SAAND
Christian acquired his love of electronic while growing up in the UK. It wasn’t until he moved to New York, however, that he would attend his first underground party and find the sound that would capture him and inspire him to step behind the decks himself. Since then, Christian has become a staple of the underground scene, a party enthusiast, and an avid techno tourist. Most recently Christian has been playing across Brooklyn and Manhattan and as far away as Black Rock City, Amsterdam, Moscow and California. His sophisticated taste in music earned him a residency for Bespoke Musik where he continues to explore his love of vinyl records, piano melodies and funky basslines.
Hometown Heroes: Christian Voldstad from New York City
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Interview with Christian Voldstad
How did you get mixed up in this crazy world of electronic music?
A long time ago I was taking marketing classes at NYU and decided to take an Ableton class as well. I had no aspirations to be a DJ or a producer, I just liked electronic music and wanted to vary my course load a bit. The guy sitting next to me in Ableton class happened to have a Techno record label and also needed marketing help. All of a sudden I was working for Hidden Recordings, then Output. then doing analytics for lots of labels. I still have a few clients I work with now but I’m mostly concentrating on finishing up my masters. Somewhere along the way I taught myself to play records and it certainly has been a crazy ride and now I am here.
Who were some of your biggest musical influences growing up?
The Beatles, Stones, Doors, a little Hendrix, a bunch of Pink Floyd. I got a lot of my music taste from my Mother. Dad liked classical and I still enjoy a little Beethoven, Mozart, Bach… even some Wagner.
Can you tell us what makes NY such a great city for music?
There’s so many people in such a small area it breeds creativity. Literally when you’re dealing with space constraints it forces people to invent interesting ways to get things done. When that creativity is applied to music you have some great things happening. New York is in a constant state of flux and there’s always new and interesting things to see and do.
Can you tell us a little about Bespoke?
Bespoke Musik was founded by Rocky Ramniceanu and Rami Abousabe, and they throw amazing events as well as curate a great podcast. The attention to detail they put into everything always astonishes me. I became one of the resident DJs about a year and a half ago and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with such talented and caring people. The other Bespoke Residents are Wild Dark, Baez, Bryant Jensen, Eric Carson and Nadia. She’s not a DJ but Tatyana, Rocky’s fiance, keeps us all in line and the other founding partner, Jim, is there to get us out of line. Rich is our grumpy sound guy and conjures up amazing speakers for us to play with. I love them all.
Who are some of your favorite DJs at the moment?
Powel is making absolutely gorgeous music right now, crazy about those pianos. Bedouin are doing a stellar job, and have been since they started. Wild Dark are making great music and I can’t wait to hear more of it. Gab Rhome and his bowtie are still one of my favourites. Deepak Sharma is making some bone crushing techno and I can’t wait for his releases to come out.
Favorite moment of 2016? What do you have planned for the new year?
Favorite moment was probably playing at ADE in Amsterdam because it was my first international gig. I also DJ’d in Moscow this year which was pretty amazing too. 2016 isn’t over yet though and I’m playing on New Years!!! Next year I plan on finishing my MBA, starting music production, traveling as much as possible, being generally jovial and feeding my cat
What can you tell us about this mix?
It took me absolutely forever, I hope you like it!
Favorite drink?
I’ve been drinking whiskey ginger ale’s recently, but I do love a cold beer and wine.
CHEERS!
– saand
Michael Sandler
Senior Editor
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