Spotlight: Buongiorno Bot! In a recent interview you describe yourself as "hip-hop in a house style", with your routes so firmly placed in hip hop, how come you decided to start producing primarily house music?
Bot (Crookers): From years ago we were both getting into electronic music, but we came from a hiphop background and we didn't think that hiphop and house could be mixed together, but then we heard artists like Basement Jaxx mix styles together, and we gained confidence because we knew it could be done. Hiphop is where we came from, and electronic music was what we were listening to, so putting the two together was kind of natural.
On your debut album, Tons of Friends, you have collaborated with such artists as Will.i.am, Pitbull and Kelis, exactly how much influence did they have in the productions? Was it a case of purely using their vocals?
Every track was different, sometimes when we got the vocal, we changed the track, like with the kelis track, and some tracks were made together in the studio so they told us what they think and how they feel, Will.i.am's was like that.
You reached number 2. In the uk charts with your remix of Kid Cudi's Day'n'nite back in January 2009, how do you feel about your massive commercial success? Would you prefer to be more underground?
No! I don't really care, it's great when you can do what you like! We made that track in 2007, so it took such a long time to go commercial. We made that remix with the same attitude all the other tracks, so when it gets to number two and goes really big, it's great. We don't compromise by trying to reach that level of success, so we're just really lucky. We were both really happy.
Last month, crookers.net celebrated it's 1st birthday, what have you achieved with the website in this time?
Well it's really cool, we didn't expect so many visits and it's really nice because we can put up tracks on the blog that we don't wanna release commercially, and it's also a good way to speak about everything you find interesting in music and everything you discover. It's not just about promoting yourself, but also promoting what you like. You can reach so many people this way, and otherwise people wouldn't know your name.
Which artists are doing it for you at the moment?
I listen to a lot of different styles of music; i really liked the last album of Starkey's [Ear drums and Black holes]. I like different approaches to dubstep; when a sound goes big and everybody does it, it becomes exploited. I like people who go to the next level.
Crookers (Phra - left, Bot - right)
Finally, what are your plans for the future? What have you got lined up for the coming 6 months?
Right now we're working on 2 EPs which are mainly dance oriented, one under another name, as we are doing collaborations, and another Crookers EP. We're also finishing two new singles for the us version of the album, as the album in the us hasn't been released yet and we wanted to add something different, because it has been out for months in other countries.
