Karmin was an American pop duo consisting ofAmy Renee Noonan and Nick Noonan. Starting as a novelty act that released covers on YouTube, they signed in 2011 with Epic Records. In May 2012, Karmin released their debut EP Hello, which spawned the singles Brokenhearted and Hello and received mixed reviews. Rolling Stone named Karmin's lead singer Amy as the winner of "Women Who Rock" 2012 contests. In March 2014, the duo released their debut album, Pulses. The album's lead single, Acapella, charted in the top 10 in Australia and New Zealand, and went Gold in the United States. They left Epic Records in the middle of 2014 and have since released music independently. Their second album Leo Rising was released on September 9, 2016. In 2017, the duo took a break on Karmin to focus on another project, Qveen Herby, Amy Noonan's new alter ego. The project moves away from pop in favor of more of an R&B and hip-hop/rap sound.
Life and career
Early life and career beginnings
Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan met while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, from which they graduated in 2008. Heidemann is a graduate of Seward High School in Nebraska. Noonan graduated from Old Town High School in Maine, where he was a member of the concert band and jazz ensemble. The duo has also been a couple since September 2005 and in March 2016 confirmed that they had married. That month, Amy changed her Twitter name from "Amy Heidemann" to "Amy Noonan". The duo's popularity grew from an appearance on the daytime talk show as well as exposure on YouTube, achieving more than 320 million views between two channels. The name of the band is a homophone made from the Latin word carmen meaning "song", and the word karma, making the name Karmin.
Music career
Karmin signed with Epic Records, and in late June 2012 entered the studio to record their debut studio EP, Hello, which was released on May 7 via digital download. On February 26, 2013, the duo released a studio cover of Drake's song "Started from the Bottom" as a promotional single; a week later they also released a mash-up studio cover for "Karate Chop/Sweet Dreams" by Future also as a promotional single. They released the single digitally for free download. The single "Acapella" was released in July and debuted at number 98 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and two weeks later peaked at number 72. On October 28, 2013, they announced their 2014 Pulses tour, and released the full-length album Pulses on March 25, 2014; Rolling Stone gave it 1–1/2 stars.
2014–2016: Split from Epic Records and ''Leo Rising''
In 2014, after the release of their debut album Pulses and the attendant tour, Karmin left Epic Records. In an interview with Billboard, Heidemann said: "We were hungry to try a more musically honest approach. We wanted to be a little bit nerdier than we think they had hoped". Six months after the release of Pulses, in September 2014, Karmin released a single with rapper George Watsky titled "No Flex Zone ", inspired by the song "No Flex Zone" by Rae Sremmurd. It was produced by Nick Noonan. Later that year, Karmin began work on their second album, Leo Rising. Two digital singles were released in 2014: "Sugar" on October 8, followed by "Yesterday" on October 24, 2014. Another single "Along the Road" was released on March 25, 2015 and was slated to be the lead single off the project, was later relegated as a promotional release. In 2016, Wild Culture released the Sugar EP in collaboration with Karmin. It features three remixes of "Sugar" and a remix of Riley Pearce's single "Brave". The album Leo Rising was released on September 9, 2016.
2017–present: Qveen Herby
At the beginning of 2017, Amy Noonan revealed in a livestream that a Leo Rising tour would not be held in 2017, and if there was one it would be in 2018. She also revealed that alongside the launch of a new website, new music was in the works. In 2017, all of Karmin's social media was rebranded to Qveen Herby and a small preview stating "Karmin Is Dead, Long Live the Queen." was posted. Noonan soon formally announced her solo career and launched the new website "Qveenherby.com". The music video for Qveen Herby's first single "Busta Rhymes" was released on June 1, 2017, followed by the release of EP 1 a day later. The EP received positive reviews from critics, who praised Herby's rebranding as an artist and the exploration of R&B and hip hop music. The EP also experienced fair success, peaking at #37 on the US BillboardIndependent Albums Chart and #13 on the US Heatseekers Albums Chart.
