Crookers are synonymous with their fidget house remixes of The Chemical Brothers, ACDC and of course Cleveland hip-hop singer Kid Cudi. But while the who’s who of the music industry have been falling over themselves to help secure the Crookers remix treatment, the boys from Milan are yet to release their own debut album. The reasons for the delay, their desire to remain true to themselves as well as their impending return for the 2009 edition of Stereosonic were all discussed during ITM’s recent chat with Bot, who along with Phra makes up the Crookers.

Extensive touring on the back of their existing success has left little time for Bot and Phra to concentrate on work of their own; but not for lack of trying. “I don’t understand it [the delay]”, Bot explains. “The album just needs one more track on it. To me the album should go out the same day you finish it, but the label needs to do all their promotions on it and stuff like this.” I seized the opportunity to ask what their friendship is like after staying on the road for so much time, and I discovered that a demanding schedule actually helps their friendship. “We are not together everyday because of travelling which works better for us and for productions because we don’t argue so much. And when we’re home, we have separate studios, but the same setup so we can send stuff to each other.”

Bot is pleased with their remixes of the lip-synching diva Britney Spears as well as U2, but he’s keen not to remix too many commercial acts. “We don’t want to do too many popular remixes, we are preferring to do more of our own tracks that we want.” As a whole, Bot claims they don’t really feel part of the emerging popularity of fidget house, and instead are trying to diversify their sound. This is in no small part due to the flexibility they have been allowed with their label Southern Fried Records, which is owned by Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Sim. “He lets us do what we want, and there’s no pressure. Because he is a DJ and he knows us well, he just lets us produce what we want to produce.” Bot says this will be evident in their upcoming debut album Tons of Friends. After some quizzing, Bot goes on to explain the meaning of the title. “Because it has tons of tracks, and we got it done with tons of friends.” Naturally! “We didn’t want to just make a dance album, so we collaborated with all of these wonderful artists.” The album contains contributions with a selection of artists that the boys have been impressed by and are eager to work with, including Soulwax, Spank Rock and Major Lazer. However, the highest esteem was saved for Moloko’s former singer, Roisin Murphy, who was clearly their favourite. “She had great ideas, was really professional and after we finished the track in two days, we had two hours left so she suggested we do another one. And we did.”

Although fellow Italian fidget house duo The Bloody Beetroots took a bit longer to show their silver on the international market, Bot is hesitant to taking credit for paving the way for their success. “They’re great and we’ve been friends for a while, but they have worked hard to achieve the way they have.” So what are the chances that we’ll see an epic back-to-back performance on the Stereosonic 2009 tour? “We’ve done it in the past and it was great, but our travelling makes it much harder to do it.” But after we pointed out the ease over which they could stage an “awesome foursome” adventure over the next two weeks, Bot was quick to play it down. “I don’t know, we may want to focus on our own sets.” So that’s a… ‘maybe’, is it?

It’ll be their second appearance on Australia’s newest national dance festival, so they’re keen to show the way for the ‘debut’ artists on the bill, and have promised more of the same of what we saw on previous tours. “Partying, friends and fucking cool music!”

I Love Techno, mixed by The Crookers is out now in Australia through Stomp. inthemix is a proud presenting partner of Stereosonic in 2009! Keep your eyes peeled to our Festival Page at inthemix.com.au/stereosonic and check out the national tour dates below…

Sat 28th November – Moore Park, Hordern, RHI & Surrounds, Sydney
Sat 28th November – Foreshore, Canberra
Sun 29th November – Claremont Showground, Perth
Sat 5th December – Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, Melbourne
Sat 5th December – Bonython Park, Adelaide
Sun 6th December – Eagle Farm Racecourse, Brisbane