Was he sent from space or is it just a little brain damage? It doesn't really matter because Claude VonStroke makes tight, beautiful, and gritty beats. Mr. VonStroke is also known as Barclay Crenshaw, the man behind San Francisco's hottest new tech-funk label, dirtybird.

Raised in the suburbs of Cleveland and Detroit, Barclay Crenshaw fell in love with the beat by listening to popular broadcasts of the Electrifying Mojo's Midnight Funk Association on local Detroit radio. At age 16, after mastering the small 4-track recorder used at his high school, Barclay and good friend Jamie Osborne looked through the phone book and visited Juan Atkin's fledgling Metroplex recordings. They tried unsuccessfully to convince Atkins to hire them as sound engineers and music producers. Little did they know, Mr. Atkins would soon go on to become the godfather of techno.

After University in New York and a 4 diversion in Hollywood working as an assistant on a series of big budget feature films, Barclay moved back to Detroit and re-discovered his passion for electronic music. He was initially inspired by listening to drum n' bass mix tapes from the UK. He built a massive live rig of synthesizers and samplers and played live at local Poor Boy underground warehouse parties until he lost all of his music in an electrical outage. (back up your drives, people.)

One year later, Barclay re-located to San Francisco and decided to merge his passion for music and film by releasing Intellect, a six hour DVD package, self-directed and produced, covering the worldwide electronic music scene and including interviews with 35 legends like Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Swayzak, Derrick Carter, Deep Dish, Paul Van Dyk, Theo Parish, Steve Lawler and many more. The DVD took two years to make and was a graduate degree in electronic music for Crenshaw. The point of the video was to help up and coming DJs find out what they needed to know in order to make a career in electronic music. The result was Crenshaw himself starting a career as Claude VonStroke and a label to go along with it.

During production of Intellect, Barclay met Justin Martin, who volunteered to help make house music for the DVD. With the help of Justin, his brother Christian, and their friend Worthy; Crenshaw started dirtybird. The rest, as they say, is history. dirtybird is currently shaking tail feathers worldwide with a series of successful releases by Justin Martin & Sammy D and Mr. VonStroke himself. Claude's current hit “Deep Throat” is in its sixth re-pressing and has hit the #4 spot on Groove Magazine's top 50 records chart as well as making Pete Tong's Essential Buzz Chart on Radio One.

DJ wise, Claude has an intense regimen for preparation and a great ear for song selection. His sets are always inspiring and surprising. If your lucky enough to catch a performance, remember to bring a bar of soap, because when Claude VonStroke is behind the decks, it's gonna get dirty.

In April, 2006 Claude will go on tour in support of his first artist album on dirtybird. He also has singles due out on Get Physical, dirtybird, Frankie, Neuton Music, & Utensil Recordings.