In House With Karmin

It's time for In House, AOL Music's original series where we welcome artists to our office for interviews, live performances, photo shoots and hang sessions with the staff. Our latest In House guest is Karmin, the singing and rapping duo comprised of Nebraska native Amy Heidemann and Maine-born Nick Noonan. The pair met during their days at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. Apparently, the "super nerd contemporary music school" with turntable classes and hip-hop ensembles was the perfect breeding ground for a new genre of music, "swag pop."

After being catapulted to stardom thanks to a viral YouTube cover of Chris Brown's Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne-assisted 'Look at Me Now,' Karmin dropped their original debut single 'Crash Your Party.' The Runners-produced track samples the Black Sheep's 1991 hip-hop classic 'The Choice Is Yours,' which Nick started banging out on the keyboard to remind us all of which song they were talking about. After an impromptu live preview of the new track, Amy revealed that the group is aiming for a February release for their studio debut of originals. "They're throwing around the idea of Valentine's Day, which is kind of cute, I think." Did we mention, Amy and Nick are also engaged to be married ... to each other? Awww!

Karmin, who managed to finish one another's sentences throughout their entire visit, have recorded 40-50 songs together and are currently narrowing down the selection to make an album. "We've been working with the best of the best. It's crazy, we're so spoiled," Amy gushed after revealing the group has worked with everyone from famed production team Stargate (Rihanna, Beyonce), to superstar writer Claude Kelly (Bruno Mars, Britney Spears).


Videography by Elizabeth Bruneau & Kelly Mahan, Production by Elizabeth Bruneau

Do you rap on the album?

Amy: Oh Yeah! On the single for example, there's a speed rap and also a rap over the bridge

Nick: That's actually a rarity. It's usually all rap, or all singing.

Amy: We have songs on the album that are kind of like Kanye West-feeling. There are huge, industrial drums, vocals through guitar amps.

Nick: There's no swearing, but sonically it sounds really hard.

Amy: And we worked with this amazing producer out of Atlanta called Jon Jon, who did 'Déjà Vu' for Beyonce.

Nick: He plays drums and bass for Erykah Badu when she'd on tour, so he's an incredible musician.

How would you describe the sound you're presenting with your debut studio effort?

Amy: We've recently coined a new genre called "swag pop," which is a pop music base with a swag reduction [laughs] -- with sprinkles of hip-hop on top.

Nick: A hip-hop garnish, if you will.

Amy: It's definitely a new genre. I mean, all the stuff we're hearing on the radio these days is someone singing a pop hook and then there's a rap feature. So let's just be economical and just do it all!

Nick: Why outsource?

Amy: There will be times on the album when I'm rapping and then I'll just start singing a line, and then go back to rapping. It's just very free.

Nick: Hopefully it'll make sense when you hear it.

You started out only posting videos of you singing on YouTube, but it was your cover of a rap song, Chris Brown's 'Look at Me Now' with Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne that really went viral. How and when did you discover that you could rap?

Amy: I grew up in Nebraska, so it's obviously urban -- no, I'm kidding! All of my friends were country fans, and I just never got it. I never enjoyed country. So I would take my allowance to Walmart and buy Brandy CDs, SWV, Brian McKnight –- a bunch of R&B stuff, which had rap features. And I'm actually the grandchild of a pastor, so I wasn't allowed to listen to things with a "parental guidance" sticker on it. So, the only raps I ever heard were the little bridge raps, like Jay-Z on Mariah Carey's 'Heartbreaker,' and there's no cursing. So that's where that came from. And then I finally got the balls up to post my rapping publicly and I was mortified. He's [Noonan] the one who actually made me press the upload button. I love doing it -- in the shower! But I was like, "People are going to think I'm crazy," 'cause look at me! I don't look like a rapper!

Nick: Let's make this perfectly clear -- she is crazy.

Amy: It's true! But that was a real treat for me. The first one we uploaded was Nicki Minaj's 'Your Love' and it was like 8,000 views in a week, which at the time was huge for us. And then eventually it got to like four million views a week, after 'Look at Me Now.' That was the big one. The Busta Rhymes speed rap kind of did it for us.




What are the pros and cons of working with your significant other in a professional capacity?

Amy: Oh boy! You answer that, Nick! ... I think you have to be really lucky.

Nick: We've been dating for six years this past September, so we were already together for over four years when we decided to start the group. We went to school together, that's where we met. We were writing together and we respected each other a lot musically, but didn't really ever want to take it there, because then we're never not going to be together. But then after we graduated we said, "OK, what are we going to do with these degrees?" And then everything unfolded.

Amy: We just kind of slipped into it.

Nick: It's real life. If you have any bandmate at all there are going to be arguments ... but I consider us extremely lucky.

Amy: So it's not perfect all the time, but ...

Nick: And we never get alone time anymore, so when we're performing I find that I'm like flirting with her on stage [laughs]. And she's like, "Really Nick, you waited until right now to do this?"

Amy: People may think it's cute, but it's actually just pathetic, because we never get date nights. Next time you see a show, we'll be making out and you'll be like, "What's going on?" [laughs].

In all your YouTube videos, you seem to just have a lot of fun with each other and not take yourselves too seriously ...

Amy: I like that. I'm glad you picked up on that!

Nick: A lot of people take themselves really, really seriously.

Amy: Which can work with some genres.

Nick: But, that's just not us.

Amy: A lot of people ask why we don't curse in our raps.

Nick: It's not really authentic to us.

Amy: And that's what we're all about -- just being really transparent, too. We share everything on Twitter, We were suppose to get married a few months ago and we were like, "Hey, we had to postpone."

Why? What happened?

Nick: Everything! What it came down to was we're going to be together all the time anyway ... and I literally didn't even have a suit yet.

Amy: I didn't have a wedding dress, and so it was going to be a nude wedding, and that's so not our style!

Besides postponing the wedding, what has been the craziest moment for you since your YouTube rise to fame?

Nick: We got to sit down with Kanye West about a month or so after everything blew up and we had a two hour sit-down. He is an incredible dude. People have their opinions about him, but he was the nicest guy. He treated us like his peers.

Amy: Yeah, I think iHeartRadio Festival, too. There were all these superstars there. Chris Martin talked to us about how he heard our sound check and thought we were awesome.

Nick: We got to sing with Steven Tyler and Kelly Clarkson, we met Nicki [Minaj].

Amy: Nicole Scherzinger.

Nick: Joe Jonas.

Since you're naming all these artists, are there any collaborations on the album, or any you hope to lock down for the future?

Nick: Yes. I would love to see a Nicki/Busta rap-off with Amy. I would love to get Kanye on the album, but who doesn't. We might have to wait for album two for that one!

Watch Karmin's 'Look at Me Now' Cover