says. “You might win over a really long period of time. But it’s just a bunch of garbage. Why would that work? It’s not gonna stick out.”
Quality over quantity drove his release rhythm even before his Life of Leisure phase, and now he’s applying it as he’s making music as well. Having spent the last 18 months immersed in bass music for Barclay Crenshaw, he brought an entirely new point of view back to the house music he’s making as Claude VonStroke. His primary solution for making tracks used to be layering new elements until everything sounded right. Now he’s using as few sounds as possible, but dialling them in until the mix is at its absolute best.

“The quality of the sounds that you pick in the beginning is so much higher. You have a box,” Crenshaw theorises, “and there are only so many things you can fit in this box. After things start falling out of the box the sound starts squishing and sounding shitty. If you can put three things in the box, it just sounds amazing,”.
This less-is-more approach doesn’t limit the sonic quality of the track, either. Both tracks on I Was the Wolf harbour a minimalist feel, allowing each of the few sounds he used to live and breathe. But this method can support thicker tracks as well. It’s not about whether a track is minimalist or maximalist; it’s about specifically refining each minuscule element as much as possible to where they exist in perfect harmony.
“Before, I would just put in a disco loop and EQ out all the bass and be like, ‘Okay, that sounds cool.’ The other way of doing it is actually making sure every transient is in lockstep with every bass transient,” Crenshaw says. “Let’s make sure that all the swing is completely lined up together. It still has to sound fucked up and a little bit off to have this swing, but [it’s about] putting things in the right spots instead of just putting a layer on.”
Sometimes this process isn’t conducive to his vision for the track, and he’ll rely on his prior methods of stacking as many layers as he needs. But as a fully independent artist, he can make tracks that sound exactly the way he wants and put them out as he pleases.
Image: Press
Crenshaw admits that being signed to a major label will get your music heard by many more people, despite the greater amount of oversight. “They have tentacles that spread across the world,” he says. But at this phase of his life, the freedom to make weird beats is what’s most important to him.
Besides, while a contract with Warner, UMG, or Sony was never on his radar, he did try to get signed at revered labels such as Ninja Tune, but it never worked out. Crenshaw faced many rejections on his path, but those were essential to the journey.
“The constant ‘no’s make you tough. They make you resilient, and they make you just say, ‘fuck everybody, I’m still gonna do it.’ So many people will give up at those ‘no’s. The people who don’t give up, who stay around and keep going, make it. If you’re out there, just keep going because everyone else is gonna give up. I promise,” Crenshaw says. “The rejection creates the diamond.”
Now he’s cashing in those diamonds to live his life of leisure.
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