Dr. Fresch: House Call, Caller ID, and Eclectic Energy on the On Locations Sessions at Decadence 12/31/22

Dr. Fresch: House Call, Caller ID, and Eclectic Energy

freschIn this special On Location edition of The DJ Sessions – Virtual Sessions, host Darran Bruce catches up with Los Angeles-based DJ and producer Dr. Fresch at Decadence Festival in Phoenix. With a career rooted in bass house and G-house, Dr. Fresch reflects on his longstanding relationship with Relentless Beats, who first booked him in 2015 at Bar Smith and have supported him at major Arizona festivals ever since.

The conversation dives deep into his growing ventures outside touring, including House Call Records and House Call Radio. He highlights the innovative Caller ID series, where every track played is an unreleased ID. The project has become a vital platform for showcasing emerging producers and providing them with exposure, guidance, and a pipeline into the professional music world.

Dr. Fresch shares advice for new artists on the importance of carving out a unique sonic identity in today’s competitive landscape, even suggesting multiple projects for those who want to explore different genres. He also opens up about his perfectionist tendencies in earlier years, how his workflow has evolved, and the role of passion projects like his lo-fi hip hop alias Fred Thirst.

From reflections on collaborations with Sunburn to teasing his upcoming 2023 tour and unreleased EPs, Dr. Fresch balances humor, honesty, and forward-looking energy. Off stage, he reveals hobbies ranging from snowboarding to Gundam models, sneakers, and anime.

With authenticity, entrepreneurial vision, and an eclectic spirit, Dr. Fresch continues to shape modern house culture while mentoring the next wave of artists.

Show Notes 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Dr. Fresch
Location: Decadence Festival – Phoenix, AZ

Overview:
Darran Bruce sits down with Dr. Fresch to discuss his career, his House Call brand, the Caller ID project, and the balance between artistry, business, and personal passions.

Topics Covered:

• Longstanding relationship with Relentless Beats and Phoenix festivals
• House Call Records and House Call Radio as creative platforms
• Caller ID series featuring 100% unreleased IDs and new artists
• Mentorship and advice for new producers on unique sonic identity
• Views on starting multiple projects to explore different genres
• Perfectionism in early years versus today’s streamlined workflow
• Lo-fi hip hop alias Fred Thirst as a passion project
• Reflections on collaboration with Sunburn and unreleased music
• Teasers for 2023 tour, EPs, and unreleased material
• Personal hobbies: snowboarding, Gundam models, sneakers, and anime
• Fun note on fan interactions, including the infamous “eye poke” story
• Closing philosophy: eclectic, energetic, and always looking forward

Call to Action:
Follow Dr. Fresch on Instagram @drfresch and stay tuned for upcoming tours and releases.
Discover more exclusive interviews and live sessions at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Welcome back to another episode of the On Location Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions. I’m your host Darran and right now we’re sitting on the couch for the second day at Decadence in Phoenix, Arizona, brought to you by Relentless Beats with none other on the couch than one of my favorite artists, Dr. Fresch. Dr. Fresch, how’s it going today?

[Dr. Fresch]
I’m doing great, Darran. Thank you so much for having me.

[Darran]
Absolutely. It’s an honor to have you here. We have been rocking this track, Feedback, in our truck since I first heard it years ago in our mobile studio.

You got to see a preview of that right before the interview and I just want to say, what a bang. I know there’s so many others, but that has to be… If I pull up my phone right now, the track that was actually queued up the last time I was listening to it was Feedback on my phone.

Let’s go.

[Dr. Fresch]
Let’s go.

[Darran]
So thank you so much for being on The DJ Sessions. You’re out of LA. I am.

And you’re up here for New Year’s Eve, bringing your energy to Decadence. What got you involved with the Decadence event?

[Dr. Fresch]
Oh man. So Relentless Beats has been a longtime supporter of me and pretty much since I first started touring outside of California as Dr. Fresch, they have been putting me on. And I first played with them in 2015 at Bar Smith and then they had me at a festival in 2016.

They were one of the first, you know, Thomas Turner, Relentless, one of the first promoters to book me for a big festival slot at Phoenix Lights. And so it has been a long journey with them. They’ve supported me from the beginning and, you know, it’s just always with joy to come back to Phoenix, dude.

[Darran]
And it seems like you’re not… I mean, you’re doing shows, touring a lot, but you also have two other things you do. You got House Call Records and then House Call Radio.

I do. And so tell us, you just released Caller ID compilation volume three. I did.

But that’s also tied in with the Caller ID series I just found out in my research. Tell us about Caller ID and what’s that all about?

[Dr. Fresch]
Dude, I’m glad you asked. It’s probably my most exciting project that’s kind of external of my original music. To me, Caller ID, so it’s a cheeky name.

The idea is that, you know, we call songs and dance music that haven’t been released IDs for everybody out there. You know, so I came up with this idea for a radio show where every single song would be an ID. So the idea for the show is that Caller ID, everything is unreleased.

And with that, I then took it to the next level after I came up with the concept, started putting out the show on SoundCloud. And, you know, I already had a slot with Insomniac Radio. It quickly morphed into the next generation of dance music.

So it wasn’t just guys that I was touring with because originally it was about 50-50. I realized how much of an opportunity I had to kind of bring this next class of artists who might not even be ready to approach or send a demo to Housecall Records. It became this perfect funnel in this pipeline for me to help get these new artists kind of acquainted with, you know, it’s like boot camp for becoming like a touring musician, or I wouldn’t even say touring musician, but, you know, a published artist.

[Darran]
Yeah. I mean, we’re looking at starting our label here for the DJ sessions after doing our show for 13 years. We want to expand the brand, get it out there.

And we’re just in our pre-conceptual stages of saying, what sound do we want? Are we going to open the doors to other people? Is it all internal?

Who are we choosing internally? And that’s just, I’ve never done A&R before. You know, what do I look for?

What’s going to be hot? You know, and I’d love to talk with you about that off-camera further. But, you know, is there something you’d like to say to new and up-and-coming producers to watch out for when it comes to making their career successful?

What’s something they can really focus on? Like you said, you’re taking these IDs and they aren’t played, they aren’t out yet. Right.

But you’re giving them a chance, an opportunity, which is huge. I mean, if I was a producer and I said, Dr. Fresch just put me on caller ID, like, and you know you’re going to get played, you know, you’re going to get heard. What’s something you can say to a new and up-and-coming producer that could help them out in that?

[Dr. Fresch]
You know, I think my most important message that I wish to convey is that because of the level of competition, just the sheer volume of artists that we’ve got out there, you know, because of that talent pool, you’ve got to create an artist project that is the most, you know, specific and unique version of this sound, this identity that becomes the artist project, you know, where I can’t even use my own career as a good reference model anymore, you know, because back 10 years ago, putting out blog remixes, you could kind of flirt with different genres and build up a fan base still. Now it’s people are looking for really singular sounds and with that kind of like identifying, you know, a cult fan base out of that. So I even recommend to people that are producing like drum and bass and then tech house, like dude, start two projects.

R.L. Grime did it and it worked out for him simultaneously.

[Darran]
And when it comes to your own productions, how much of a perfectionist are you?

[Dr. Fresch]
You know, I was so much more of a perfectionist in my early days. I had less kind of confidence in my own work 10 years ago. And so I, you know, half of the time that I spent on a record, you know, might have all just been nitpicking.

And so, so much of what I do now is like deliberately, if I found something that’s good enough, I let it, I don’t let it go. I, I, I, okay, that part of the song’s done. Let’s move on.

And that kind of ethos, you know, I think has helped drive me to, you know, make enough music to keep the engine going. You know, I make more music now because of it.

[Darran]
Do you sometimes make music out of your own genre that doesn’t ever get released?

[Dr. Fresch]
You have to. Yeah. And you know, that led me to, I launched a lo-fi hip hop project in quarantine.

You know, when COVID first hit beginning of 2020, I launched this project called Fred Thirst because I had all of these lo-fi beats and I haven’t toured it. I’ve done a couple streams with it. It’s just purely a passion project for me right now.

But I like to say, and I read a tweet from G Jones one time saying, whenever you get into a writer’s block to do that, because it reinvigorates your love for your original core mission. You know, you make lo-fi hip hop and you go back to base house pretty fluidly.

[Darran]
Absolutely. Do you have any aliases that you, any secret aliases that you can talk about? You release anything under that?

[Dr. Fresch]
I’m working on stuff with people, but I’ll honestly say that nothing is to the point yet where we have a, like a plan to launch, but I’ve collaborated with some people that I can’t talk about over camera. Some fun ways to think about the future outside of Dr. Fresch.

[Darran]
Nice.

[Dr. Fresch]
Yes. That’s already happened, but yeah.

[Darran]
I saw the collaboration with you and Sunburn. Is Firefly going to come back to life and be reborn? Are you allowed to talk about that?

[Dr. Fresch]
So we are, our sounds have deviated in a beautiful way. He’s gotten more into the melodic house, have gone harder into base house. And, you know, we found, I think we find hip hop with electronic is this kind of common denominator between our sounds.

And so we made a 2021 version of our song, The New Order with Sean Frank, and we were talking about releasing that ultimately came to the decision that we were all in different places. And so I don’t, I, we don’t have a collaborative release right now. The music that we’ve made probably won’t see the light of day.

And I’m really sorry about that, but maybe later on in our lives, we’ll put it out for fun in the right way.

[Darran]
I hear that, you know, things happen. And, uh, uh, you know, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sunburn not too long ago. He’s on our six month follow-up.

So we’ll be talking to him here shortly. And I’ll be like, yo, we got Fresch on the couch the other day because it’s so great to be back in person, everything virtual, you know, but I’m super excited to be here. We’re going to let you get back out.

You got the 2023 tour, any hints, drops, secret little pieces of grains of salt you can say about that.

[Dr. Fresch]
You know, I’ve got some really great music coming out, some collaborations from people that you will expect nothing. That’s a real surprise, but the music, you know, it’s more of everyone’s favorite stuff, dude. And I’ve got a lot more of it than I think people think that I have.

And I’ve been gatekeeping a lot of it and not sharing, but I’ve got like an albums where the stuff that I’m going to make it to a couple of EPs. That’s what’s going to go down. No names yet.

There’s going to be a tour in 2023. There might be two might be going to be an EP. There might be two.

[Darran]
Stay tuned. And after weeks or months of heavy touring, what is Dr. Fresch? What is when the Dr. Fresch hat comes off and Tony’s at home?

[Dr. Fresch]
Yeah.

[Darran]
What do you like doing? What’s your passion when you’re not making music, you’re not touring? What’s something that your number one thing you do just for like, I got to desensitize from all this.

What is that?

[Dr. Fresch]
I have, you know, so like I do normal, normal people stuff. Like I work out, I go on hikes with my girlfriend and I love snowboarding.

[Darran]
Is that who’s here with you tonight?

[Dr. Fresch]
Yes. Yes.

[Darran]
I got a picture of that. Awesome. Myself in that awesome sequence.

Oh, she’s wearing so she’s like a disco ball. Yeah, exactly. I just have to cut in with that.

[Dr. Fresch]
Oh, you’re good. You’re good. My other hobbies.

I like building Gundam models. Like I’m into sneakers and I’m into Mortal Kombat and I’m into Settlers of Catan. It’s so funny.

[Darran]
I almost started Mobile Suit Gundam on Netflix last night from 81. I was looking at him going, I need to watch this whole and I know how in depth that series goes as well. So I’m a huge anime fan myself.

You know, Cowboy Bebop is like one of my go to’s all the time. And, you know, all that.

[Dr. Fresch]
We’re not going to talk about that.

[Darran]
Oh, no, no. Sorry, Netflix.

[Dr. Fresch]
I know.

[Darran]
OK, but I did renew it.

[Dr. Fresch]
Yeah.

[Darran]
So, yeah. But anime is awesome. That’s one of my downtime things that I do just to chat and stuff.

But, you know, if somebody wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?

[Dr. Fresch]
Eclectic and Energetic.

[Darran]
Eclectic and Energetic. I think after seeing.

[Dr. Fresch]
Maybe that’s a boring. Hey, there’s got to be one with more pizzazz.

[Darran]
But that that kind of encapsulates it. Maybe it’s a working title.

[Dr. Fresch]
Yeah, it’s a working title.

[Darran]
Cool. And if Hollywood made a movie about your life, OK, who would you pick as the main actor?

[Dr. Fresch]
Oh, man. Seth Rogen.

[Darran]
Seth Rogen. Yeah.

[Dr. Fresch]
Awesome. I like that. Unless they wanted someone younger, in which case we need to find somebody who is a little bit of goofy.

I need somebody. I say Seth Rogen because it’s easy. He’s got a better laugh than I do.

You know, people say I sound like him. I take that as the biggest compliment.

[Darran]
Oh, I forgot to ask one other question. Do you know anyone that’s ever lost an eye while losing or listening to your music? Oh, my God.

I saw your Facebook post and I’m referencing that and my boy out here.

[Dr. Fresch]
Yeah.

[Darran]
Oh, dude.

[Dr. Fresch]
He is a house call records family artist and came through the caller ID pipeline. And when I got to meet him in person the last time I was in, well, no, a couple of times ago in the spring, I came to Phoenix and I jabbed him in the eye. We hugged each other with such force that I speared him.

And so we hope not to, we’re not going to recreate that.

[Darran]
Okay. Out of all the moments I was just, I was thinking that, you know, that was, I saw the reference and you’re you, you did that shot and you did look a little bit. Was it?

Richie is the kid’s name. Oh my God. You’re talking about the Facebook post.

Oh my God. You’ll shoot your eye out. Has anyone ever lost?

[Dr. Fresch]
I thought you did some like Nardwaur type research. That was like a actual thread in the comments today with the story. Yeah.

I, I have always enjoyed being a doppelganger of, uh, no, no, no. You’re not Richie Rich, but, uh, Ralph Ralphie Ralphie is his name.

[Darran]
Yeah. Awesome. All right.

Cool. Well, is there anything else you want to let our DJ sessions fans know about before we let you go?

[Dr. Fresch]
DJ sessions, fam. Uh, I’m going to be announcing a tour with a lot of artists that I love. I’m going to be announcing a couple of great projects.

We’re right on the brink of 2023. I’m excited to bring it all to you. Just stay tuned.

I’m Dr. Fresch on socials. That’s D R F R E S E H. Thank you so much.

[Darran]
Awesome. Thank you so much for being on the series tonight.

[Dr. Fresch]
Love it. Thank you, Derek.

[Darran]
Absolutely. Don’t forget to go to our website, the DJ sessions.com find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, meta. We’re out there, the DJ sessions and go to our to find out more.

Cause we got news stories, 600 news stories a month, exclusive mixes, exclusive interviews, all that. And more at the website, download our app. We’re there.

We got the app. We also got VR nightclubs coming to you in 2023. We got to get you in those VR nightclubs go.

Yeah. We’re excited that this is Dr. Fresch. I’m Darran coming in from decadence day two in Phoenix, Arizona, brought to you by relentless beats.

And remember on the DJ sessions, the music never stops.