You wouldn’t think that remixing a track about a fish would see your popularity explode around the world, but when the track in question is The Chemical Brothers Salmon Dance it’s bound to pique a few people’s interest. Italian production duo Crookers were fortunate enough to score remix duties on the tune, but it’s their original productions which have seen them tipped for bigger things in 2008. DJs Phra and Bot have been working together in their native Italy since 2003 to create tracks that take their house and hip-hop influences and twist them into a dirty concoction that has a little bit in common with the sound of Diplo and Busy P.
They hold down a residency on MTV Italy, and now their star is starting to rise internationally – so much so that the crew from Australia’s onelove have selected Crookers to mix one disc of their upcoming Sound Machine compilation alongside local heroes Matt Nugent and Grant Smillie. Here’ A tired-sounding Bot filled In The Mix in on recent happenings in the Crookers camp on the eve of their upcoming tour of Australia.
So where in the world have you been playing, at the moment, many gigs than in your home country of Italy?
Yeah, more and more we’re spending more time outside of Italy than in Italy. It’s good for us, especially with what we do. Travelling makes you see what all the different countries are like because everywhere is a little bit different, and it’s a good experience. It’s only been in the last year that we’ve started to travel a lot, but after last year’s (northern) summer we travelled a lot. And between November and last weekend there was only one weekend where we weren’t travelling. So it’s been very busy.
So tell us a little bit about your background, prior to the Crookers project.
Jean has been DJing for a very long time. He started when he was 14 or 15 years old. From my part I’m not a DJ, but when we are DJing in clubs and stuff like that I am playing live stuff over the DJing of Jean. I’m much more into the live playing of instruments. DJing was Jean’s first introduction to electronic music and production.
Aren’t you guys working on an album at the moment? It must be hard to work on your own music with all of that travel.
It’s a little bit hard and a little bit stressful! We get off the plane on the Sunday and then again Monday morning we are back doing music. We’re doing a lot of remixes and we have to prepare the album. We like to do it, but we don’t have days off. We always have to do something. But it’s good, I can’t complain about that!
So how’s work on the album progressing then?
It’s still not finished. It will have many collaborations, we’re sending the beats and tracks to people we’re like and telling them they can do whatever they like with the tracks. For now it is coming along nicely, we are really happy with how it’s coming. After this summer we think it will be finished.
What sort of musical direction are you exploring with the album?
It won’t be a collection of dance tracks, it will have more variations inside and more of the extremes of genres that we like to create something that is ours. It will have many different moods and intentions, not just one kind of sound. The Knobbers EP is actually the first single off the album, and these are maybe the only tracks that will have a more dancefloor vibe. But that gives you a good idea of what we’re doing now and represents us.
I first heard of Crookers through your remix of The Chemical Brothers’ Salmon Dance. How exactly did that remix come together?
That happened in a really curious way. The Chemical Brothers were here for a concert, and our agency here in Italy organised that for them. They were backstage talking about the new single coming out and our agent said that they should get Crookers to do the remix. They already knew some stuff of ours from what they’d been sent and they like it, so they said “we’ll send the parts next week and if we like it we’ll release it.” Luckily they liked it so they released it!
Has doing that remix given you guys a big boost of exposure?
Yeah, it’s played a big role. The Chemical Brothers are one of the biggest bands in electronic music so it gives you a lot of exposure so a lot of people who wouldn’t have the opportunity to hear you have heard you.
So tell us a bit about what went into mixing the CD for Onelive…
We worked together on the CD, but at the end it was Jean who mixed everything together. We discussed which kind of tracks we were going to choose and put on the CD, so we did work together on it closely. But it was more Jean’s job than mine. And we didn’t put any live playing on the CD, we keep that for when we’re playing in the clubs. We weren’t sure whether it warranted putting effects or anything else over the top of the tracks. The idea of the live stuff is to create a cool contact with the people by playing things rather than add anything to the track. Producers have finished the tracks and put everything into the track and sometimes you can’t add anything.
The Knobbers EP is available for digital download now through Southern Fried Records. onelove ‘Sound Machine’ is out now March 29th through Onelove/Sony BMG, and you can catch Crookers in action at the following dates…
Friday Mar 7 – Electric Circus, Adelaide
Saturday Mar 8 – Tank, Sydney
Sunday Mar 9 – The Prince, Melbourne
Thursday Mar 13 – Monastery, Brisbane
Friday Mar 14 – Metropolis Nightclub, Perth
And here’s the boys dropping that remix of Salmon Dance… Madness!
dj conteca says...
i can't wait to see these guys after future music ..
patrout says...
crookers absolutely destroyed One Love, but the kids @ tank have got to stop trying to shuffle and just enjoy the music, seriously.