Sound Advice: Claude VonStroke

Join Claude VonStroke on Sound Advice, the weekly interview series covering artists’ journeys and their creative process. In this episode, Claude opens up about his experiences founding the Dirtybird label, this next chapter of his music career, the making of his ‘I Was The Wolf’ EP, his 2025 tour plans and more.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile. 

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On this episode of Sound Advice, we sit down with Barclay Crenshaw, often known as Claude VonStroke. After 20 years as the big boss of Dirtybird Records, one of dance music’s best-loved brands, LA-based Barclay turned over the day-to-day label business to Empire Records a couple of years ago and reignited his personal passion for DJing and producing. 

First on the docket is his new ‘I Was The Wolf’ EP, where he explores his love of tech house while giving things that fun-loving and cheeky VonStroke spin. He’s also heading out on his solo Life of Leisure tour, which takes him across the US in intimate, vibey shows; where he’ll play plenty of VIPs, edits and original productions. You can find out more about the tour and get tickets for upcoming dates here.

We catch up with Claude about his evolution as an artist and his creative process, which took him from creating hyphy house and space bass to headlining the world’s stages. He shares lessons learned from his journey about business, originality and risk-taking, and talks about the significance of using platforms like SoundCloud to connect with fans. This episode is very fun and contains a lot of great advice, so we’re excited for you to dive in.

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LISTEN TO THE AUDIO EPISODE OF SOUND ADVICE FEATURING CLAUDE VONSTROKE

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LISTEN TO THE 'I WAS THE WOLF' EP BY CLAUDE VONSTROKE

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Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

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How This New Era of Claude VonStroke Is Influenced By Deep House, Jungle and More

• We begin the conversation with Claude VonStroke in his home studio, in Los Angeles. In 2025, Claude VonStroke is focusing on “Claude 2.0;” a new chapter in his life as a producer and DJ. After 20 years of running the celebrated Dirtybird label, festival and party series, he sold the business to Empire Records and is now enjoying the time and creative freedom the move has afforded him. Looking forward, he’s focused on original production, playing clubs he loves; “less business, more fun,” as he says.
• For those “Claude 2.0” original productions, he’s harking back to a specific era of dance music that’s dear to him: mid 2000s German minimal house music, exemplified by artists like Roman Fluegel and Steve Bug; a style that focuses on minimal elements with maximum impact, which he feels nostalgically attached to. 
• He’s spent recent months building the ideal environment for this next stage, from moving his music studio to a more acoustically-pleasing space, listening to drum ‘n bass and jungle music from his early days in the scene, to producing bass music under his real name, Barclay Crenshaw; to being inspired by a genre that also focuses on minimal elements with maximum impact, in its own way. 
• Reflecting on how he started producing dance music, Claude notes one of his earliest projects — a 2003 documentary film about DJing, called ‘Intellect’ — as a key influence. As a struggling artist learning how to make beats for the first time, the film proved to be a unique prospect. 
• Unable to afford the licensing of various tracks for the film’s soundtrack, Claude taught himself to make beats that mimicked the style of each DJ featured in the film; from Detroit techno in the style of Juan Atkins, to old school trance in the style of Paul van Dyk, among others. For Claude, this was a massive learning curve in his production skills, and allowed him to figure out how different styles of dance music were made.

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The History, Successes and Lessons of 20 Years of Dirtybird

• Claude VonStroke built Dirtybird up from a DIY record label into a major festival and party brand that drew tens of thousands of fans from across the US to its psychedelic-tinged, off-kilter events. The conversation turns to what lessons Claude learned from running Dirtybird, and what advice he would impart to others who want to operate in a similarly DIY spirit.
• Here, Claude imparts some great business advice — that while the music is, of course, the most important element of your art, it needs to come in an attractive package that attracts an audience. Invest in good photography, writing, music videos and record artwork, and you’ll be able to get people to pay attention. In short, Claude says, “details matter.”
• When Dirtybird was formed, the musical aim was to blend drum ‘n bass and house music; to create a new kind of chunky, breaks-driven house that stood apart from the clean, minimalist house that dominated the early 2000s scene. With brothers, producers and core Dirtybird artists Christian Martin and Justin Martin, Claude remembers how they all worked to mix different styles in house music, from drum ‘n bass and jungle, to West Coast house and Bay Area hyphy. It’s this spirit of experimentation that Claude is referencing in his new, “Claude 2.0” era.
• Over the years, Claude opens up about the challenges of running a rapidly-expanding music brand. As the demo inbox filled up and the roster grew, the sound of Dirtybird also got further away from his original vision. But as he sagely notes, it’s important as an artist to always listen to your gut first on creative decisions, rather than letting fans or associates play a part in your next steps. As Claude says, your brain and your ideas are what make you unique as an artist, so be discerning about who you let into your sphere of influence. 

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Tips for Building a Successful Career as an Independent Artist and Producing Original Music  

• The conversation moves deeper into strategies and tips for a healthy, successful career. From Claude’s perspective, the single most important thing to focus on in the early days of your music career is information. Whether that’s email addresses, phone numbers or other ways to connect with people, think of this information as more vital than money; as a way to share your work independently, without having to rely on third parties. 
• Once that network of direct contacts is built up, invest in music videos, record pressings, websites and photographs that will support your music. For Claude, this is a critical 1-2 step: by keeping the cost of information down while saving your money for the creative work, you’re on solid ground to stay independent and in control of your artistry.
• That sense of DIY originality extends to the music itself. After decades in the dance music industry, Claude has seen trends, sounds and artists come and go. What all successful people with long-term careers have in common, he says, is a willingness to innovate and experiment, rather than to rest on their laurels for the sake of a quick paycheck. His advice is to push yourself to learn new things, elevate your sound and be willing to change to meet the moment in front of you. “Learn, or you’ll get trapped,” as he puts it. 

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Using SoundCloud For Authentic Fan Engagement

• Claude VonStroke has been on SoundCloud for many years, and has navigated the platform as a producer, DJ and A&R for his label. His most-loved feature is time-stamped comments, which he enjoys seeing on the DJ mixes that he’s uploaded throughout his career. 
• Tapping into that independent spirit again, he explains how the feature allows him to gauge authentic reactions to white label and unreleased material, which he hugely values as an artist. As he describes it, real-time comments on SoundCloud uploads are a pure form of honest feedback that’s hard to find in the contemporary music industry. 

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The Life of Leisure Tour and What’s Next for Claude VonStroke in 2025

• Now that Claude has passed the Dirtybird Records torch, he’s able to focus on his core love: DJing his freaky music in small clubs to devoted dancers. Soaking up the community aspect of the dance music scene, he’s freshly inspired to create DJ sets that are full of original productions, edits, remixes and VIPs. If you’d like to know more about the Life of Leisure tour, you can check out the upcoming dates, tickets and more information here. Among this new music is his latest EP, ‘I Was The Wolf,’ which reworks his original love for blending house and jungle music to twisted, fun-loving effect. 
• Looking forward to the rest of 2025, Claude is focusing on distributing his forthcoming music directly to his fanbase, without a record label and enjoying the freedom that comes with it. With an aim to release new music every six to eight weeks, leaning on a vault of original music shaped from months of dedicated time in his new studio, he’s excited about the Life of Leisure tour and all the new music that he’ll share on it. 

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Links and Extras

Follow Claude VonStroke’s journey on SoundCloud.

Press play on Claude VonStroke’s 2025 EP, ‘I Was The Wolf.’

Check out Barclay Crenshaw, the bass side project of Claude VonStroke.

Follow Dirtybird Records and discover more about the label’s vast catalog.

Check out brothers Justin Martin and Christian Martin, Claude VonStroke’s long-time collaborators on Dirtybird.

Go back to where it all began with Claude VonStroke’s first-ever track, “The Whistler.”

Find out more about Claude VonStroke’s Life of Leisure tour here.

Explore some of Claude VonStroke’s wide-ranging influences, including Roman Fluegel, Steve Bug and Moving Shadow, to name a few. 

Listen to the New Era Bass playlist, curated by SoundCloud Stories.

Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

• Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
• Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
• Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
• Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
• Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

_{CREDITS Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee, Editorial Associate: Lauren Martin}