Kraakin & Smaakin

Sometimes you just need a bit of funk in your groove. Or groove in your funk. One group that provides both, along with some Soul, Jazz and a bit of Pop is Kraak & Smaak, which serves up a pretty potent cocktail of them all.

They've been putting out their concoctions of beats, instruments, synthesizers and vocals since 2003 when they became an immediate sensation with their single "Money in the Bag" and their subsequent album "Boogie Angst". The boys found themselves breaking into US pop culture, playing on the Jimmy Kimmel show and adding Kanye West and Perez Hilton as fans, yet they still balance their underground roots with their remixes, DJ gigs and Live show.

They have a new album about to drop, and the first single "Call Up to Heaven" gets the remix treatment from Gramophonedzie and Smoove. We got some insight behind the band to find out where all the Smaak comes from.

Stompy - What were the three of you doing before putting out your first 12" in 2003?

K&S - Oscar was attending conservatory, studying music production; Mark was in a dj duo that was very popular in Holland and Wim was a researcher at the local university. But we all DJ’d already for a longer time and wanted to produce our own music to play in our sets.

Stompy - What made the three of you want to start taking the step of producing together?

K&S - We already had been DJing for a couple of years and we felt we could add to the productions we were playing at that time. What would be nicer than playing your own records in your dj set? So we just started out having a try and it went really well from the beginning onwards.

Stompy - What were some of the first producing sessions like?

K&S - Just a lot of trying out; going through our record collections for the first time to look for samples; vocals, chords, beats. In no time we had the first couple of tracks together. At that time the only keyboards we had were a Rhodes, a Clavinet and a Roland JP8000; so we used those a lot too at that time.
-How did the formation of the first record, "Money in the Bag" come together?

K&S - It was just a matter of trying out samples and grooves, at that time still with Cubase on an Atari early 2K style. Mark found this great acappella of an old disco track and we fooled around with other sampled beats and sounds until we thought we had something funky.

Stompy - Did you think that it was going to make as much of an impact as it did?

K&S - No we didn’t; we just started out making the tune – and others - and sent it around to UK, US and European labels to see if they would react. We were inspired mostly by UK funky breakbeat stuff we played at the time, so it felt logical to contact those kinds of labels too.

Stompy - How has the band evolved from when you first started?

K&S - We started out making music in the studio and perform as DJs. When the first album Boogie Angst was released our then agent thought it would be a good idea to do some promos shows with a live band, and this worked out fantastically. So from then on we performed with both dj sets and a full live band.

Stompy - How did the relationship with Jalapeno come about?

K&S - When we sent promo’s of the ep around to see if labels were interested they were the first to be enthusiastic and contacted us immediately. They were the first label we sent our demo to as we liked their releases and played them a lot.

Stompy - Electronic music has started to catch on with the mainstream in the USA only the past couple years, with many of the Pop and Hip Hop acts incorporating dance music in their songs. You managed to break into the US pop culture fairly early, with appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and even Perez Hilton talking about you.

Do you feel more pressure or that your creativity is restricted when you become more popular with the mainstream population?

K&S - Not really, as we have always unconsciously tried to cover the ground that combines both underground and mainstream and we don’t feel pressured to try and be more popular. We guess that this appeal is already there in our approach to making music. We do like underground dance music a lot and that’s also the stuff we buy and listen to, but apparently our own productions have the capacity to be crossover.

Stompy - Playing live compared to DJ'ing each has their own unique experience, with Dj'ing more favored towards improvisation. How much of your live set is preparation and how much is improvised?

K&S - Of course the whole dynamic of dj and live shows are totally different. With the live band we solely play our own music, with the dj sets it’s more diverse (but growing more and more into a K&S only set, with the possible adding of MC’ing and vocals). With dj sets you can always decide which tune you are going to play next and be far more flexible, while with the live show you essentially do your setlist. Live we use a sequencer but as minimal as possible, for example to get those thick studio sounds across as well as possible and also for sounds that are difficult to recreate live. But apart from that we have vocals, keys, drums, bass and other sounds and samples played live on the spot.

Stompy - Have you guys been doing one or the other more? Do you have a preference on a live or DJ set?

K&S - They’re both great to do, again because of the different dynamic, and doing either one will make more sense at different places and different times. It depends a bit how much we play; the band often plays more when a new album is out and the dj sets continue year-round.

Stompy - Who was responsible for all the "research" for your Money in the Bag video? Europe is a bit more liberal minded when it comes to those types of images, but the States tend to be more reserved. Any funny stories or anecdotes from the shooting or distributing of the video?

K&S - Haha, well, the director got carte blanche, so you would have to ask him really – we only saw it when it was finished. We did have to get used to it to be honest, but it fits really well, perfectly in line with the fun tone of the track itself. They also did our other videos, including the famous flipbook video for Squeeze Me – which got lots of deserved attention.

Stompy - Your studio is filled with keyboards and synths. Which synth gets used the most and which is collecting the most dust?

K&S - Our favourite and most used at the moment is the Roland Jupiter 8, a great early 80s synth. We used to use the Fender Rhodes piano and the Hohner Clavinet a lot in productions but recently far less. But most of the keyboards still get tapped on once in a while, just to find out if it would fit with something we are working on.

Stompy - What is the studio dynamic like between the three of you?

K&S - Essentially Oscar is always in the studio behind the mixing desk trying out stuff and Mark and Wim walk in and out all the time, hanging around giving feedback, coming up with new records, samples, etc. So it’s not that we are always making music with the three of us.

Stompy - Is it 'majority rules' in the studio when you have creative differences, or do you guys handle it a different way?

K&S - In general we trust each other in our separate opinions; if one of us doesn’t like something we change it or delete it. Can’t really remember when it was majority rule but probably it will have happened once in a while.

Stompy - What's the concept behind the new album,?

K&S - There’s no real concept apart from the fact that we wanted to try and do more songs with guest vocalists and it was obvious that we we’re going to use more electronic stuff and less samples (or more subtle). All in all it felt like a natural development and progression, but it could well be that for the next album we will use more samples again. And it is still very Kraak & Smaak we think.

Stompy - Do you think the finished product is the exact vision you had when you started, or did it change as it evolved?

K&S - Well, it took a while before we had everything in its place; we threw away a lot too before we came up with the final tracks. But apparently that was necessary and the outcome has been perfect.

Stompy - Now that the album is done, what's next?

K&S - Perform live and dj as much as possible to let people experience the new album. We have a tour lined up for the end of April / May in Holland (album release show on April 28 in Amsterdam’s Milky Way) and doing a number of Dutch and European festivals this Summer (amongst them a dj set on Glastonbury). Parallel to that however we also want to start producing a new album asap and continue with our Kraak Beats dancefloor series, doing remixes (we just finished new mixes for Moby and Hurts). We already have lots of ideas and in retrospect it took too much time to make this album because of performing so much the last couple of years.