culture Music story Scott Kearnan
Straight Duo Karmin Sings Out at Boston Pride [Boston Spirit]You’ve played a few Prides
headline this year’s celebrations in the Hub 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 around the country. How has the energy Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Hot music act and LGBT allies from Berklee been? Is it different than at other shows?
Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan have plenty of pride in Boston. It’s in the Hub where the 27-year-olds met as Berklee College of Music students, started a real-life romance (they’re now engaged) and formed into pop duo Karmin. It was from a studio apartment here that they uploaded to YouTube their creative cover versions of Top 40 pop and hip-hop songs. And it was that idea that turned them into a social media success story; about 200 million views later, they had scored a real record deal (which resulted in last summer’s breakout hit “Brokenhearted”), performed on
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The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Saturday Night Live, and graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. They’re one of the hottest commodities to come out of the Boston music scene in a while — singers, multiinstrumentalists and, in Amy’s case, one motor-mouthed rapper. Now Karmin is back to headline the Boston Pride Festival on Saturday, June 8. They represent a generation of young allies to whom supporting the gay community isn’t a controversial statement – it’s a given. Boston Spirit chatted with the lovebirds about coming home to the place that birthed their career – and equal marriage.
[NICK] We’ve been terrorized. It has been very negative energy. They throw things at us. It’s very hostile. (Bursts out laughing.) It’s awesome, dude! It’s totally one of the best experiences in the world. I think the best word for it is “free.” You feel like you’re performing in front of friends. Everything feels so encouraging. [AMY] We feel so appreciated. I’m glad you asked, because it really is a different type of energy. I always try to adorn myself in every color of the rainbow. [BS] Any Karmin-dressed drag queens in the audience? [AMY] There are! I haven’t gotten to see any myself, but our publicist always send me pictures afterward. It’s very flattering! Although, they usually look better than I do.