Stepping into the conference room at the Clubplanet Miami office, Greg Chin, a.k.a Stryke, walks in wearing a black v-neck and jeans. Just your normal run-of-the-mill-looking guy, other than the fact that he’s a world-recognized producer and DJ. The majority of the time, even fans of Stryke’s work may not recognize him, but it seems like he prefers it that way.
With the kind of shy and genuine demeanor you get out of a good friend from grade school, Stryke has none of the qualities that you’d expect out of an artist whose recent album, The Narrowest of Paths, holds the number one spot in the German tech house ranks. No attitude, no cocky behavior, no flashy threads with Gucci or Prada sprinkled across in glitter. Just a guy who loves what he does, and is damn good at it.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, music sparked a flame in Stryke's life at the age of three and continues to grow till this day. Not only a producer and DJ, Stryke’s resume includes vocalist, audio engineer and corporate consultant to audio companies. Not bad for a guy who tours in Europe, stops in Miami to record, then heads out again to hit the stage.
Stryke takes a seat and prepares for the barrage of questions that are about to come his way. He’s friendly, cool, calm and collected. It almost seems like it’s a break out of a hectic schedule for him. Instead of acting unenthused and tired from his traveling, he’s grateful. “It’s so nice to be able to do an interview in English,” he says.
Coming off of a promotional tour in Europe, Stryke sat down with Clubplanet for his first interview since he’s been back.
Clubplanet: What’s the concept behind your new album [The Narrowest of Paths]? You have a track on there titled ‘Spiral,’ that’s been getting an immense amount of praise. What’s the concept behind ‘Spiral’ in relation to the album?
Stryke: It’s funny to me because I thought that ‘Spiral’ was going to be the cut that didn’t make it on the album. But, it needed to be on album. The entire album is based on the concept of finding love and the newness of it and where you go from there. ‘Spiral’ is the one cut on the album that I would say has a little bit of, not a negative connotation, but it was written as a sort of spiral downward, trying to regain your dignity and yourself. It doesn’t sound like a dark song, but it is kind of dark in that your caught in this downward spiral where your not sure what’s going on in this relationship or what’s happening but you’d still like to maintain some kind of positive outlook.
CP: How did you discover music?
Stryke: Music has always been a part of my family. My dad was a big record collector, and would always import American and British records. We were always playing music at the house. But when I was three-years-old, we went to church one Sunday and the organist was playing this piano solo, and that was the major catalyst for me because that just hit me in this really emotional sense that I still remember the day, like it was yesterday. I remember after the service asking my mom if we could get piano lessons and she said ‘no.’ My mom finally gave in and I started taking piano lessons. So that’s how it started.
CP: When did you come over to the states?
Stryke: We ended up moving to the states in 1980. Music was much different here. I discovered Joy Division pretty early on as well as New Order and Depeche Mode, which is another huge catalyst for me. That’s how I started to discover the more electronic type of sound. At 12 I was already saving up money to buy my first synthesizer. I became interested in DJing watching my uncles do it. So, I started DJing at the age of 13 as well and doing parties for school, since I was getting any action anyway from the chicks. (laughs) I started making money from DJing and I would flip it and buy equipment. Equipment turned into demo writing, demo writing turned into booking time in the studio. So one thing turned into another. When I got to college, Hurricane Andrew hit and took everything I ever owned. My car, my clothing, my DJ equipment, my comic books, everything. I was attending FIU at the time and I was already DJing. But, after Hurricane Andrew is when I really got serious about DJing. It was really my only form of escapism at that time.
CP: What were some of your influences at the time?
Stryke: Starting from scratch, Beethoven and Chopin were my first two. Those were the first two composers that affected me on a cerebral and emotional level. Bob Marley is obviously a very big deal back home. Moving to the states, Depeche Mode was the first huge one. I was buying records a lot, 12” records specifically for remixes, and it was at about 85’ or 86’ that my cousin Wayne, who was actually DJing with Tom Terry and guys like that in New York, he sent me a tape of him DJing, and the stuff that he was DJing I never really heard before, and it was basically old house and old techno and he started sending me tapes all the time and I started looking for this music. Then I started pretty much switching from old school free style electronic and alternative stuff into house and techno.
CP: When did things start looking up for you, making you realize that you had a talent and that you could harness it into a career?
Stryke: I still don’t realize that. (laughs) But, I always knew that I had to do this. As I got older I focused it a little bit more. Here it was really difficult to make a correlation between being a recording artist and being a DJ. Those things really didn’t exist together until the 90s when that became the norm. So I had no idea, but I knew that I wanted to put those two things together, but at the time there was no formula for that. But I knew that I had these two things that I enjoyed doing equally together. But I would say that things started kicking up when I was at the Edge. Bruce Wilcox really took me under his wing. I was a really shy kid and Bruce knew that, but I guess that he saw something in me on both levels and took me under his wing and really pushed me into playing a lot of the bigger parties so people would see me. That time was really important in South Florida because there was no scene, but it was building.
CP: Why would you say you do what you do?
Stryke: Electronic music for me has a very specific hook to it, which is rhythmic, so there’s a very primal element to it that I can totally relate to when I’m DJing and seeing the crowd respond to that. But there’s also a very emotional element to it and I’ve always been a very emotional person.
CP: Which could stem from growing up on Joy Division and Depeche Mode.
Stryke: And I still have my wrists intact. (laughs) But specifically from a lot of the early Detroit stuff, that emotional context was there. For me, electronic music was always that perfect blend of stuff you can just get crazy and dance to, but also be very introspective and emotional, and that’s something that I strive to do on the dance floor and definitely in my production work.
CP: You’re very big on the concept of communication through music. Can you go into that for us?
Stryke: Music’s always communicated something to me. For me it’s the most basic form of communication before even speaking people were always using smoke signals or percussion on rocks. In the very early days in Africa, music was used to communicate, to keep tribes together and to keep them safe and I think that it continues today. With electronic music you can’t be very direct, like in a pop song like “hey baby I love you.” The cool thing about what we do is being able to communicate very specific ideas, but leave it open to interpretation. But the communication aspect is still there and I think that’s very important.
CP: What are some of the big challenges that you face when communicating with your own music?
Stryke: I don’t have a problem communicating my ideas, but sometimes because it is electronic music, it is open to interpretation and sometimes so many people might interpret things totally differently than what you anticipated. For me the challenge is allowing that to happen. You have to allow that to happen. It can be a challenge to me because sometimes I’m very specific about my ideas, and it can be very personal. I might right a song about someone in my family passing away, but someone may be like, “Hey, I had mad sex to that song!” That’s happened! So you have to allow their experience to be what it is, and still retain what my experience is.
CP: How do you think you’re sound has changed or evolved throughout your career?
Stryke: I think my sound has changed, as a producer, dramatically over the last two years. It’s interesting to me because I’ve had fans come up almost everywhere I’ve been in the past two months and say that they’ve heard the album and some remixes over the past couple of months and it’s totally different but still very much me. That’s very intriguing to me because my entire studio has changed, my hardware and software. But I’m still very happy that there’s still some element of my sound or whatever that might be, to what I’m doing now. I feel like it’s changed dramatically and I feel that it’s in a constant state of flux and a constant state of improvement. I’m never 100 percent happy with anything, but I think that’s good.
CP: You use a lot of your own vocal samples, which is something unique that a lot of other people don’t do. Do you feel like that further communicates what you’re trying to convey?
Stryke: I trained as a singer when I was younger. I attended a school of the arts in Southwood and then I attended New World. Both of those schools require you to have secondary instruments. My primary instrument is the piano, but you had to have a secondary instrument, so I decided to do voice because I didn’t want to carry around a French horn or a tuba. Once I got to college I stopped singing. It’s never felt totally comfortable to me. When I built my second studio, I built a vocal room and I decided, actually it was for other artists to come in and do vocals. But one day I actually did. I was recording some stuff, and I’m a big fan of Bill Withers, and my favorite song of all time was “Ain’t No Sunshine,” so I decided to cover it. A friend of mine heard it and stored the DAT. He was actually going to Chicago for a vacation and we had already done one record for these guys at Guidance, and he took the DAT over to them and they called me up the next day telling me that the label office wanted to sign the record. It ended up being signed and from there guys like Ralph and Oscar asked me to sing on their tracks, which was a total honor for me and I still get giddy when I think about stuff like that.
CP: When it comes to vintage production gear, you have everything in your studio, some things that people would kill for and can’t find on Ebay.
Stryke: There was a long time in the early 90s when I was collecting a lot of gear. I’d buy a couple of pieces of old gear and fix them up. That’s one way that I really got into things like that. Actually, when I was younger that stuff wasn’t vintage, that was the new stuff. My first synth was a Roland – SH101 which is still my favorite synth of all time.
CP: You have a very special relationship with your dog Jack. Can you go into this a bit for us?
Stryke: Jack, I’ve had him since he was three months old. I got him before my first album came out, so he’s been with me since my first album. He lets me know if something is good or not. If he walks out of the room, it’s trash. (laughs) He’s a part of the family.
CP: All of the things that you do, being a producer, a DJ, an engineer, vocalist and a corporate consultant for audio companies, revolve around music. Let’s say we take music out of the picture. What would you be doing?
Stryke: A video game designer or a veterinarian. I think that would be about it. Something centered around technology, so designing video games is just something I’d like to do, start a little video game company.
CP: A lot of big names, such as Hawtin, Wink, Lawler, regard you as a favorite. James Zabiela has said that you’re the most underrated DJ in the world. It seems like you like to play smaller gigs for the small people.
Stryke: I’m a really shy person and I don’t do well in these huge types of situations. Playing big festivals is fun and great when it happens. But at the same time I really enjoy the anonymity. Just kind of being able to go out in a pair of shorts and go out to Publix. I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago, just in a ratty t-shirt and jeans, and I went to this little restaurant by myself and I ordered my food. The girl behind the counter said, “I just needed to let you know how amazing your album was.” I was just standing there with my tray thinking, “This is not happening.” (laughs)
CP: Being on a label such as Plastic City, what made it be the right time to write the album?
Stryke: It was a huge honor when the label called me because Plastic City had always been one of my favorite labels since I was younger. So to be asked to do an album it was perfect timing because I already had this idea and concept that I wanted to do. When they called it was just like the heavens opened up and God came down and handed me a Plastic City contract.
CP: Given the state of the world and the state in media, perhaps it’s the right for this to happen to you.
Stryke: It’s definitely given me the ability to reach out to my audience and to other audiences as well, so I definitely welcome that.
CP: How do you feel about the music scene here in Miami?
Stryke: You know, it’s a love/hate relationship. I love Miami and I think we have a tremendous amount of opportunity here. So many people talk about how things can be so commercial, and how they won’t go to this club because of this that and the other. To be honest, when I go out, I’ll go to a grungy dirty ass party and then I’ll hop over to some big nightclub to see a couple of friends and have a drink. I kind of enjoy the entire experience and I think that people should open up their minds to that.
CP: What are some of your plans for the future?
Stryke: Rest! (laughs) I want to continue delving into the movie soundtrack thing. I figure why not put my symphonic background to use. But right now, the immediate plan is to finish up what’s on my white board at home. Right now there are nine outstanding projects that need to be completed. Then after that I’m going to concentrate on the mix CD series which doesn’t even have a name yet. Towards the end of the year I want to start cultivating the next album. I’ll go ahead and say it here first, I believe that right now at this juncture that the next album will be a continuation of the Narrowest of Paths. Where it goes, I don’t know, but I’m figuring that out now. We’ll have to see what happens when the album comes out.
Click here to hear more from Stryke. Or listen in on some of his tracks on the Beatport below.