And you thought Dutch dance music began and ended with only trance music? Kraak & Smaak, the team of Mark Kneppers, Oscar De Jong and Wim Plug, break the mold with funky house rhythms from a DIY perspective. Whether you experience their performances as a live band, their intense DJ sets, or their cutting-edge videos, you will definitely groove to the tracks from their impressive debut CD "Boogie Angst."
DJ Ron Slomowicz: How did you all meet up, the people in the group?
Wim Plug: There were the three of us, and Mark and I have known each other for about eighteen years. I knew
Mark when he started out DJing, and I started DJing at the same place, and I had a girlfriend at that time who was the
sister of his girlfriend. In any case, we liked the same kind of music, we liked to DJ, and we bought a lot of stuff
so we became friends and also sort of hung out together, staying in contact over the years. A couple of years ago, we
still had this big wish to make our own music, because we were always playing someone else's music as DJs. We knew
someone in our hometown in Lynden who started out in production, and we sort of got together and it clicked, and then
we just started to make some tracks to give it a try, we sent them around, and we wanted to send them to labels that
we
liked. Jalapeño was actually the first to bite, and from then on we just started producing twelve inches, and then
after that, an album.
RS: The major part of your performance is an actual live performance and not just DJ gigs. How do you
present your music in a live fashion, because electronic music usually isn't presented that way?
Wim: When the CD was released, we had the idea to do some promotional gigs, and we knew some people that
we thought would really make a good match with the music and also in terms of the performance. We thought, 'well,
let's do a couple of shows as a promotional thing and give it a try, and maybe if it works, we'll go further, and if
it doesn't, we'll keep it that way.' But the funny thing was that the live show became something special in and of
itself and got picked up by the press, especially in Holland. And so we decided to keep going and develop into a good
live band. And so we now have a bass player, a drummer, a percussionist, keyboard players, a male singer and a female
singer, and Mark or I are doing the DJ stuff and I'm playing keyboards. So it's sort of got a life on its own, it's
really fun.
RS: How has the live show been taken outside the Netherlands?
Wim: Well, we played a couple of times in Europe, in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium, and in
the next couple of months we'll also go to Budapest, which is really a big European festival. Then there's also a big
dance festival in Belgium, as well.
RS: So you're also coming over the US in a while, is that going to be a live band or a DJ show in the US?
Wim: We already did a small DJ tour in the US, a very small one, and I know for sure there's another DJ
tour coming
along. We hope to do a live show, but it's still very expensive. Hopefully, if all goes well with Quango, hopefully
there's something more possible, and of course we would like to go to the US again.
