StopKaren Perspective on Follow Me to the Bathroom

We are a local Las Vegas Trio featuring a Grammy nominated Violinist, a World Renowned Opera singer, and an OG Sound Engineer who crafts every one of our beats from scratch using tools from every major sound revolution. Every song we create is based on our own, actual experiences, so they tend to be funny, eclectic, a little naughty, and deceptively intellectual. We are all about living life to the fullest, having fun, and doing what we want in order to StopKaren. 

This song originated in Ibiza, Spain at the infamous club Hï Ibiza. There is a special dance floor with a badass DJ in the bathroom of the club and it is the place we had the absolute most fun! We even got to party with Alicia Keys!!! Then, almost right when we got home, we went to a local strip club that we love, and right as our singer Asha sat down, a tall blond woman sat down in her lap, licked her face from chin to forehead, told her she was sexy, and asked her if she wanted to go have some fun in the bathroom. Her name was Coco. 😈😂😋 We literally spent the night at the strip club writing the lyrics to the chorus, and had the song completed in no time. 

The three of us all have different memories, of course, but all together, we love to freestyle to lofi beats and be silly about current events, politics, religion, life in general. That's how this whole band started. 

We each decided at young ages that we were going to be musicians. However, each of us went to school for our undergrad for unrelated studies (at first). Woody, our sound engineer/DJ, has a degree in psychology, Carissa, our violinist, has a degree in education, and Asha originally started her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, but ultimately finished her undergrad and masters degrees in music and pedagogy.

This is a great question. We have used classical composition techniques, quoting the opera Carmen by Bizet throughout our most recent single, but we also used a trap beat with a huge 808 baseline. Then, we incorporated some baroque imitation between the violin and opera vocals (all sung and played live in the studio). Another unique characteristic is that we used a specific Shakespearean couplet system for our lyrics, even though they are modern and a little bit ratchet. 😈  Most of the feedback we have been getting calls us neoclassic modern alternative hip pop. But that's a mouthful, so officially, StopKaren. 

Musically, we love dark, sexy, open bass vibes. We illustrate our music with our own unique skillsets in music, primarily opera, violin, and hip hop. 
As far as our narrative is concerned, the world is our oyster, literally. We write songs based on actual experiences we have had, either as a group or individually, and craft it into a musical masterpiece fitting the storyline. I suppose you could call us Romantics on that subject.

We just came together in 2023. Before that, most of us were still deep in the thick of covid. Asha was an international opera singer based in Houston, Carissa was a grade school teacher and weekend warrior performer, and Woody is the CEO of one of the largest Entertainment Companies in Las Vegas. Asha was strictly classical, Carissa leans more hip-hop but was also classically trained, and Woody has delved into almost every genre under the sun aside from classical music, including jazz, rock, hip hop, pop, and more. Our sound now is the natural progression of the combination of years of musical experience across the board and globe. 

We would probably all pick someone different, which is part of the beauty of our group. Our interests are vast and wide. But we would absolutely LOVE to play a festival like EDC or Coachella this coming year, so collectively we would probably choose to tour with a DJ like Tiesto because we could match his vibe and energy, but provide enough variance to keep everyone interested and having fun. Others we would love to tour with are 311, Charlie XCX, Doja Cat, and Glitter Box! 

If our listeners feel anything at all while listening to our music (which we know they will) then we are succeeding. We aren't here to tell you how to feel, we are just here to help you feel your feels. 😘

We wrote a song called 'I'm Trippin' this year and all of us agree it is our best one yet. It is based on a crazy experience we had at NAMM and it tells the story so perfectly. We illustrated everything musically, we use rapping, we use three stanza couplets, opera, violin and viola, a beat that Woody originally beatboxed. It is our version of Bohemian Raphsody! 

We all practice pretty much every day separately, and together we work together around twice a week. Our practice has changed from a very technical, classical approach to a free for all creative approach. Now we practice flowing, rapping, improving, and allowing ourselves to simply explore. I would say we have moved from all discipline to half discipline half play. 

Fun. Unique. Badass.

In a strip club bathroom. 

Performing 🕺🎶😈

I believe art is the most honest historical reference. Socially, politically, globally, in pretty much every way, art is commenting on the state of affairs, and unlike history books, nobody is about to censor Mozart's Nozze do Figaro. 

Bohemian Raphsody! It is so wild and eclectic and uses tons of different disciplines and styles all in one giant opus. It is a masterpiece and highlights every performer's strengths, it is so outside the box, but people absolutely love it even today. 

We want to break the sound matrix. Music is starting to feel too robotic and predictable. People need to get used to hearing new and weird shit. We don't care if we fit into your playlist, we don't care if you think our music is too experimental, we want you to hear something new and interesting. If you hate it, we still succeeded because we made you feel something. 🥰

Yes, we couldn't stop if we tried. Music is in our bones, it's in our blood. We drink it, we sleep it, for most of our lives it has been our primary source of income. Music isn't something we went out looking for, it is something that has been bursting out of us since we were children. 

When women throw their panties to the stage we know we did an awesome job 😈 

Art is hope.