Interview: Camo & Krooked

January 18, 2012 By Zona 2,228 Comments

Camo & Krooked, otherwise known as Reinhard Rietsch and Markus Wagner, the Austrian, Drum and Bass superduo, had a indisputable year in 2011 as one of the frontrunners of the DnB scene. Hits like “Breezeblock” and “All Fall Down” left a prominent impact on the DnB and Dubstep genres. Over the summer, their album “Cross the Line” reached the top of the Beatport charts and solidified their presence in the EDM world as juggernauts in their field of expertise. No doubt, 2012 will see big things from the DnB superstars as they construct new sonic worlds of breakbeats and massive sounds.

What and when was the initial interest in electronic music that led you two to work together and to produce Drum & Bass? Inspirations, influential artists?

We have been making music for about 8 years now, which means we both had solo careers going before we joined forces. We even released on vinyl as “Camo” and as “Krooked” before we made our first tune together. The interest in Drum & Bass had been there for longer than that though. It was just the most energetic music we have ever heard at that time, and there was so much diversity within this genre. And once you listen to a lot of music, you just start to get together your own ideas and try to materialize them.

How did the name Camo & Krooked fit with your style of music? What is the origin of the name?

Basically when you render your first tune you have ever made, you have to entitle it. And then you realize that you should search for an artist name. So both names basically did not have any meanings behind, it was more or less finding cool words!

2011 was a huge year for you guys. How have recent trends in the electronic music scene, such as certain aspects of Dubstep and Electro House, influenced your productions? In what ways?

What influenced us more than the music itself was that with new genres, there have suddenly been a lot of new and very good producers around – producers who pushed boundaries in production skills/techniques and ideas. That was what we kind of missed in Drum & Bass for a while. We tried making a bit of Dubstep aswell while it was fresh, because it’s always good to have a wide horizon, and not just focus on one genre. But at the moment Dubstep feels rinsed for us. Too many people are trying to forward into one direction, so we focus on keeping the good old 175bpm alive and fresh!

Being signed to Hospital Records alongside other artists such as Netsky and High Contrast must have been very exciting. How has working with other producers made an impact on your work?

We have not made that many collaborations so far, probably because we are happy with our workflow as it is – adding somebody to it would just slow down the progress. In the future we would like to collaborate with people outside of the Drum & Bass scene though.

“Breezeblock” was one of the biggest DnB hits over the summer and arguably one of the best DnB tracks of the year. Could you talk about some of the production/personal aspects of that track? How did it help define your style and thrust you into the spotlight as one of the biggest names of Drum & Bass?

Breezeblock was one of the first tunes we wrote for the “Cross The Line” album. It felt a bit like it was showing us a new way we could move towards. We always wanted to convert the choppy vintage, analogue French Electro sound to Drum & Bass since we are big fans of Justice, Sebastian and the whole Ed Banger lot.

What do you guys find to be the most difficult part of producing music? (mixdown, composition, drum processing, ect…?)

It always depends on the tune really. Sometimes you are struggling with having the drums sounding right. Sometimes you just can’t find a catchy melody that carries the tune and sometimes the mixdown can be a real pain! But in the end we are always happy with the results. If we are not happy with something in the first place, we don’t even finish it.

What kind of DAW do you use for your productions? What synths, plug ins, or software do you find the most useful?

We use FL Studio 10 and mostly the Native Instruments plugins. Sylenth1 is very crucial in our productions too. For effect plugins we mainly use the Fabfilter, Nugen & Izotope stuff and Amplitube is a important tool for us aswell. Some of the FL internal plug-ins should not be underestimated either.

What do you believe your strengths to be when performing live shows? What are you currently trying to improve on?

Our DJ set differs a lot from other DJ sets. We always play out together. So we can use the magic of 4 hands on 3 or sometimes even 4 CDJs. We try to squeeze in as many tunes as possible, without sounding too busy. We spend a lot of time trying to find the right mixes in the studio. There is always room for improvement – finding better mixes is one of them.

Having an upcoming tour in the US must be pretty exciting. What are some of your favorite venues/countries to play at? Do you guys have any specifically memorable shows you’ve played that have stood out in your minds? Why?

There are a lot if cool venues in the whole world. Each venue is different. Sometimes the small venues are even better than the big ones. Brixton Academy London, Warehouse Project Manchester and Flex Vienna are probably our favorite clubs. The most epic gig in 2011 was our homecoming live-show in Vienna in December. One for the books!

Where do you see the EDM scene going in relation to the Drum & Bass scene? How can you compare it to where DnB was just a few years ago?

Drum & Bass is going to become more popular, mostly because it’s like the brother of Dubstep. We think the borders in every genre are vanishing, and there is more and more crossover stuff coming out. That means we probably see Deadmau5 playing a Drum & Bass tune in 2012. Who knows! There are definitely exciting times ahead.

What was your most significant moments as producers in 2011? Can we expect big things in 2012?

Winning three awards at the Drum & Bass Arena Awards this year, especially “Best Producer” was a big honor for us. Also getting a lot of great feedback and respect from the big names and producers in and outside of the D&B scene was quite pleasant.We have just finished our remix album of “Cross The Line” which will come out in March. It contains remixes by artists we are feeling and supporting, aswell as remixes by yours truly.

We really appreciate the interview from one of the biggest names in DnB. We’ll see you March 16th at the Factory in San Francisco. Keep making music.

We are very much looking forward to play there!