TECH Q&A: RYAN CROSSON

Ryan Crosson DJ/Producer/Label Head is one part of the Visionquest crew, he has circumvented the globe in pursuit of his trade, residing in many of the world’s best cities for electronic music, a rich mix of cultures and influences have helped to propel Mr Crosson into the dance music stratosphere. DJ Mag tracked him down before his next jaunt to grab a moment of his time.

Detroit Born, London based throwing in Berlin into the mix that is a good combination for anyone wanting to be involved in electronic music?
And now on to NYC!!!! I think it’s been an amazing combination of locations to be exposed to all sorts of music, not just electronic. London has much more to offer on a whole than Berlin and Detroit but Berlin is still the best in the World for electronic music. New York is hot right now though and I’m happy my move is sort of coinciding with a lot happening in New York at the moment.

How did you get into the dance music scene and more specifically DJing and Producing?
DJing was a combination of a house party where some people I knew bought decks and me buying a set up with a friend. Producing came later after I started to hang out with the Beretta crew. Brian Kage helped Seth and I a lot at the beginning and sort of set us on a path to make our own stuff.

What was your guiding force?
At that time I was just loving music, loving partying and being able to play what I wanted to hear. It was a slow process the first few years but as my skills improved and I bought more music, made more music the passion just continued to grow and still is growing. The more I can get out what’s inside my head the more I’m enjoying doing what I do.

How did you go about putting your new EP ‘On the Rise’ together, what was the vibe that you wanted to create with the new record?
I had started ‘Cadets in Heat’ first but it was just a sketch that had been in my computer for about a year or so. After I went back and started to develop it further, I took a break and started something else based on a drum loop that I made at the airport which became ‘D’.

‘On the Rise’ came after I needed a break from ‘D’. Then I jumped back to finish up ‘Cadets’. I tend to jump around between projects if I’m getting lazy and not trying to work out some dynamics or if my ears are tired.

Each of the tracks have a bit of different influence in them and it turned out to be probably the most well rounded EP I’ve been able to put together. To be able to work those ‘Detroit’ type strings in ‘Cadets’ made me really happy. I wanted to make something like that for a while. Once it was time to put the EP together I had five tracks in total that I sent over to Lee, Shaun and our label manager.

When it comes to the studio process are you quite hands on?
I make all the music myself, I arrange it all myself, and try (I say, try) to get a decent mix down. After that my lovely Wife steps in and mixes it down for real and then it goes to mastering after I sit with her and tweak what she has done.

She’s a serious professional, Grammy award-winning gangster in that studio and so if she has the time to help me, I’m going to take it. She’s light years beyond me when it comes to mixing and recording. She’s light years beyond most people I work with. The next step is to start learning from her.

What bits of kit do you like working on?
Mix of analogue and VSTs. I’ve been finding gear a lot more fun the past few years and the results come quicker and are more dynamic for me.

What projects are you currently working on?
We’re working on a Visionquest 6 track EP to be released in February 2016 or before. I say February 2016 because given current timelines with pressing and distribution and once we get a pool of 6 tracks we’re happy with, it will end up being February.

The important thing is to get it right. Also still noodling around with a second album with Cesar Merveille and a solo album. The latter will definitely come to fruition once I can get set up in NYC. I’ll be itching to write some music on my own setup by the time our shipping container arrives.