A Motor City, Berlin, London hybrid. Ryan Crosson has been one of electronic music’s most consistent artists. While others have chased fame and fortune through fake fans and Instagram followers, Ryan Crosson has prefered to let his sonic signature dictate his position in the history books. Responsible for launching Visionquest alongside Lee Curtiss and Shaun Reeves, the label has been as responsible as Ryan Crosson himself for shaping the modern electronic landscape.

Known across the world for his shapeshifting, shoulder shaking tracks. Ryan Crosson has released on groundbreaking labels including Wagon Repair, M_nus, Spectral Sound. His inspiration? All things house, techno, Downtown New York funk, and East African jazz. Given Ryan Crosson international pedigree and the fact, his latest EP is out on tastemaking Detroit label My Baby Records it was a no brainer to invite him to discuss life behind the headphones.


You were born in the Motor City, a city steeped in music history. Can you tell us what electronic music means for the people of Detroit?

People from Detroit have a lot of pride and even more so in the dance scene. Of course, it’s an extremely special place because of the history associated with dance music as well as the people who have been involved with the music over the years. Movement is an annual highlight for people still living there. Its the same for Detroiters who have moved away and people from the Midwest in general. Everyone returns to the city for the festival.

The history of Detroit is growing ever stronger. As we have gotten older, there is a new generation including the children of former legends such as the Saunderson boys. They’re following in their Dads footsteps and will keep the flame burning for another 30 years if they choose. I think that’s pretty amazing.

You have since moved from Detroit and for many years resided in Berlin and most recently Brooklyn. How do each of these cities compare and how does each influence your work?

It’s tough to say because I’ve lived in each city at a different point in my life and career. The comparison would be easier if I had lived in all three over a shorter period. Berlin probably had the most influence on the music I play and the music I make. You are surrounded by so many people working in similar ways, using similar sounds. You also take so much inspiration from others as you are going out all the time.

I spent the first 26 years of my life around Detroit. A working-class city which was mirrored in the scene and in the music. There was lots of hustle going on. When we were coming up I was still starry-eyed about the whole scene. I was happy just to be involved and doing it. Even though we were trying to get somewhere career-wise, there was still an innocence about it all. The music I was making was very raw and underproduced but didn’t really sound like Detroit. It was more influenced by the sounds of Berlin, Paris and Cologne at the time. Looking back, I really had no clue what the fuck I was doing.

Living in Berlin was wild and as I mentioned above, it had the most influence on me as far as shaping my direction. It’s the hub of what we do. There’s no question about that. So many creative people. Unique venues. It’s really untouchable still. People all have their own idea of when Berlin’s ‘heyday’ was but when we were there it was pretty great.

Since moving to Brooklyn, I’ve become a bit more of a homebody and have been trying to branch out musically. I have a much more clear direction about how I want to spend my time and I’m more critical of my work than ever before. In a way this is good but it drives me to loneliness a little bit. When you’re in studio hermit mode and constantly trying to work on a new studio thing, you forget to go out and socialize a bit. That’s not healthy as a person and also your ears also become stagnant. You need to get out to be a real person once in a while. Most importantly, You have to hear other people play to keep yourself exposed to music.

You have been at the helm of one of dance music’s most pioneering brands since its incarnation. Visionquest has been responsible for putting out a constant stream of highly acclaimed records as well as vibrant parties across the globe. Why do you think Visionquest has remained so relevant when other brands have fallen at the wayside? 

We’ve tried our best to remain true to ourselves and not waiver from our original ethos. We always strived to put out quality music from people we care about. While we’re not hyper-popular with all the social media bullshit, we’ve had a loyal following for a long time. We are grateful for those that continue to follow us and support us. We’ve been lucky to still have the ear of a lot of the DJs we like to listen to as well. Funnily enough, there are likely a lot of people who would question our relevance but what’s relevant to one person is completely irrelevant to the next.

I hope people feel we’ve created a good body of work both collectively and individually. Hopefully, that body of work will stand the test of time. That’s relevance to me. Being an Instagram hero is not relevance. Being the flavour of the month is not relevance. As far as why other labels/brands fall by the wayside I really can’t say. Overspending, overstaffing, trend hopping could be a few pitfalls. Burnout could be another. This shit gets tiring. Also, eventually, certain priorities in life supersede running a dance music label and when those priorities come calling you to have to get them in order.  

What has been the hardest moment of your career to date?

I’d probably say the past two years have been the most difficult from both a career and personal standpoint. We’ve been lucky to have a nice run and “live the dream” so to speak. It has lasted for the past thirteen years so I don’t want to be all ho-hum. Life is ups and downs and you just have to keep going. 

Over the last decade club culture has changed significantly. It has become less underground, cash-driven and highly competitive in a lot of aspects. Do you think there is still room for the truly ‘underground’ side of electronic music?

Absolutely. You just have to find it and support it. I don’t think you need to have big numbers for a great underground scene. You have to have people committed and willing to work together. When we were coming up in Detroit the scene wasn’t huge but it was full of committed people that went out all the time. When there were bigger events the overall numbers ballooned because Midwest people love to take long drives to good parties. Nevertheless, it was built on an excellent core of a few hundred people that would bounce between different parties and venues.

Sadly government pressures worldwide have stifled certain underground communities and also (sorry to bring it up again) social media has corrupted our area of electronic music. I think a lot of the changes to lineup programming at certain clubs and festivals has harmed the underground. These occur due to the importance placed on social media by promoters who want to make oodles of cash. They don’t want to take the time to properly curate. Instead, they cater to people who aren’t actually fans of underground dance music. 

You have always been an artist from the outside at least, loves putting music out there. How hard is it to juggle a tour schedule and studio time?

Some weeks are harder than others, especially after doing this for so long. You can’t always recover by Monday like you could when you were in your mid-twenties. However, you learn how to budget your time a bit better as you get older. You become a bit more responsible before going on tour and handle any projects that are due before you take off instead of waiting until after you come home. A shit load of coffee also helps. I’d be done without that stuff. The important thing is to just be in the studio and putting in some effort. I like being in the studio so it’s not like I have to drag myself there in most cases. As long as your in there for a bit, good things can happen. Even on sluggish days.

Finally, if you could produce a record with anyone past or present who would it be and why?

That’s a tough one for me. There are so many that I could list if I had enough time. Rick Rubin, Quincy Jones, Steve Reich, Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) are just a few.


Follow us on Spotify