Kris Kross Amsterdam (KKA) was founded in 2011 by brothers Jordy and Sander Huisman. At the time they found that the Dutch club music scene was so focused on techno and house that they sorely missed the music they grew up with. As the brothers were DJs themselves for several years, they decided to organize a party called Kris Kross where they could actually play their own favorite music. The party name was a deliberate nod to the famous rap duo that stormed the charts in the early nineties with the classic track “Jump”. From there on, due to the success of the parties, the boys started to get DJ bookings as Kris Kross in their local scene. What followed was a quick rise in popularity so they decided to keep the name Kris Kross Amsterdam as a tribute to the 90s in general.
In an attempt to unite several different musical genres that were buzzing in the Dutch dance scene, a new successful concept was born. With an unique eclectic mix of R&B, hip-hop, twerk, trap and house from all decades the Kris Kross party developed into sold-out events at the biggest clubs in Amsterdam. In the summer of 2014, Yuki Kempees joined the group as their MC, completing KKA as a performance and DJ collective.
Kris Kross Amsterdam's track with Cheat Codes ‘SEX' has been a massive success. Hopefully you've heard the track… I mean it has been played over 50 million times on Spotify, and certified Platinum, so yeah. These guys have been officially put on the map as someone to watch, but with success comes higher expectations. The Dutch trio now have to continue to build off of this success by taking each and every release, and live show to the next level. I'm anxious and excited to see what's next from them. I had a chance to find out more about them, their style and what we can expect in the coming months. You can check out the full interview below.
Congrats on all the success with your track ‘Sex', How do you continue on that success?
“Thanks! The success of ‘sex' really came at the right time for us. Just before the summer and the festival season, so this summer we are truly gonna enjoy every live show, where people will know us for our song and will sing along. Of course we are spending days at the studio working on the follow up which we hope is gonna surprise our audience in a good way.”
Tell us a little bit about the new radio show you guys are launching.
“The three of us are all big music lovers, we've got so many favorite tracks we want to share with you, so a radio show seems to be the perfect place for us to share our favorites or just discovered tracks. We used to make a mixtape every three months and drop it on our Soundcloud, but we think a radio show is way more interactive and exciting!”
They just put out their first episode of Kris Kross Amsterdam Radio which you can check out below.
What can we expect from your upcoming ‘Sex' remix pack?
“The release will take place in May and we have a great variety of styles in our remix pack. We have a very cool drum&bass remix, but also EDM, trap and house. The names on the remix pack are insane, Gregor Salto, TWRK, TV Noise, Hasse de Moor, Carta and Jasper Dietze will be on there! Super exciting!”
What can we expect for the rest of 2016 as far as new music (remixes, originals, collabs)?
“We think we're gonna do everything you don't expect us to do. We love so many genres of music that we don't want to held on to just one sound, we think the variety in music is what makes music so awesome and we live in an era where we can mix all the genres together. We did a remix for DVBBS's LaLaLand, and we are always on the look out for cool collaborations.”
‘Sex' and ‘Until the morning' vary in style and genres, how would you guys describe your sound/style to someone?
“Yeah, just like we said before; we are big lovers of different kinds of music. Every genre that we like is something we want to explore musically, if you listen to us perform live on stage, you'll notice that we really play a lot of different styles of music and we want to do the same in making it. So we think the best way to describe our sound is ‘eclectic XL'.”
Where do you see your sound going in the future?
“We notice a change in electronic music, especially in Amsterdam at the moment. We see that the audiences are searching for a new kind of party, a party where there is more interaction with the performers, more rhythm, more of a live feeling. We predict that the pop artists and DJ's will melt together and that the next generation of DJ's will also be a great stage-act. Its way more than just mixing tracks together. It's connecting with the audience, it's playing with live elements, it's like a full concert, only played electronic. We want to be part of that movement, and our sound will be the proof of that.”
Could we see any more possible remakes of 90's songs? Kris Kross ‘Jump' remake?
“Would be great, although there are no plans yet. First we want to make our own original stuff. After ‘SEX' we don't want to be the guys who are only remaking classics, but to be honest there are some 90's songs that are so great that we might bring them back to life!”
Any plans of coming to the U.S. to tour?
“We do dream about it, every, single, night.”
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