A night celebrating Kismet the new EP from R&B/Jazz collective CROOKS INC.
I listen to a lot of new music. That much should be known by this point. It’s part and parcel of this job, really. I spend countless hours every week (about 4) searching for new music from people I’ve never heard of, and I let the algorithm do the work for me the rest of the time. Even still, it’s rare for me to find a group that have such a unique sound and so much blatantly obvious potential. It’s rarer still for them to want to chat to me and invite me to their project launch party.
This is the story of how I got to interview one of my favourite up-and-coming bands – and was offered a job serving Peter Crouch.
CROOKS INC. are a six-piece collective who met while studying at BIMM Music Institute in Fulham (notable alumni include George Ezra, Ella Mai, and Fontaines D.C.). They describe their music as being akin to ‘90s R&B with jazz influences, also touching on neo-soul. They consist of Aya (vocals), Dan (guitar), Jacob (drums), Mia (bass), Tom (saxophone), and Zac Crooks himself (keys).
I believe I first stumbled upon them on Spotify’s ‘Fresh Finds UK & Ireland’ playlist (not quite an algorithm job, but not too far off). It was almost a year ago and they had just released their track Let Go – a song that explores maturity and situationship culture. It’s lyrically potent and instrumentally perfect, each member pulling their weight to complement the others and drive the song forward. I played it that week on my show Silly Little Jams, Fridays 1pm-2pm (shameless self-promotion, I know, I know). I tagged them in my promo, they responded, and we struck up a conversation.
Since then, I think I’ve played each of the other three tracks they’ve dropped. We talk intermittently. They even messaged me just to check in once. After being invited to their launch party for their upcoming EP Kismet, I was very grateful when they agreed to do an interview with us before the proceedings kicked off.
I arrived two hours and fifteen minutes early. The two hours were planned; I blame Citymapper for the extra fifteen minutes. I perched myself outside Bread & Butter, our central-Shoreditch based hosts for the evening, trying to look relatively nonchalant.
My cover may have been blown when Aya and Mia walked past me and I shouted, “Are you CROOKS INC.?”, at them, before scrambling to explain who I was. Ten minutes later and I was helping them hang up their DIY-merch on coat hangers. By DIY-merch, I do indeed mean charity shop t-shirts with ‘CROOKS INC.’ recently spray painted onto them. I actually quite liked them.
I managed to pull Aya and Tom away from the setup for a fifteen-minute interview, for which I am extremely grateful. Here are five things I learned:
- Kismet, the name of their new EP, is a Turkish word with Arabic routes that doesn’t get translated between languages – it’s always ‘Kismet’. It’s something said whenever anything good or bad happens. It is a way of understanding that something was meant for you, or something better may be around the corner.
- The group are still figuring out the creative process and there are certainly challenges that being a six-piece brings about.
- The baseline goal for the next few years is simply to remain together. They’re also interested in seeing how their sound changes and grows over time.
- If you’re new in the industry, their advice is to make friends with others, push your music out there as much as you can (streaming service playlists etc.), do all of that marketing stuff, but make sure your primary focus is making good songs – because if you don’t do that, none of the rest of it matters.
- I say ‘guys’ too much and do weird little head ticks when I’m listening to someone (this was only noticed upon watching the video back).
I’m a big fan of Bread & Butter, by day a vintage clothing store but at night one of the ‘it’ venues that Shoreditch still has to offer. It’s nailed its aesthetic, and I would love to work with them directly in the future. That being said, it perhaps wasn’t the ideal venue for this occasion. The proportions of the room don’t lend themselves well to so many people, I believe there were over one hundred there that night. It was a struggle for the band to get to the stage even before they had begun their set.
On a night where family, friends, and fans all wanted to watch CROOKS INC. perform in such a significant moment, there were many who were way too far back in this narrow room to catch more than an occasional glimpse of one of the six members. If you did see a member, this would most likely be Aya who chose to stand on the sofa to elevate herself and give more people a visual of what was happening at the front. But they sounded great, and that’s the main thing.
We should probably talk about the music itself. They were brilliant. I was already a fan, and they didn’t disappoint, but when I was talking to Christie (our director of videography) and John (a tall geezer who I got chatting to) they had loved it almost as much as me – without having ever heard this group before. I think this goes further and means more than anything I could say. If you want to see high-quality, groovy, live instrumentation with poignant lyrics, look no further.
Although the group have played multiple live shows before, including festival appearances, such as The Great Escape a few weeks ago, they were doing everything themselves tonight for the very first time. Well, almost everything…a personal highlight of mine was when Mia broke through the crowd just before the music started playing to give a seemingly random man standing next to me (who did turn out to be their producer) a tablet from which he had to control their volumes and sound for the next hour. He had been blissfully unaware that this task was to be bestowed upon him until that moment.
Other shoutouts I’d like to give were to Aya’s partner (I forget your name) who gave us a chair so we could precariously attach a camera to the ceiling to record from an overhead angle, to the aforementioned Big John, who had wandered in without knowing what was going on, vibed, helped us get the camera down, and then disappeared into the night, and also two people who came all the way from Preston to see the band play.
All-in-all it was an intimate affair. For anyone who read my review of CloseUp festival last month, you’ll know this is right down my alley. The band were hanging out afterwards and making a point to talk to as many people as they could, despite so many of their close friends and family being there as well. On the subject of family, someone (I believe it was Dan’s mum) provided two exquisitely decorated (and exquisitely tasting) cakes. It’s something you don’t get with bigger, more established artists. This did, of course, lead to arguments over who got to eat whose head. But emotions were high.
On a personal note, this was the pick-me-up I needed after losing my job training AI the very same day – I’d really been taking some liberties, so it was very much deserved. This is what led me to a conversation with Jacob’s other half who basically offered me a role at a members’ club where Peter Crouch and Renee Zellweger have been known to be attendees. We’ll see how much of a struggle the job market is before getting back to her. (That’s it. That’s the whole Peter Crouch thing. I just thought it was funny to put it in the sub-header.)
CROOKS INC. are going to have a short break now before diving into new music. By the time this goes out, the break may have already ended. There are definite challenges to having six people in one group, ones that they’ve already faced in full, and others that will probably only become more pronounced as things (hopefully) take off with them and they go from strength to strength. I can really see them on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury in 2027. But surely, no matter what happens, tonight will motivate them and propel them forward.
Go listen to them. You won’t regret it.
Kismet xx
- Alex Ferry (Head of Music)
