The world of EDM has been blessed by Krewella’s music. The team that supports Krewella introduced us to Yasmine & Jahan Yousaf, the most dynamic sister duo in the entire music industry. Last Thursday night I had the pleasure of attending their New World Tour in Seattle and had one of the best show experiences of my life.
Nothing really beats getting to interview your favorite artists and vibing out with a lit crowd.
Krewella Interviews With Respect My Region
RMR: Hello ladies! I wanted to kick off this interview with a really simple question about how long you guys have been working at this music/DJ lifestyle. You’ve been at this for about 10 years now, right?
Krewella (Jahan): Almost 10 years now, not at this level though. It started out as a hobby.
RMR: How do you guys feel about how much you have expanded over the years?
Krewella (Jahan): Well, timeline wise, we definitely started 10 years ago, but we didn’t start touring until about 2011. So we’ve been touring & living this kind of lifestyle for about 6 years now, which still feels like a lot when you think about it. It’s amazing just to see, cause you know fans come and go all the time. There are people who love the first record, but never stay on to get at the next records. But we see the same faces, and more and more it grows every time at every show, so it’s nice to know that we have this amazing fan base that’s willing to grow with us. I mean seeing the fans out there. I’ve seen those faces for years now, it feels like we have this beautiful, I guess you can call it just this family. It’s a family is what I call it, that keeps growing just bigger and bigger, and it’s global, which is beautiful. I feel very lucky.
RMR: So, where the music industry is now and where it’s going, what is your opinion on it?
Krewella (Jahan): Well, I think we just keep doing our own thing. Cause we’re living in a time when the trends are changing rapidly at an exponential rate as far as even like hits, there’s a new hit every single week.There’s a new viral song. If you’re always chasing that & always trying to keep up with that then you’re going to lose sight on what your own vision is. So yeah, Yasmine & I just really stay in our lane and focus on what we’re doing. To be honest, I love to listen to music, new music as a fan an absorb that, and listen to New Music Friday on Spotify, but as a fan. Then when we get into the studio Yasmine and I continue to do our whether it be us merging this world of ethnic percussion, bollywood sound with electronic dance, and staying focused on that not diverting our attention on what we thought was hot last week.
RMR: You guys just came out with a song with Yellow Claw. What was the process of you guys creating a track while on the road? Do you guys send each other your work or do did you guys do studio time together with them?
Krewella (Jahan): This was all through the internet. Yellow Claw, every song is a different process. We wrote that one before we were touring. So we were pretty much in the studio every single day. We sent them the entire vocal with the hip-hop beat under it, the intro. They finessed an amazing drop, sent it to us and we thought it was so cool and different from trap & dubstep we’ve been hearing at the time. We kept going back & forth through email, for several weeks. They were touring too at the same time, so I gave it to them for touring and also producing. Those guys work really hard, I’m pretty sure they’re always working.
Krewella (Yasmine): They’re monsters, they’re beasts, they’re constantly working. They do so much themselves. The clothing line, the music, the shows, music video directing and editing.
Krewella (Jahan): We have yet to see them in person though, in the studio. We see them here and there at festivals, but in the studio, we haven’t made that happen.
RMR: So far, how is the tour going?
Krewella (Yasmine): So much fun!
RMR: Is it different compared to the past tours you have done?
Krewella (Yasmine): I think it’s different because this is a tour we’re singing more than ever.
Krewella (Jahan): It’s a 90-minute set.
Krewella (Yasmine): It makes sense we’ve been releasing music since 2011. So at this point, we have the most songs we’ve ever released out. So, we’re singing like 30 of our own songs during the set, so it’s constantly going back and forth between singing and djing. it’s a lot of singing. it’s the most we’ve done on a tour but it’s so much fun, and I think this tour is the same size as the tour we did back in 2013 but it just feels different now because we’re a little older, we’re different, we’ve grown a little bit more but yet we still feel like kids. So, we’re kinda at this new phase of our lives so obviously it’s going to feel different, but it’s been really fun.
RMR: I had read somewhere that one of you has a Kurt Cobain tattoo, playing in Seattle do you feel a big connection with that?
Krewella (Yasmine): I do! We’re actually on tour with Unlike Pluto, he’s the support right now and we’re both just, mildly is a bad term, I think it’s more than mildly obsessed with Nirvana. I think it was my first obsession in music. When I was really young I’d hear Nirvana songs & my dad would always tell me about Kurt Cobain but I didn’t really understand yet, and then I found all of Nirvana’s music at the library. I would get all the CDs and download them when I was like 10 or 11. Just fell completely in love with the music even though it was so dark & what Kurt was saying half the time with things that I didn’t even feel yet because I was like 10 or 11. I connected with it so deeply and still to this day, I have so much love for that band, and they shaped who I am today. I really feel that way, so Seattle is like one of the cities I come to and feel the spirit here.
RMR: So, you guys came out with New World Pt. 1, is there going to be a part 2?
Krewella (Both): There will be!
Krewella (Jahan): We’re just focusing on singles right now and they’ll slowly all come together as a package. I think really what fans want right now is little bits here and there, instead of waiting months and months to give them another project.
RMR: What do you guys like to do outside of music that contributes to your creativity?
Krewella (Jahan): We’re big nature people, we actually spent yesterday hiking at Rattlesnake Ledge. It was a great hike.
Krewella (Yasmine): It was beautiful.
Krewella (Jahan): For me, I live for whenever I get to a city and if I have half the day off or even a day off I love just wandering. I love wondering alone too, it puts me in this place where I’m just observing & it just puts me in a place where my imagination is going crazy. I love just exploring. I definitely have explorer blood in me.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ6n8dLllsL/?taken-by=krewella
Krewella (Yasmine): I think we both read a lot, but I feel like it has a lot to do with everything we make too. because, we don’t really think about this when we’re reading & when we’re taking in words all the time, and sometimes when you’re reading something that’s beautifully poetic or I know Jahan you read Philosophy, & I read a lot of SciFi (science fiction) and fantasy, but all the books I read and the beautiful usage of language I think that has a huge impact on the music and lyrics we write. We probably don’t even realize it.
RMR: What is the most interesting thing about each of you that nobody would know initially meeting you?
Krewella: This is a hard question!
Krewella (Jahan): Okay, I would say Yasmine’s intellect is something.
Krewella (Yasmine): AWH!
Krewella (Jahan): I think hardcore fans could sense it because hardcore fans like really digging through interviews and social media. But Yasmine is very very intellectual.
Krewella (Yasmine): So is Jahan. It’s funny because when you hear us on stage we’re like WHATS UP MOTHERFUCKERS and we have the worst sailor’s mouth on stage, I mean I have a really bad sailors mouth in real life off the stage too, but I do think that we love to talk about, we love to critically think about the world, and literally everything, I think Jahan & I can get into crazy conversations. We don’t like to skim the surface. We just really like to dig deep, and have meaningful conversations & flex our brains.
RMR: Do you guys have a certain songwriting process you guys go through?
Krewella (Jahan): Lately for the past year, Yasmine & I will just go in to the booth and the producer we’re working with, his name is Cody will just play for us & we’ll just gibberish melodies in the booth, and sometimes that’ll turn into a song. I think that has been really cool for our creative process because you’re just in this like black coffin, cause you know that’s what the booth feels like, it allows you to zone out, do things you might be to shy to do in a room with other people and sometimes that breeds the most fearless ideas.
RMR: You guys did an episode with Rory Kramer for Dare To Live, how was that? It seemed like a lot of fun.
Krewella (Yasmine): It was! Rory is one of our best friends, so it was cool. We actually shot the pilot with him, that was the pilot for his show. It was cool that we kinda gave our trust to Rory. We’re like Rory we’re just going to do whatever you want us to do even though we’re scared shitless of it. It was so amazing we got to spend the day on Lake Tahoe being kids. We were just playing in the water, jumping off cliffs, and it was so much fun. I remember thinking about that day and thinking I don’t want to forget what this feels like, what it feels to take a day off and just be a kid.
RMR: With everything going on in today’s society, how do you feel about the recent events going on in the U.S.?
Krewella (Jahan): If we’re going to talk about recently, what happened in Las Vegas. That’s the most recent thing in my mind, when i’m thinking about here in the states, in our homeland. The main thing i’m thinking about is how we can create these laws but essentially humans are the problem and we need to figure out, you know while we figure out a system or whatever laws to implement to ensure safety of human beings. We need to figure out a way to treat each other better and treat ourselves better cause that essentially is a problem. Wether it be parenting or home life, that’s the roof of whatever this issue is and violent nature of some people and it just has be thinking about just being more conscious and aware of how I treat people and judging less, you never know there’s someone you can meet on the street, there’s so many people in our everyday lives we can meet who is teetering on the edge of their life and could possibly have a potential to do something like that. All it takes in one person triggering them who kinda reinforces this hatred that they have for humans or the world or society, whatever it is.
Krewella (Yasmine): Or hopelessness.
Krewella (Jahan): Yeah, I think every single person can have an effect and it is like a ripple effect on the way you treat people. Your personal one on one communication.
Krewella (Yasmine): I think overall outside of what happened in Vegas, just our general political climate we need to stop thinking about things as in US versus THEM. I know right now we have a very two-party system and everything seems very black and white, but we have a problem with not being able to listen to people who have a different opinion than us. Half the time we’re all moving in the same direction, and we all generally want the same things. Safety for our families, a roof over our heads, healthcare, medical and school. I mean everything that everybody wants is the same, we just all need to listen to each other and be able to have civilized conversations with each other and that’s something that I have struggled with in the past. Sometimes I’ll hear someone say something and I’m like no, you’re wrong, so much conviction in myself. Then you have to step back and remember they think that way for a reason, and I need to listen and try to understand why.
RMR: Do you guys have any advice for anybody starting out? Or advice for anybody in general?
Krewella (Jahan): Kinda going back to what I was saying with focus, focus is so important because there was a time where we had our side hustles, school, trying to balance music and you’re really not excelling at anything if you’re spread so thin between different activities, and we really noticed our exponential growth in songwriting abilities, artistry and flow of creativity when we started doing it full time. When you make it a part of your life, it’s a part of your lifestyle, so I would say staying focused because there’s going to be so many opinions around you. With people being like hey, maybe you’re just not meant for this, or you should maybe have this back up plan, and do this on the side to be prepared, you’re going to have all these people giving you your advice so I think it’s really stay grounded and keep your eye on what really your passion is.
Krewella (Yasmine): Also, if you feel like what you’re making sucks it’s so easy to give up, and it’s so easy to say don’t give up for someone on the outside but keep trying at it cause eventually after making hundreds of songs or writing hundreds scrappy demos, you’re going to land on one that you’re like omg I think I’m finally ready to put this out. it takes time so just keep chiseling away, keep carving the way of what is your greatness.
RMR: What would you say is a common rookie mistake for somebody starting out?
Krewella: What’s something we did?
Krewella (Jahan): Being to offensive maybe?
Krewella (Yasmine): That’s a good one.
Krewella (Jahan): Back in the day I think we always felt we had to respond to any sort of hate but as you get a shit load of hate you realize it’s just a part of the process. You can learn to shrug it off. I hate saying mistakes cause every “mistake” is a learning experience. So, taking any kind of hatred or negativity and understanding that it’s part of the process, & using that as fuel sometimes for your creativity.
Krewella (Yasmine): I would say biggest rookie mistake that we made, always gotta read everything you sign. Read before you sign it. Have your lawyer check it before you sign it. ALWAYS. It’s something that we learned the hard way.
Krewella (Jahan): Artists are naive because we’re focusing on creative process.
Krewella (Yasmine): We don’t know what the fuck we’re reading. Legal documents???? We’re just like oh okay sure, sign it.
Krewella (Jahan): But yeah, be smart with that shit.
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