Behind the Beats

Claude VonStroke — born Barclay Crenshaw — has spent the better part of two decades building something that should not exist: a dance music label with a genuine sense of humor that is also taken completely seriously by the people who matter most in the industry. Dirtybird Records, which he founded in San Francisco in 2005, has released records by Justin Martin, Julio Bashmore, Walker & Royce, and dozens of others who have gone on to define the sound of contemporary tech house. But the label's real achievement is harder to quantify: it has created a community.

The Dirtybird Campout, which began in 2015 as a modest outdoor gathering in the California hills, has grown into one of the most beloved events in dance music — a three-day festival where the activities include competitive games, communal meals, and sets that run until sunrise. It is, by any measure, a strange thing to have built. And yet it works, because it reflects something genuine about the people behind it.

VonStroke himself is a contradiction in the best possible sense. He is deeply serious about music — obsessive about sound design, meticulous about A&R, genuinely passionate about the craft — while also being constitutionally incapable of taking himself too seriously. This combination, rare in any creative field, is what has allowed Dirtybird to survive and thrive through multiple cycles of hype and backlash in a genre that eats its own with remarkable efficiency.

We met him in Los Angeles, where he has been based for years, in the studio he has occupied for the better part of a decade. The walls are covered in records. There is a synthesizer on every available surface. He is, as advertised, exactly as he appears: warm, funny, and completely absorbed in the work.

In Conversation