Karmin, the dynamic duo who went viral on YouTube last April with their original cover of “Look At Me Now,” wants you to hear more from them than cute covers. Amy, a classically trained singer and self-trained MC, and Nick, a man of many instruments, make up the self-described “little band with a big sound.” But with a recent deal with L.A. Reid at Epic Records, an album in the works, and the release of their new single “Crash Your Party” last Thursday, it’s hard to think of Karmin as “little” anymore. The Rutgers Review caught up with Karmin before their show at Rutgers last week to talk about their new single, new album, and old-school love to perform.
Rutgers Review: You guys have a single coming out from the new album on Thursday.
Amy Heidmann: The single is coming out, and actually the album is all original stuff. So, I mean the album might have a couple bonus tracks on it that are covers, but the album itself will be all original stuff. We’re calling the genre SwagPop.
RR: Do you know what you’re calling the album yet?
Nick Noonan: We have about 45 songs that we’ve written and recorded.
AH: So many songs.
NN: We have to get it down to a few, so we feel like we can’t name the album until we know what’s really going on.
AH: We’re actually talking about putting out two albums in one year cause we have so many great songs. I hope our fans aren’t mad about it. I mean I’m sure they won’t be-
RR: We’re not! What’s the first single like?
AH: It’s called “Crash Your Party.”
RR: Are we gonna hear you rapping on the single?
AH: Heck, yes! It’s a 90s throwback, there’s actually a sample on there from a 90s hip-hop group, and I rap over that, and then we sing, and the harmonies, and there’s a kind of speed rap, kinda like the Busta thing. It’s really fun, it’s super groovy. I think people will like it.
NN: It definitely feels good.
RR: How does it feel to be playing for audiences who saw you on YouTube first? You guys were playing around live before you started using YouTube to get your name out.
NN: Playing around, and actually playing on streets.
AH: We played on street corners a lot, cause that actually was more exciting [than playing in clubs], because little kids can’t come to clubs, and people under 18 actually and under 21 can’t.
NN: We’d always get the kids to stop before the parents.
AH: Yeah, the kids would start dancing! So I think now it’s definitely different because now we feel a lot more gratitude when we’re performing ‘cause these people are the reason that we’re here. Like, you’re the reason we’re at Rutgers, you know what I mean?
NN: We kind of feel like we can just kinda do our thing and really go for it.
AH: It’s a lot more mutual love going on. You don’t have to really like, prove yourself. We just let it go.
RR: So we’re going to hear Amy rap on the new album, are we going to hear you sing more, Nick?
NN: You are, actually, there’s one we hope may be a third single, if we get there-
AH: Maybe second.
NN: Second or third single.
AH: Yeah, he sings, like, the whole thing. And I just rap and sing harmonies. It’s beautiful. It’s kind of like Lady Antebellum meets Kanye- it’s this crazy combination. It’s pretty crazy. We like that one a lot.
RR: How did it feel when your cover of “Look At Me Now” went viral?
AH: Unexplainable.
NN: It’s literally- what do you always say? Like a scene from?
AH: It was like a mix between The Social Network and Inception. For about a solid week, I don’t think I slept or ate anything.
NN: You’re afraid to sleep, because you’re afraid to wake up and it will all go away, right? But at the same time, there’s no stopping.
AH: There were like eight people at our house on laptops, just going through e-mails. We’d get eight hundred e-mails a day.
RR: And you guys are so great about interacting with your fans, answering people.
NN: Thank you, we tried to. But that was just like-
AH: We’d get like eight tweets a minute, and sometimes it would be a tweet from Ashton Kutcher, or Questlove. And we’d try to communicate with them, ‘cause now they’re following us. And so then we met up with Questlove and did the video for Superbass. It just kept going. And it’s still going. I mean our schedule now is crazier than ever.
RR: So which other artists have you met?
AH: Chris Brown, and Busta Rhymes
NN: and Kanye.
AH: They’re all like, just, you know, thanks for covering our songs and kind of spreading us to your audience.
NN: They were actually all really, really nice. Kanye was the nicest guy.
AH: Kanye. Awesome. He’s our favorite, I think. And Questlove, he’s amazing.
RR: Who’s your personal favorite?
Both: Right now, Kanye.
NN: “My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy” was kind of the reason why we decided to go so hard, and we told him that. He pretty much gave Karmin birth.
AH: I remember when we first heard the album we made mimosas or something, and we were just hanging out- (to Nick) Remember that? At my house? And we were just like oh, man, our music has to be harder. We’re just this cute duo. We need to really dive into the heavy drums, the rapping. So we did- after hearing that album. It was crazy.
RR: Do you feel like your new album is gonna be harder?
AH: Oh, yeah. It’s like our cover of 6ft, 7ft, but imagine that by somebody who knows what they’re doing. Cause that at-home production on the cover was all by us. The rapping has come a long way, too, ‘cause I’ve only been doing it for like six months (guess). But the album rapping is aggressive, then there’s quick stuff, with some super slow swag stuff.
NN: We are excited. I mean, you never know. You never know what’s gonna happen, obviously. We’re going to work really hard, and we’re really excited about it.
Crissy Milazzo