Krewella don't mimic Swedish House Mafia, Sympho Nympho, Above & Beyond any other outfit in electronic music today. Singer-songwriter sisters Yasmine and Jahan Yousaf and producer Kris "Rain Man" Trindl exude a brazen, "live free or die" exuberance — set to a gamut of pulverizing electronica that embraces dubstep, progressive and electro house, and moombahton. Their frenzy is visible to anyone who has caught a Krew set, or peeped their regular "Krewlife" tour vids online.
In between taking "sock shots" (sucking on fresh pairs of socks soaked in alcohol), and heavy touring — on occasion alongside Benny Benassi among others — 'ella have built a loyal Krew of fans, and have dropped two successful EPs in their almost-two-year career. Their latest single, "Alive," has been a Sirius XM darling, and is fervently being added to terrestrial radio. Endearingly their surge in popularity recently has not yet set in.
"We wrote that one ("Alive") over a year ago," Yasmine explained when stopping by MTV this week. "It's a little weird that now — it's just all happening. It's very cool for us!"
"Our lives are moving so fast right now," Jahan added. "Every day is like, a show, or a promo day, that it hasn't really hit us yet. I think probably in the next month we are really going to start seeing the results of what's happening. Right now we are just so busy with making a full length album that we can't even pay attention to what's happening to, "Alive."
And come Sunday night's Grammy Awards telecast, the Chi-town trio have their favorites for Best Dance/Electronic album, and for good reason.
"Kaskade is from our hometown," Rain Man said. "We graduated from the same high school. Well, I went to that high school. [But] that's where they graduated."
"I think there is something about Kaskade's album that evoked emotion in every single song," Yasmine added.
The three commended Skrillex for his undeniable "innovation" and gave a salute to Steve Aoki as well. Kaskade, Steve Aoki, and Skrillex also face off against Chemical Brothers and deadmau5 for Best Dance/Electronica Album. But before jetting off to L.A., Krew did dish on their upcoming debut album, which has a whopping number of tracks that are all three-quarters done.
"The blueprints we have right now. We are just really stoked on," Jahan revealed. "It's completely different from the Play Hard EP."
"Now that we have a fanbase that's growing," she continued, "it's inspired us to tap into a more emotional side of us. It's not just sex and partying. It does have something deeper to it. So I think people should expect that from the album."