crookers interview.

while seeking refuge from the swarms of costumed jokers, candy ravers and even a few imposter deadmau5's at the hard halloween festival in los angeles, i ran into bot from crookers as we were scouring the selection of halloween candy. he was nice enough to sit down and chat about whats new and whats next for these skittle-chomping italians.

bot: mama mia (looking at all the halloween candy on the table and picking up skittles)

miss toats: another american food that makes you want to throw up. what else makes you want to throw up?

this is junky sweets. blackberry balls and nothing else. i prefer technology. the food here is like everything meat. the pasta is shitty

processed processed processed. it can't really compare with italy.

wiley - summertime (crookers remix)

check the rest of the interview after the jump here

(mr oizo - positif comes on as boys noize is playing outside)

can you play a mr oizo song for longer than one minute? his stuff is crazy and doesn't really pay attention to any music-making rules.

yes we play that too. 'vous etes des animaux'. we did a special edit of it

what other up and coming artists are you loving?

proxy, congorock, andrea francesco....(starts singing in italian). we are playing alot more dubstep. caspa and rusko are #1. caspa's fabric live mix is incredible. it's pretty popular in the uk, but in italy and in the states it hasn't quite caught on yet. i think it will be the next big thing, though. its just full of new sounds and new production techniques. if pure dubstep doesn't catch on, i think that parts of it will at least inspire the next new trend.

people have raved about what an incredible producer you are and i've heard that you have a lot of new music that you don't release. what do you plan to do with it?

maybe you've just heard some of our edits or stuff that we make for our sets. sometimes we give it away to our friends. i mean we release alot as it is already, so we can't release everything that we make.

being in the trendsetting position that you are in, how do you plan to stay ahead of the trend and not get stuck in a certain sound. how will you keep your signature sound while pushing your music to new levels?

we try to listen to alot of new music in a lot of different genres so that we get inspirations from everywhere. and we have the mindset to never think that our music is better than anyone else's.

who have been your teachers/inspirations?

in the beginning it was basement jaxx, switch, of daft punk of course.

so do you see crookers moving away from the characteristic 'fidget' sound (sorry i know you hate that word).

yes, sure. on our new album we have more than just dance tracks. we have some uptempo, downtempo and mix it with some baltimore-ish sounds to make something different. maybe a way to make something 'new' is to take something old and put a new spin on it. i would get bored if i had to make a house track every day. i prefer to mix it up. i feel very intellectual, haha.

haha yes, you are sounding very intellectual and i think that benefits you when it comes to making music. you have to think outside of the realm of your studio and consider trends and consider where you get your influences and inspirations from. in this day and age when anyone with a computer can make music and post it on a blog and get tons of plays all over the world, there are alot more people vying for the attention of the same audience.

and sometimes you can't overthink things because it never turns out the way you want or expect it to. sometimes you just have to make something and put it out there for people to react.

are you guys considering playing live at all?

ya, it doesn't make that much sense to me because normally live sets are 90% fake. when you step on stage, most of the set has been already prepared before the show. you have to bring some gear and big stuff so that people are happy. it's a little bit fake, but maybe the most creative thing is making the stage setup or the edits for the show.

so what is your next step? where do you want to take your success and turn it into some new project?

well we want to produce busta rhymes, haha. i mean if you can produce mainstream songs and continue doing what you love, then that is the best thing that could happen. you get the largest audience possible and you still get to make the music you want. switch is a good example of a producer who started out making house music and is now producing albums other people in different genres. he's not limited to only dance music anymore. i think that we'd like to do something similar.

dance music is getting kindof mixed up a bit. the audience isn't ready for everything that some producers crank out. 'day n nite' for example...didn't you guys do that over a year ago? and i'm just starting to hear it on mainstream rap/hip hop radio stations right now.

yes in january it will be one year ago that we made that song. but there is always at least a group of 200 people in almost every city that is ready to hear the new stuff and dance like crazy. and those are my favorite types of clubs.