With the simple stroke of a pen all of the hard work, sacrifices and struggles for electro-dance group Krewella finally paid off.
“My sister and I were crying that night,” Jahan Yousaf says.
Krewella, comprised of Jahan, her younger sister Yasmine and friend Kris Tindl, had just signed to Columbia Records. As the ink dried on the contract, they no longer had to worry about how they were going to pay their rent.
“Signing a record deal was so important to us because it gave us a support system,” Yousaf says. “That was also verification for our parents that we had a legitimate career. It was the moment we signed where they said we can stop worrying about our kids not having a future.”
Despite signing the biggest deal of their lives, Krewella are well aware of the long road ahead of them.
“No one of us have this feeling like we made it,” Yousaf says. “We still feel like we have a long ways to go and it is the beginning for us to the outside people who think we’re just this group that popped up out of nowhere and made it overnight.”
Tonight Krewella will be performing in Vancouver at Celebrities Nightclub with Seven Lions and Candyland.
“We actually have a few days off so that we can chill and hangout around the city. I’m so excited to be back in the city and play new music for the fans,” Yousaf says.
Krewella’s performance is not the first time the Chicago-based band have been to Vancity. The trio’s last visit, although brief, made Yousaf yearn for more of the city’s natural beauty.
“We flew in at night and our flight was delayed so we got into the Vancouver show about 45 minutes late and we were so happy because when we got there people actually stuck around,” she says. “The next morning we flew out at about seven in the morning and as we are driving out of the city and we’re crossing this bridge, I was just looking at landscape and it looked like a picture that is on a greeting card. It looked so perfect. I told myself I have to come back here again.”
Late last month Krewella released their first album on Columbia Records Get Wet. The album follows up their two previous EPs. Yousaf explains that the new tracks are deeper than anything they’ve ever done before.
“We spent so much more time on this album crafting every single lyric. The production itself took months. Each song went through many phases of production. I think because we’ve spent so much more time we’ve really developed and matured as songwriters,” Yousaf says. “This album has so much more emotion than our previous work and that’s because we have gained so many more experiences.
“On the entire album of Get Wet there is this underlying message of unity and togetherness and acceptance. I would say that is the important message in dance music. It’s this genre that unites people and we are first-hand witness of that,” Yousaf says. “We will see gay couples making out in the crowd . . . then we’ll see group a Muslim girls with their heads covered and it is so cool to see different people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds of all ages coming together.”
Jahan started her musical career by performing and singing in choirs, while her sister, Yasmine performed in an indie band. Trindl began playing the guitar at the age of 10 and was in a metal band when he first met the Yousaf sisters.
“All three of us came from different directions but all three of us were raised in very musically-aware households,” Yousaf says. “We always had music playing from The Doors to Led Zeppelin to Technotronic to ABBA. We really were raised on many different types and genres of music.”
Krewella was born in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, Ill. The Yousaf sisters met Trindl at a house party.
“It was literally through the party metal scene at high school,” Yousaf says. “Eventually we were all at a party that he (Trindl) threw and he disappeared. I remember walking into his room and looking for him. He was sitting on his bed with his headphones in working on music.”
The electro-dance group actually began as a metal band but transitioned to electronic music as Trindl began to experiment more and more with programming.
“He was always programming for his metal band. He’d do all the writing and he was programming the drums, the melodies, the guitar, everything,” Yousaf says. “He just started messing around with more electronic-sounding instruments when he was programming. Slowly over a few months that morphed into indie dance pop beats.”
Krewella’s road to a record deal was no easy ride in the fast lane. Two years ago, the trio embarked on their first performance outside of Illinois and drew less than 50 people.
“For a while I was waitressing and doing bottle service while I was doing Krewella,” Yousaf says. “At the same time we were worried about paying rent.”
When Yasmine graduated high school, she began focusing strictly on Krewella while working at a part time job. Jahan and Trindel focused purely on music.
“I was halfway through college and my mom saw that as me being very close to graduating. So she was a little disappointed at first, especially because I did very well in college,” Yousaf says. “Kris’ parents were very supportive but ours were skeptical because it is hard to imagine an artist being successful at first, especially around 2009 and 2010. Being a DJ didn’t seem like a realistic career choice at the time.”
At times Krewella were barely making enough to get by, which Yousaf says caused her and her sister a great deal of stress.
“So many things about our lifestyle were stressing us out,” she says. “You want to feel very free and liberated. There is always this nagging feeling that you have to pay someone back and simple things like you haven’t been to the dentist in two years. You know you have to go but there are things that are holding you back.”
The tide began to turn for Krewella in 2012 when they released their EP Play Hard. The album reached number one on Billboard’s Dance Radio Airplay chart.
“We knew that we had the work ethic in us,” Yousaf says. “I’ve always been one to believe that if you work really hard at something that the universe will reward you.”
That same year Krewella took home an International Dance Music Award for Best Breakthrough Artist.
“It was truly an honour and it felt like winning a mini-Grammy,” Yousaf says. “It kind of gave me an idea of what it must feel like as an artist to be at the Grammy’s even though we were in a tiny auditorium with maybe 200 people.”
The trio eventually signed to Columbia Records in the latter part of 2012. Earlier this year they moved to Los Angeles.
“Our lives kind of changed that way, living a healthier lifestyle. No longer are we having to be super cheap about what we eat,” Yousaf says. “No one should worry about how they’re going to pay their doctor bills and dentist bills. These are urgent things that need to be taken care of. As an artist it is the important thing to be liberated of any worries.”
There is no slowing down for Krewella. Shortly after finishing their North American tour in mid-November they will head overseas to Australia, Southeast Asia and Europe. Krewella also have some big plans to ring in the New Year.
“We have three New Year’s Eve parties that we are going to announce really soon,” Yousaf says.
For more information on Krewella visit www.krewella.net or follow @Krewella on Twitter.
