The world has seen many dynamic foursomes but nothing quite like the Visionquest boys; a quartet of the best house/techno visionaries playing the best music, hosting the greatest parties and spreading their message of joy worldwide.
Visionquest are the techno rat pack comprised of US DJs Seth Troxler, Shaun Reeves, Lee Curtiss and Ryan Crosson who grew up on the Detroit scene before forging careers for themselves in Berlin. The label has seen them play together with the odd remix but perhaps most exciting is their focus on showcasing innovative and exciting new talents, like Footprintz, Tale Of Us and Niki Nakazawa as well as some of their own productions. i-D Online had the pleasure of seeing the boys do their baddest at BLOC festival and caught up with them again once the madness of their Miami touring had died down. In most groups/collectives what have you, there’s always one that does all the talking in interviews. Not so with Visionquest apparently, Lee, Ryan, Seth and Shaun all answered every question. If that’s not dedicated to the fans, tell us what is.
After an amazing set at Fabric and again at BLOC festival, it’s great to see Visionquest’s growing support in the UK, how do the fans over here compare to the rest of the world?
Lee: I can say hand on heart that our fans in the UK are some of the best in the world.
Ryan: Much of our original grassroots support comes from the UK, people have been into what we’ve been doing here right since the very beginning.
Seth: If you take a night like our recent label launch at Fabric, it was so great to see how positive and generally clued up everyone was.
Shaun: Yeah, for sure, walking around the crowd and chatting to people while Lee and Ryan were playing live at Fabric I was so impressed at just how much most people seemed to know about who we were and what we’re about.
It is an exciting time for London at the moment (Claude VonStroke announcing on Twitter that London is beating Berlin for cool music). Is there anyone inspiring you on the UK music scene at the moment?
Seth: Yeah it’s a really exciting time for London, which is exactly why I’ve just moved here. It’s such an amazing city with so many opportunities both musically and right across the wider spectrum of culture. As far as inspiration goes there are a number of people; Jamie Jones, Lee Foss and the whole Hot Creations crew are based here. I’m really into what Subb-an is doing with his new live show. Outside of dance music I’m really into British bands like The xx.
Ryan: One of my production partners for my forthcoming album project on Visionquest, Cesar Merveille is based in London and is obviously an inspiration.
Lee: Matt Tolfrey and the whole Leftroom crew are very close to our hearts both musically and as close friends.
Shaun: I’m really into a lot of what Maya Jane Coles is producing right now.
How do your various skills compliment each other? And are there any other great foursomes you admire?
Shaun: The most obvious (especially given recent developments on Facebook) would be another group of four dysfunctional kids from the American suburbs… Stan, Kyle, Eric and Kenny. Their group dynamic is pretty much identical to ours.
Ryan: Earth, Air, Fire and Water are pretty fundamental to all of us.
Lee: Gladys Knight and the Pips. Again their group dynamic is pretty much identical to ours.
Seth: The four horsemen of the apocalypse… Conquest (Ryan), War (Lee), Famine (Shaun) and Death (Me).
Tell us about your time in Miami?
Ryan: Easily the best ever. I came back from Miami feeling really inspired having heard so much good new music.
Seth: Our party at the Shelborne was off the chain. As a new label we were hugely honoured to be asked to do a label showcase at such a high profile venue.
Shaun: It was so nice to be able to introduce people to our crew of artists and watch Footprintz and Benoit & Sergio perform live in the US for the first time. The response to both acts and also to Tale Of Us, our new star signing from Milan who are just about to put out their third release on Visionquest, has been superb.
Lee: Underground house and techno does seem to be coming to the fore as shown by the huge success of our party, the Crosstown Rebels Get Lost party and Jamie Jones and Lee Foss’ ‘Not Natured’ party on the Sunday night. All were rammed with a really positive vibe. Dance music is moving in the right direction.
Tale of Us ‘Dark Song EP’ is released on May 2nd on Visionquest records. Footprintz ‘Utopia’ on Visionquest is out now. Listen to Visionquest here and check out more from our i-DJ series here.
