CRSSD Festival returns to the San Diego waterfront next month. We caught up with TOKiMONSTA, Zimmer90, Franc Moody & Vintage Culture for some insights into production and DJing.
The two‑day event will bring together an expansive roster spanning techno, house, indie‑electronic and crossover live acts - continuing CRSSD’s tradition of genre‑diverse curation.
Tickets are still available, but you’ll need to be quick. Sunday single-day tickets are 95% sold out, and weekend passes plus Saturday singles aren’t far behind.
Ahead of their performances, we caught up with four artists for a few quick-fire interviews.
Based at the Waterfront Park in San Diego CRSSD Festival runs over two days: March 14 and 15, 2026,
Buy tickets from the CRSSD Festival website.
TOKiMONSTA
What is your all-time favourite bit of kit, and why?
The Roland SP-404 is definitely a classic "GOATed" piece of kit". It’s not the most powerful piece of gear in the room, but it changed the way I thought about making beats in the earlier days. There’s something about hitting pads and hearing grit that reminds me why I started producing in the first place.
What one production technique do you wish you’d known when you were starting up?
Engineering… the technicalities of mixing down records. My early work has a very distinct sound that is iconic in its own way. But really, I didn’t fully understand gain staging, headroom, or how frequency balance really impacts how a track translates outside your bedroom. Yet that unawareness at the time also gave that work a lot of special character
What one DJing technique do you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
How to read energy, not just BPM. Technically, DJing isn’t very hard to learn. Understanding when to pivot genres, when to let a track breathe instead of mixing out quickly, that’s the deeper craft. I used to think playing the most interesting record was the goal. Now I know the goal is playing the right record for that exact moment while being patient for the right moment for that special record
What can we expect from your set at CRSSD Festival this year?
It will be a fun energy, but also a building journey. I’m less interested in shock value or sameness and more interested in taking people somewhere steadily and intentionally.
[quote align=right text="Technically, DJing isn’t very hard to learn. Understanding when to pivot genres, when to let a track breathe instead of mixing out quickly, that’s the deeper craft"]
Zimmer90
What is your all-time favourite bit of kit, and why?
Our old Wurlitzer at home is probably the most essential thing because it's where everything usually starts in its simplest form. We love the phys