"Range of Possibilities": Ranger Trucco Talks Labels, Minimal Grooves, and Building His Brand

Ranger Trucco: The Sonic Transformation

From his humble beginnings in Traverse City, Michigan—far removed from the nightlife and house music hubs—Ranger Trucco has emerged as one of the fastest-rising talents in the global house music scene with his breakthrough tracks "

l." His story is impressive and demonstrates how geographic distance can't impede the beat of a heart devoted to house music. 

A master behind the decks and production side, Trucco has quickly created a sound that is unmistakably his own. His evolving style has earned him a loyal following and caught the attention of industry heavyweights like John Summit, Archie Hamilton, and more. His tracks, signed to big-league labels such as 

, have blown away house music fans worldwide, fueling his rapid ascent and building a growing fanbase. 

To preserve his artistic freedom, Trucco launched his own label, 

, providing a space for him to release music that truly embodies his sound and vision. The label has become a hub for his own tracks as well as for rising talents like Stef Davidse, Leon, Riley, Eboni Green, and more. 

 releases have gained support from prominent names in the industry, including Dennis Cruz, Pawsa, Seth Troxler, and ALISHA.

Bells EP

In recent years, Ranger Trucco has taken the stage at some of the biggest festivals and clubs across the country. His performances at events like Experts Only, Hard Fest, Splash House, Hangout Fest, and Electric Forest—a festival that holds special meaning as it sparked his passion for house music—have made him a must-see artist. Additionally, he’s rinsed iconic venues such as The Shrine, Sound LA, and Club Space, building a dedicated fanbase with his groovy, high-energy sets.

With an impressive track record of performing at top events nationwide, it’s no surprise that Ranger launched his own event series, 

, which has been making waves across the U.S. Although still relatively new, 

 has already hosted successful shows in cities like Miami, Chicago, Denver, and Tempe.

As Ranger Trucco's presence in the industry continues to grow, his music remains grounded in the grooves and rhythms that drew him to the genre. Known for his distinctive basslines and minimal, yet punchy, production, Trucco keeps evolving while staying true to the core of what makes his sound resonate with house lovers. Whether through his performances or the expanding 

 event series and label, he’s proven to be a consistent and promising name in the scene. 

Ranger Trucco live from the the main pool deck on @GrooveCruise Miami - enjoy!

Ranger Trucco @ Groove Cruise (01.21.23) by Ranger Trucco

United States

bass house

tech house

Ranger Trucco

Netherlands

dutch tech house

Luuk van Dijk

Slugg

Luna Mar

range.

The Roof at Superior Ingredients

range. w. Ranger Trucco, Luuk Van Dijk, Slugg + More

canadian electronic

electro house

electronic trap

fidget house

house

turntablism

A-Trak

Spain

spanish techno

Bastian Bux

Italy

deep disco house

italian electronica

melodic techno

microhouse

minimal techno

DJ Tennis

United Kingdom

deep groove house

pop dance

uk dance

James Hype

Ky William

LP Giobbi

Malóne

uk house

Melé

Sosa

Thunderpony

Germany

latin tech house

Tini Gessler

ChaseWest

deep tech house

Cuartero

deep house

uk funky

Dennis Ferrer

Dennis Quin

Jaden Thompson

Kellie Allen

M-High

Sidney Charles

elrow

Factory Town

elrow Miami Music Week: RowsAttacks! 2024

uk tech house

Josh Butler

rally house

Ruze

The Ruins at Knockdown Center

range. with Ranger Trucco, Josh Butler & Ruze

minimal tech house

Archie Hamilton

Matt Egbert

The Room at Superior Ingredients

Archie Hamilton  [3 Hour Set] with Ranger Trucco & Guest

german house

german techno

progressive house

Claptone

South Africa

electra

melodic house

swiss pop

Nora En Pure

Bijou

Cloonee

Giolì & Assia

Croatia

Matroda

Dillon Nathaniel

chicago house

Gene Farris

GRUM

Kyle Walker

Canada

bassline

Nostalgix

Speaker Honey

Truth x Lies

Celebrity Summit Cruise Ship

Groove Cruise Miami

Peru

Bastidas

Switzerland

Deer Jade

Joplyn

german tech house

Juliet Sikora

german dance

LOVRA

Miguel Bastida

arab electronic

Yousef

OCHO 14

Frameworks

Belgium

belgian edm

Like Mike

Ryan Hendo

SOHMI

brazilian techno

dark techno

Alex Stein

France

french tech house

french techno

Matt Sassari

Eli Brown

chillwave

indietronica

instrumental hip hop

wonky

TOKiMONSTA

Ben Murphy

DJ Lady D

 co-founders Londonbridge and Hiddenhen first played 

's "Tiffany" during their weekly Tune Reactor live A&R stream on Twitch in 2020, they were instantly entranced with the Michigan-born producer's crispy, clean warbling tech house beats, and cheeky vocal style. He was signed quickly to their record label and lauded as one of house music's fiercest and most creative young producers.

Tiffany

Seldom do you come across an artist who, in the early stages of their career, has such a firmly established aesthetic, well-attuned self-confidence, and blindingly positive self-belief. His confidence is core to his character and has allowed him to navigate a whirlwind of changes in both sound and stature that keep him on the cutting edge of the American house music scene. And even though his brilliantly constructed sonic footprint made him such a standout, he's unafraid to allow his inspirations to shift his focus.

"I like to just keep an open mind. I just like to be an outlet of what I'm getting inspired by," he explains to 

. "I started by doing vocals on my tracks, all of my old stuff is original vocal, and I still love to write vocals. But if something else is gonna catch my attention, I'm not just going to suppress that desire to go for it. I don't want to live my life feeling like I always have to fit into a box...If I can, at a young age, let people know that this is what I do. I'm just gonna go for everything. I'm going to try to cover, a wide variety of stuff."

His muteable nature has guided him since childhood. He's traversed a musical roadmap that led him from listening to classic and alternative rock with his dad to hip hop and dubstep with his brother and exploring the depths of indie rock and house music on his own.

His memories are filled with musical traditions. "Music was just a part of everything we did. It was on during dinner. It was on in the car, when we were on the way to school, and on the way home from school. We used to listen to 'The Day That Never Comes' by Metallica before school to get all hyped up. We'd be going nuts in the car." Even the most mundane tasks were made more exciting with a soundtrack. "I used to take some sort of medication in the morning. And every time I'd take it (I'd have to drink it. It's kind of gross.), my dad would play 'No Faith In Medicine' by the White Stripes." It wasn't until he was a teenager that he realized that this level of intense exposure to music was unique.

can't stop the swing.

As he began to explore the wonder of live music, visceral sonic experiences led to life-changing epiphany's. Shortly after picking up the guitar, he went to his first concert, Kings of Leon, and came home inspired to start a band. After his brother returned from Electric Forest fully wooked out, Ranger began to tag along to raves diving into the expanse of dance music together. Hoping to explore beyond the bass, he first recognized the power of house music when he went to Snowglobe Festival in Lake Tahoe for the first time, huddled on the dancefloor with thousands of snow-chasing dancers.

"I remember the next day, something in me [was] awakened," he says with a bright smile. "I loved how complicated the buildups would be. But that it would always revert back to the kick and bass carrying the whole thing. Everything about the arrangement...Just being obsessed with the BPM, the tempo, the crowd, everyone having space dancing."

Ranger Trucco - buss It. by Ranger Trucco

By the time he started college in Oregon, he'd thrown his total weight into DJing and producing house music. He planned to make his dreams a reality, and after a year of school, his decisive self-determination (and a dash of youthful naivete) changed his path.

He had imagined that his newfound love for creation would lead to fame and fortune, so the fact that college would put him in the hole by thousands didn't bother him. When reality set in, he figured he could at least be half right. When his college counselor explained that his grant money was exhausted, he'd already decided. "I had already, over the course of my freshman year, started producing in Ableton and fallen in love with it, skipped out on classes to continue to dive into music. Putting myself in this kind of student debt is a risk. If I'm going to take one risk, it's going to be on something that is my passion."

After an impressive campus tour and introducing his parents to his many friends, they asked him what he wanted to do. "And I'm like, 'drop out, leave it all.'" His parents were disappointed but recognized the maturity it took to admit that he needed to get real with himself about his future. Ultimately they kept an open mind and walked with him down the unconventional road he began to travel.

Several years into his journey, Ranger discovered how pivotal the decision to trust himself was. When he produced "Danni Girl," he knew he had a hit on his hands. Convincing record labels was an uphill climb. After a year of rejections, he was undeterred.

Dani Girl

"Maybe it was a bit of stubbornness on my part, but I loved that track." so much so that between himself and a friend he'd sent it to, the private track had over 400 plays on Soundcloud. "It was kind of the first moment in my career where I was like, I'm not going to let someone determine this track's value. I'm going to determine it myself. And if that means I gotta wait until somebody sees my vision here or believes in it the same way I do, I will wait ten years."

Spinnin' Deep picked it up a year later, and it became his first song to stream over one million plays. It wasn't just empowering. It was a testament to the future direction of his career. Having the final say on his creative capital inspired him to take his career into his own hands and start his label, Ranger.

Like many other artists before him, his label allows him to release the music he believes in without constraint or criticism. "I like that what I'm doing is different than other artists. And when you're trying to strip away that one thing that makes it me, to sound like somebody else just to give it a home on your label. That's disrespectful to how I view the record to my creative process."

In 2021 LP Giobbi said in an interview with Festival Insider, "Belief is the is the biggest currency that you need for doing this line of work. You have to believe in yourself. You have to have belief it's possible." Ranger Trucco beautifully embodies this statement. Through every step of the musical journey, he put his best foot forward and ultimately released himself to the power of his creativity.

"It's been a year now. [Ranger] has become my newfound purpose in this scene. It's become so much more than I ever thought it would be. I really did it at first to, you know, give myself peace of mind," he tells me. "It has gotten so much insanely sick engagement and love and support that now it's something that I want to turn into that free lane and that option for other producers.

With plans to open the label up for other producers' demos in 2024, Ranger is well on his way to instilling the power of self-belief into other artists.

When Space Yacht co-founders Londonbridge and Hiddenhen first played Ranger Trucco's "Tiffany" during their weekly Tune Reactor live A&R stream on Twitch in 2020, they were instantly entranced with the Michigan-born producer's crispy, clean warbling tech house beats, and cheeky vocal style. He was signed quickly to their record label and lauded as one of house music's fiercest and most creative young producers.

Seldom do you come across an artist who, in the early stages of their career, has such a firmly established aesthetic, well-attuned self-confidence, and blindingly positive self-belief. His confidence is core to his character and has allowed him to navigate a whirlwind of changes in both sound and stature that keep him on the cutting edge of the American house music scene. And even though his brilliantly constructed sonic footprint made him such a standout, he's unafraid to allow his inspirations to shift his focus.




"I like to just keep an open mind. I just like to be an outlet of what I'm getting inspired by," he explains to Gray Area. "I started by doing vocals on my tracks, all of my old stuff is original vocal, and I still love to write vocals. But if something else is gonna catch my attention, I'm not just going to suppress that desire to go for it. I don't want to live my life feeling like I always have to fit into a box...If I can, at a young age, let people know that this is what I do. I'm just gonna go for everything. I'm going to try to cover, a wide variety of stuff."

His muteable nature has guided him since childhood. He's traversed a musical roadmap that led him from listening to classic and alternative rock with his dad to hip hop and dubstep with his brother and exploring the depths of indie rock and house music on his own.



His memories are filled with musical traditions. "Music was just a part of everything we did. It was on during dinner. It was on in the car, when we were on the way to school, and on the way home from school. We used to listen to 'The Day That Never Comes' by Metallica before school to get all hyped up. We'd be going nuts in the car." Even the most mundane tasks were made more exciting with a soundtrack. "I used to take some sort of medication in the morning. And every time I'd take it (I'd have to drink it. It's kind of gross.), my dad would play 'No Faith In Medicine' by the White Stripes." It wasn't until he was a teenager that he realized that this level of intense exposure to music was unique.



As he began to explore the wonder of live music, visceral sonic experiences led to life-changing epiphany's. Shortly after picking up the guitar, he went to his first concert, Kings of Leon, and came home inspired to start a band. After his brother returned from Electric Forest fully wooked out, Ranger began to tag along to raves diving into the expanse of dance music together. Hoping to explore beyond the bass, he first recognized the power of house music when he went to Snowglobe Festival in Lake Tahoe for the first time, huddled on the dancefloor with thousands of snow-chasing dancers.




"I remember the next day, something in me [was] awakened," he says with a bright smile. "I loved how complicated the buildups would be. But that it would always revert back to the kick and bass carrying the whole thing. Everything about the arrangement...Just being obsessed with the BPM, the tempo, the crowd, everyone having space dancing."

By the time he started college in Oregon, he'd thrown his total weight into DJing and producing house music. He planned to make his dreams a reality, and after a year of school, his decisive self-determination (and a dash of youthful naivete) changed his path.




He had imagined that his newfound love for creation would lead to fame and fortune, so the fact that college would put him in the hole by thousands didn't bother him. When reality set in, he figured he could at least be half right. When his college counselor explained that his grant money was exhausted, he'd already decided. "I had already, over the course of my freshman year, started producing in Ableton and fallen in love with it, skipped out on classes to continue to dive into music. Putting myself in this kind of student debt is a risk. If I'm going to take one risk, it's going to be on something that is my passion."

After an impressive campus tour and introducing his parents to his many friends, they asked him what he wanted to do. "And I'm like, 'drop out, leave it all.'" His parents were disappointed but recognized the maturity it took to admit that he needed to get real with himself about his future. Ultimately they kept an open mind and walked with him down the unconventional road he began to travel.




Several years into his journey, Ranger discovered how pivotal the decision to trust himself was. When he produced "Danni Girl," he knew he had a hit on his hands. Convincing record labels was an uphill climb. After a year of rejections, he was undeterred.




"Maybe it was a bit of stubbornness on my part, but I loved that track." so much so that between himself and a friend he'd sent it to, the private track had over 400 plays on Soundcloud. "It was kind of the first moment in my career where I was like, I'm not going to let someone determine this track's value. I'm going to determine it myself. And if that means I gotta wait until somebody sees my vision here or believes in it the same way I do, I will wait ten years."




Spinnin' Deep picked it up a year later, and it became his first song to stream over one million plays. It wasn't just empowering. It was a testament to the future direction of his career. Having the final say on his creative capital inspired him to take his career into his own hands and start his label, Ranger.

Like many other artists before him, his label allows him to release the music he believes in without constraint or criticism. "I like that what I'm doing is different than other artists. And when you're trying to strip away that one thing that makes it me, to sound like somebody else just to give it a home on your label. That's disrespectful to how I view the record to my creative process."




In 2021 LP Giobbi said in an interview with Festival Insider, "Belief is the is the biggest currency that you need for doing this line of work. You have to believe in yourself. You have to have belief it's possible." Ranger Trucco beautifully embodies this statement. Through every step of the musical journey, he put his best foot forward and ultimately released himself to the power of his creativity.




"It's been a year now. [Ranger] has become my newfound purpose in this scene. It's become so much more than I ever thought it would be. I really did it at first to, you know, give myself peace of mind," he tells me. "It has gotten so much insanely sick engagement and love and support that now it's something that I want to turn into that free lane and that option for other producers.




With plans to open the label up for other producers' demos in 2024, Ranger is well on his way to instilling the power of self-belief into other artists.

Ranger Trucco

Articles

Other artists