Krewella Returns With a New Album After a Two-Year Hiatus

Krewella sisters Jahan and Yasmine Yousaf discussed the concept of peaking while working on new music in the studio.

They acknowledged that the word can be derogatory when applied to someone whose best accomplishments are behind them. However, they found numerous other layers in the concept, such as the futility of chasing peak moments, what it means to achieve true accomplishment, and how real success stems from both life’s lowest and highest points.

The duo has been releasing electronic dance music since arriving on the scene in 2012, but noted they could only make their new album now. Titled Peak, the 12-song project captures their states of mind, exploring love, spirituality, aging, grief, and joy with wisdom and reverence across delicate and throttling productions.

Peak serves as Krewella’s first album since 2022. The duo stepped away from music entirely for two years before returning to the studio and realizing that expression through music is a fundamental part of who they are rather than just a career path.

Here, the sisters discuss making the album, lessons learned from the Nervo sisters, and the true meaning of peaking.

1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?

Jahan: We are in Los Angeles at our separate places, but we live close enough to walk to each other’s spaces for studio time. My setting has no air conditioning, so I have multiple fans blowing. I am burning incense, so the vibes are set.

Yasmine: I live a four-minute walk from Jahan. If we could not live together, we had to live in the same neighborhood. I am in my living room because it has the best natural light, though the real reason is that our dog is on the couch next to me and will not come into my usual studio workspace.

2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Jahan: Kill Hannah’s Wake Up the Sleepers. Mat Devine, who leads the Chicago band, found our demos on MySpace years ago and invited me to sing backup vocals on two tracks. It was my first time sharing my voice that way and recording in a professional studio, which felt significant. I bought the album at Best Buy because of that experience.

Yasmine: We did not buy music initially. Our local library had a massive CD collection, and we were allowed to check out eight at a time. I chose purely based on the cover artwork, picking The Cranberries’ Wake Up and Smell the Coffee because it featured large red spheres. It looked cool and became one of my childhood soundtracks.

3. What did your parents do for a living when you were kids, and what do they think of what you guys do for work now?

Yasmine: Our mom was a self-employed graphic designer until retiring three years ago. She dropped out of college, entered the workforce, and worked her way up to become her own boss, producing furniture industry catalogs and circulars for decades. She was a powerhouse who often worked 12 to 14-hour days. Our dad worked as a real estate agent in Los Angeles before retiring last year.

Jahan: They are very supportive of our work now. They were skeptical and concerned early on, which I understand more as I get older because parents want health insurance and financial stability for their children, neither of which an artistic path guarantees.

They supported us however they could. Our mom loaned us money for our first microphone, and our father sat in the front row of the VIP section once we started touring. As an immigrant from Pakistan, he broke past his cultural conditioning to fully embrace us as tattooed women performing in nightclubs around drinking crowds. We are grateful for his trust and our intimate relationship, where we can share details of our personal lives and careers.

4. What is the first non-gear thing you bought for yourselves when you started making money as artists?

Jahan: When we signed our record deal with Columbia, giving me a sense of legitimacy, my first thought was that I could go to Whole Foods and buy healthy food without worrying about the bill. Investing in high-quality food was my first priority.

Yasmine: My first major purchase was a pair of eyeglasses that I had postponed buying my entire life to save money. I finally bought glasses so I could see.

5. If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into electronic music, what album would you give them?

Yasmine: LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver. After seeing them at Just Like Heaven last weekend, I consider it legendary. It is essential for understanding modern dance music, combining punk, dance, and various musical styles of that era.

Jahan: Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm. I listened to it all the way through recently for the first time in years and was reminded of how excellent it is from top to bottom, featuring no filler and immense energy in the drums and guitar riffs.

6. What’s the last song you listened to?

Yasmine: This morning while driving from the gym to get coffee, I played Rival Consoles’ Persona, which is one of the most interesting dance records I have heard in a long time.

Jahan: The Morten Granau remix of “Ecstasy” by ATB. I never tire of the original track, and the remix honors it while offering a fresh perspective that brings a hopeful and sparkling shift to my mood whenever I am in a funk.

7. Your new album is called Peak. What’s the meaning of the title?

Yasmine: When conceptualizing the album, Jahan and I spent hours discussing what the word means to us, though we still lack a simple elevator pitch because it has many layers. The thought began in 2023 before we started recording, triggered by both positive and negative associations with the term. People often apply the word to us or other artists to imply that our best days are behind us.

Our perspective follows an internal and external approach. As we aged, we realized that chasing a peak involves cycling through highs and lows, mirroring a world that constantly demands faster movement and endless accumulation.

8. How did you take that concept and work it into the music?

Yasmine: We concluded that the peak is an illusion. Once you integrate the hardest moments of your life with the most joyful and euphoric ones, you realize they are meant to exist together. For us, the peak now feels continuous. We will keep creating music, and we are grateful to still do this together nearly 20 years later without chasing goals anymore.

9. The album explores themes of why one even creates art at all. What answers did you come up with?

Jahan: Self-expression is a continuous journey of self-discovery and finding healthy outlets for emotional energy. Ultimately, we return to creating art simply for the joy and pleasure of experiencing life together as sisters. Given the rare gift of our partnership and our temporary existence, creating together is something we both want to seize.

10. How has that attitude been useful for you?

Jahan: It keeps us grounded whenever we start worrying about outcomes or public perception. While it is natural to want our music to resonate, in the studio we often imagined fans headbanging, jumping, and singing along. We view the music as a refuge for people dealing with troubles.

11. Anything you’d like to add Yasmine?

Yasmine: We took a complete two-year break from making music, during which I even claimed I was no longer a musician. I had become burnt out and jaded, a feeling Jahan also experienced.

12. How so?

Enduring the waves of a long artistic career without proper processing leads to burnout. Our return to music came with a hunger and joy matching when we first began. While the two-year break may have set us back in some ways, it was necessary. I am grateful for that space because I now feel hopeful and obsessed with being a musician again.

13. Did you know what you’d do if you weren’t being musicians?

Jahan: We both have creative pursuits outside of music and occasionally embark on side quests that provide perspective, preventing us from over-identifying with our roles as musicians. Lately, I focus on cooking and domestic activities purely for my own enjoyment, without any outcome or recognition attached. Nourishing myself and caring for plants serve as creative pursuits for personal self-reward.

14. You’ve been doing this for a long time. On a pure skill level, what are you better at now than you were 20 years ago?

Yasmine: Discernment. We know what belongs and what does not. While writing our 2022 album, The Body Never Lies, we still adhered to the idea that more is better. On the new album, we retained our classic vocal and synth layers, but we learned to remove elements that failed to add value.

Jahan: On a tangible level, Yasmine’s premixes evolved significantly across the album, requiring less work during the final mixing stage because the music sounded finished earlier. We also improved at acknowledging our differing sensitivities and finding a middle ground when one of us is being a perfectionist about something the other considers fine.

15. Jahan, you’re the co-founder of Nagar Women’s Health House, a nonprofit clinic in Northern Pakistan. What are the new developments there?

Jahan: Severe monsoons are currently impacting northern Pakistan, causing extreme weather due to global warming where glaciers burst and send floods through northern villages, destroying homes and infrastructure.

Our small clinic in Chitral, located in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, was started with family members during the pandemic when we had time to contemplate purpose. For about five years, the clinic has provided villagers with general checkups, the region’s first ultrasound machine, wound care, and health seminars, supported by donations from people who listen to our music.

16. What’s the last incredible musical performance that you saw?

Yasmine: At Outside Lands, Death Cab for Cutie opened and closed on Sunday. For their opening set, they played Plans from front to back, which was fantastic. Later that day, I saw Frost Children, whom Jahan and I both love, followed by Empire of the Sun, whose costumes, set design, and visuals made them an incredible live act.

17. What are the proudest moments of your career so far?

Jahan: I think of our lowest moments and how we navigated them, such as when the band nearly fell apart in 2014 amid negative public scrutiny. That period prompted me to pursue a spiritual path and remember why I make music. Yasmine and I worked on our relationship behind the scenes, and I am proud that we chose to keep showing up for each other for the sake of creativity and personal growth.

Yasmine: Making our parents proud brings me pride, but hearing Jahan speak reminds me that any chart placement or festival performance pales in comparison to realizing that you can survive difficult times and thrive.

18. What is the best business decision you’ve ever made?

Jahan: Investing in therapy.

Yasmine: Literally, yes.

19. Who’s been your greatest mentor, and what’s the best advice they’ve given you?

Jahan: My Hindustani classical voice teacher, Homayun Khan. Our deep sessions have humanized the concept of a master teacher who remains a student. He validated my inner struggles and brought ease to my relationship with my voice and practice, sharing wisdom from our lineage.

Yasmine: While not mentors in a traditional sense, I must shout out the Nervo sisters. When we started around 2011 and 2012, the prevailing industry energy suggested there was limited space for women. They never made us feel that way and instead demonstrated how powerful women could make space for everyone. They set a strong example of kindness and success.

20. What is one piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?

Jahan: Trust yourself and cultivate a relationship with yourself. During my teenage years and early 20s, I often felt disconnected from who I was and my inner truth.

Yasmine: Stop waiting and do it right now. I often dealt with self-doubt regarding my capability and skills, but the answer is just to start immediately.