Dutch producers Kraak & Smaak quite obviously have their eyes firmly fixed on world domination following the runaway success of their latest single “Squeeze Me“. This catchy little ditty features the mighty Ben Westbeech on vocals and quite literally had the world DJ fellowship salivating at the mouth at the prospect of a forthcoming full album from K&S. With “Plastic People“, their second full-length out now, the Kraak & Smaak boys are celebrating in style with Summer appearances at the likes of the legendary Glastonbury and Bloom Festivals. Keen to find out the secret of their success, Gavin Leversuch got together with the guys for a quick chat in today’s 5pm Interview.

Things have been exploding for you lately, hitting the #1 spot on iTunes Holland and even getting picked up by the infamous Perez Hilton blog in the States. How does it feel with everything suddenly going crazy? Did you expect it?

“This week we all had to buy big 70’s sunglasses because we can’t walk the Dutch streets unnoticed anymore. Parents offer us their daughters, we are not allowed to pay for anything in restaurants, parking tickets are torn up… It’s hell being famous! Actually we’re planning to move to LA, and move next door to Perez. We’re sure we can grow up to compete with the regular Hollywood sleaze if we get the chance.“

“André Maat has so many good ideas we stopped trying”

You have some very cool videos, particularly for new track Squeeze Me, but Money In The Bag is great too. Do you have any creative input on these, or do you just have a great team you put total trust in?

“Well we always try to, but the director of all these videos, André Maat, has so many good ideas we can never come up with anything better so we stopped trying, which is difficult as we have opinions about everything that concerns our music. But apparently he’s in touch with our music even more than we are! All we can do is to let him go on working and see what happens. We did have to cut out all the flipbooks he used for the Squeeze Me video though, it took us weeks to complete. Keeps our feet on the ground; a proper job”

Check out the flip-tastic “Squeeze Me” video below:

With Squeeze Me being so well received, what’s the next single from your new album going to be? Do you expect it to be as popular?

“We’re still thinking about that but chances are that it will be the title song off the album, ‘Plastic People’. It’s different in style, more electronic than Squeeze Me but at the same time it again has that unmistakably K&S feeling to it, tasty but with a crunch to it. It’s a co-production with Mark Brydon of Moloko fame and features Bobby Nio on vocals. At the moment we’re finishing a classically styled radio edit. You know, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus. Hope that works!”

“The great thing about a proper live band is the amount of communication you have with your public”

You obviously feel it’s important to take your show onto the live circuit. Do you feel this is an underused tool by dance acts, and what edge do you think it gives you?

“For lots of people a live music show is still the standard to which a band is judged and many dance acts unfortunately have not been able to translate their music into something that goes beyond one or two pale white nerds hiding themselves behind a laptop and raising an arm now and then. The great thing about a proper live band is the amount of communication you have with your public. It’s often far more direct than with DJs or ‘laptop performances’, it’s, well, you know, ‘live’ with real persons and all. Duuuhhhh”

With the new album coming out have you got any new additions planned for the live show?

“We will continue to play with the live musicians we have worked with over the last couple of years. They are great to work with and are tried and tested. However, the Plastic People album gives us a new versatility for the live set from the Boogie Angst ‘party funk’ side that we became known for. We are still brooding over the possibilities of developing it into a more balanced live show, with more space for both clubby tracks and more atmospheric stuff. We already tried that out at our recent gigs at Fabric for Breakspoll and Cargo for AIR. Either way, we have options galore as far as we are concerned!”

What’s next in the Kraak & Smaak plan for world domination?

“We’re going over to the UK for the festival season. We’re playing Glastonbury and Bloom so far and hoping for more, to see if we can acquire a live foothold in the UK too. We have always had great press on our records up until now but we also want to let the people know what we can do live. By the way, who’s the UK equivalent of Perez Hilton?!”

(Interview: Gavin Leversuch)

Kraak & Smaak’s Current Top 5:

  1. Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw cuts#2 - Faces Records
  2. Midfield General - Disco Sirens (D.I.M. remix) - Skint
  3. The Count of Monte Cristal - Dibby DJ (Original) - Cheap Thrills
  4. Shut Up and Dance - Glory Days (Original) - Shut Up and Dance Music
  5. Trentemoller - Miss You (Trentemoller remix) - Audiomatique