Tanner Ross

You may not know the name TANNER ROSS just yet, but you will. Ross, a Berklee student making waves in the dance-music community, is drawing the ears of many, particularly with his wiggle-house remix of Claude VonStroke’s massive single “Who’s Afraid of Detroit?” He recently returned from Miami’s Winter Music Conference, and he wasn’t just a partygoer this time — he was a draw, playing at the wet and wild Dirty Bird party. “It was at the Beach Plaza on the rooftop,” he explains over the phone after a class in harmony. “There was rain during the day, so they thought it was going to be cancelled. Then Barclay [Crenshaw, a/k/a VonStroke] and all the kids from San Fran were like, fuck this, we’re going to make this party happen. So we set up the DJ booth, and they were worried about the rain so we were holding a tarp up whenever it would rain.”

Video of the party has even made its way onto YouTube. Ross, meanwhile, is studying composition, and he’s a born producer. “I’m still in the process of getting comfortable with DJing. I still get really nervous. Like, really nervous. When I played at the party, I had to drink like five drinks and let them sit in just to go on because the party was so mad. Living in Boston, you don’t really get a chance to see 300 people pulling their hair out right before you go on. So I’m like, ‘Shit, this is a serious situation. I gotta fuckin’ step up and do this shit proper.’ So my nerves were definitely jumpin’.”

Originally from New Jersey, Ross moved here for Berklee’s music-synthesis program. But his heart has always been in dance music, particularly house. “My mom bought me a drum machine for my 16th birthday, and that’s when I started making drum ’n’ bass. When I moved to Boston, I saw Fred Everything at a proper house night and it sort of changed the way I think about things. But now I’m being heavily influenced by Gui Boratto, the whole Ghostly/Spectral sound. It’s all completely evolving, you know? But when I work on music, I still can’t get away from that bouncy beat.”

Ross’s hyped remix of VonStroke is smooth and techno until about three and a half minutes in, when it starts to bounce. The track got him so much attention that his plate of future remixes is completely filled, with more original tracks coming on Dirty Bird and Dotbleep as well. The DJ invitations are also pouring in. “I’ve had offers to play in Australia, Brazil, London, Berlin, but school is so important for me right now. I’ll try and do a couple here and there.”

He really wants to play London, where his remixes have found their way to the influential radio show hosted by Graeme Sinden. An expert sound designer, Ross has made music for Splinter Cell 4 and other video games, but his remixing skills are being called upon by all quarters, particularly an expected remix of house epic “Lovelee Dae” by New Jersey’s Blaze. “I had already done a bootleg of it, and people liked it, so Om Records contacted me, and they were like, ‘Hey, we want you do a real mix.’ So they gave me the a cappella.”

How does Ross deal with a monster hit by Blaze or VonStroke? “The way to approach it is: ‘I want to make this the best shit I can possibly make. I’m just going to make this banging, just, like, ridiculous retarded.’ ” Good plan. Despite his ascendant arc, Ross is grounded in his school work and the local house community. “I don’t want to be that guy that leaves school and goes on tour and plays records for 10 years or whatever and then, when it’s all over, my ears are ringing and I sit down and say, ‘Shit, what am I going to do with myself? I should have finished school.’ I’ll continue to write music. I like DJing, but writing the music and hearing someone play your tunes and hearing people go mad when they hear your tunes is much more of a rush for me.”

Friday night sees domestic dance-music legend DUBFIRE hit our Lansdowne strip at Avalon. Dubfire (a/k/a Ali Shirazinia) is one-half of DEEP DISH, the world-famous duo from Washington DC. Dubfire is a more eclectic brand name, and his two-CD mix in the Global Underground series drops next week. With tracks from Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Nitzer Ebb, and Carl Craig, it’s not the sound you’d expect from such a legend of trance music. If the set is any indication, Avalon will be brimming with tight, nearly lyrical electro-house and techno. Definitely worth braving a trip down to the land of beefcakes and bachelorettes.