Crookers: what can I say that hasn’t already been said? If their music was a school-kid in the mid-nineties, it would have been prescribed a heavy dose of Ritalin, but the little fucker would have just flogged the lot to his druggy mates.

Now the Italian superstars are bringing out a new album Tons Of Friends – and the title doesn’t lie. Even Tiesto tried to be their new BFF: that’s how coveted their friendship is. I questioned these friendly fellows about their new album and what’s next for The Crookers.

I’m sure your schedule is looking pretty full, so what’s a day in the life of The Crookers like at the moment?
You’re right! The schedule is quite crazy at the moment. We’ve continued travelling as usual but on top all that there’s a lot of press that we have to do in order to reach a large audience that has never heard of us, which was one of the aims behind this album.

While the album had to be delayed because you tour more often than a couple of contiki guides, how do you think the extended production time helped improved the album?
The extra time really helped us to be absolutely sure about every single track. We came to the point of liking all the songs and that’s something we are really proud of!

Now that the album’s done will there be much time to kick up your feet in Milan between tours and album promotion?
We are still trying to put aside some time, especially in order to be able to produce more but still, touring will be hectic this year.

Some of your more recent live sets have moved away from the ‘fidget’ sound that you are so often accredited to, incorporating styles like dubstep and Caribbean flavoured booty beats; is this be reflected in the album as well?
Totally. The album reflects all the music that we like, and we listen to a lot of different genres of music, some that go beyond any definition, which is what we’d like to do ourselves!

We’ll see you boys return to our shores in June for the We Love Sounds and Winter Sound System festivals. What can music hungry punters expect to hear and see from you guys this time round?
I can’t actually tell what we’re going to play – not because it’s a secret, but because I just don’t know! We like to change our sets frequently and see how the crowd reacts to new and unheard music.

Say someone got really stoned and wanted to try and sync up Tons Of Friends with a movie. What movie would you suggest they try?
Half Baked!

Collaborations brought this album together – is there anyone left out there you haven’t collaborated with that you would like to? Will we see The Crookers feature on the next Tiesto album?
No joke, we were about to start a collaboration with Tiesto, but it didn’t work out. We’d like to find someone to work with that’s maybe not as famous but is as good and has talent.

Have you considered producing albums for a popular act, a la Justice producing Red Hot Chili Peppers’ next album?
Yes we have some ideas about doing productions for other people. It’s definitely something that is going to happen in the future.

I understand Bot likes to play a few instruments in productions; did he play any for the album? And did you guys sample anything obscure or strange for it that you can reveal?
I used to play instruments as a kid and teenager but I didn’t play any on the album, it would have sounded horrible because I’m really not that good! There’s a sample taken from the band Tungg in the track featuring Yelle; weird thing is we forgot all about it and only realised it a few days before the album was closed. Those were a couple of stressful days.

So if I weighed all of your friends, roughly how many tons are we talking?
Could be a quite few tons, considering the track with the most collaborations had 15 people involved!

Whoa, that’s not a collaboration, that’s an orgy. Finally, can you please tell your fans why they should go out and buy your album in haiku form? That would be great.
Go out and buy the album in haiku form! Whatever that means…

Tons of Friends is out now on Southern Fried Records through Liberator Records; read the review on inthemix. Crookers headline We Love Sounds and Winter Sound System around the country this June.