Say Hello to Karmin

MANILA, Philippines - Here’s another YouTube sensation that’s ready to explode in the mainstream music scene. That is if, it isn’t happening yet. But for certain, we’re going to hear more from Karmin (pronounced as “Carmen” which means song in Latin) especially after the release of the duo’s debut album Hello tomorrow, May 8.

The STAR had a talk with Karmin’s Nick Noonan and Amy Heidemann over the phone last week and we learned that they aren’t just a music duo but also a real-life couple. They met as students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston (he studied jazz trombone, while she took up songwriting and some music business classes). The romance came first and the music partnership followed. The real-life chemistry is one main reason that they decided on forming a tandem, and not a group, or even go solo because with their individual talents, they can pursue music careers separately.

Nick said, “We had tried a bunch of things with other people and by ourselves, but since we had been dating for four years at that time, and always spending time together, we thought, why don’t we just take everything completely into our own hands, and start our own group together.”

Amy added, “Yeah, because we have so much chemistry in real life, and the music that came was so magical, so we figured let’s just keep it between the two of us.”

In May 2010, the band, whose musical influences include Kanye West, The Beatles, Coldplay, John Mayer, Dr. Dre for him and Brandy, Lauryn Hill and Gwen Stefani for her, released a demo and like many an aspiring artist of this social media age, took to YouTube to post videos of its original music. (Not to mention their degrees weren’t getting them any jobs after graduation, according to Amy, so they had free time on their hands to keep themselves busy on YouTube.)

Still, nobody was noticing.

Amy recalled, “We noticed that nobody was searching for a duo called Karmin. We’re very unknown at that time so the cover songs were one of our strategies to get more fans and I think it worked!”

Amy and Nick became YouTube stars thanks to sassy, edgy and high-energy covers of current hits. Racking up to date 200 million views for their videos, Karmin was getting tagged by fans as “the little band with the big sound.”

It was actually Chris Brown’s Look At Me Now that had netizens clicking away to check out the duo’s cover after cover. It was one of the most-watched YouTube videos of 2011.

Nick said, “It went viral, it went crazy, it got millions of views, and then we had opportunities to talk to many different labels immediately right after” that led to the signing of Karmin’s first recording deal.  

“When you’re choosing a record label, it’s almost like getting married,” Amy added, “because you realized you’re going to be with them for your career. So when we met L.A. Reid (chairman and CEO of Epic Records), we thought, this is our guy!”

Even as Karmin first caught notice through covers, which were given the nod of approval by their original singers such as Kanye and Nicki Minaj, the band finally gets to showcase songwriting chops in Hello with eight singles that Nick and Amy collectively describe as “swag pop” — sounds pop, but obviously inspired by hip-hop. 

Amy said, “Hello is a nice collection of songs, but there’s a lot of rapping, harmony, acoustic guitar, trombones, and a lot of big hip-hop drums.”

Karmin had considered making some collaborations with big-name artists, “but when we took our songs to L.A. Reid, he would rather that this album is hundred-percent Karmin,” Amy shared.

For Karmin, the songwriting process begins with the drumbeat and then the band creates “some type of a melody on top of it and then lyrics come in last.”

The music-making does get in the way of date nights. “We try to do date nights and things like that, but sometimes it’s tough. We just try to make it work. Whenever we have downtime, we stop and talk,” Nick said.

Nick and Amy describe their all-original debut album Hello as ‘swag pop’

Both admitted though that being a couple has kept the band tight and together.

Amy said, “I think it does help. There are times when we go through (things) that are really difficult. We help each other get through it. And there are times when we fight over something about the music. But at the end of the day, when we get on the stage, in front of our fans, and perform our music, we realize that it’s much bigger than that now, and it keeps us together, too.”

Nick and Amy gave advice to those still hoping against hope to score their big break through YouTube.

Nick said, “Be consistent, post as much quality content on a consistent basis, and then find what’s unique about you and stick to that.”

Amy added, “I think for us when we posted one video every week, and then we found out that people enjoy my rapping, that was the big secret, so we try to do that as much as possible. It actually took us a long time. We were not an overnight success, and we posted over 40 videos before one that really got popular.”

In other words, it wasn’t an easy ride, but they’re glad to have stayed on and persevered. 

Amy said, “Definitely, over the last two years since Karmin has been a band, we had a lot of ups and downs like a rollercoaster really. But you just have to remember why you got into music in the first place, which is because you love it. So, I think that as long as we can have fun then we’ll be good.”