The last time I talked to you guys, you were dancing on subways while trying to avoid the police. You guys have come a long way since then. Tell me about the journey it's been.
[JC]
It's definitely been a long one.
[Rony]
You know we're just trying to put out the best music that we can, and we're trying to make it as interesting as possible for ourselves and for our fans. We don't want to just do the regular thing. We want it to mean something. We want it to do something. We want it to be innovative in some way. Whether it was "Invincible" with an important message to celebrate yourself, or if it's "Hologram" that came out with the first interactive music video on YouTube. We want to do something special. And after parting ways with Mimi [Imfurst], we released "Red Flag", we felt it was really important to show how strongly we still feel to the LGBT community and how much that is still our home base and has nothing to do with what we are made of.
I did want to talk about "Red Flag". That was a pretty big deal because you were LGBT allies. It's great to see support from outside the LGBT.
[JC]
I did want to say we both think that life can lead you anywhere and life can teach you anything. Any one of us can be totally surprised by who we fall in love with. You never know what's going to happen. I don't really like identifying with "straight" because I don't know what's going to happen in my life, and I am open to all possibilities. And I don't stress out over it either.
[Rony]
I feel like it's a waste of time to define exactly who you are, and say "this is me and I can't change." I mean why not? My sister was engaged to a man and then later found herself in a committed relationship with a woman. So what? She's not the only person I know who's done that in the past, either. I believe you fall in love with a person's soul and it doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman.
The anti-LGBT issues in Russia were a big deal, but what made you choose to take that extra step and actually do a song about it?
[JC]
Recently Yulia Volkova, one of the singers from the pop group t.A.t.U came out to say she was against homosexuality. How did you feel about this given your stance with "Red Flag"?
[JC]
There's a lot going on there. First of all she's living in a country that encourages that kind of attitude. It's sometimes hard to go against what the majority is saying. She may be trying to garner support, or feeling pressure from Russian authorities for her past as a lesbian act. Who knows where it's coming from, but context is a very strong force in what people say and unfortunately, she is in a very hateful context
Now for the hard question -- the one we all want to know. What really happened with Mimi?
[Rony]
We have addressed it. We have been completely honest with our part. We have no reason to sugar coat it. We were all super excited to have a girl group that is pushing the envelope and stretching what people had thought a girl group could be. We were excited to have a girl group where one member was a drag queen. We loved working together, but there were some problems. Mimi has her own career as Mimi Imfurst, and you can't have two careers when you're in pop music.
[JC]
And it's all done ourselves. So if you're not working on it all the time it doesn't get done. If you have a solo career and a group career with no major management or label to support you and run your projects, then they won't get run properly.
[Rony]
It was basically just us being responsible adults. We hold each others' careers in our hands. We can't just let it be the way it is without it moving forward. And I think since the separation, everything's been moving forward for everyone at a much better pace. Mimi is doing fantastic by herself, we are moving along. Everyone's happy. We just did a gig in Iowa. There's no bad blood.
[JC]
It was a mutual decision. What happened was that we sat down all four of us, meaning us, Mimi, and Zach our producer, and we talked about how things were going and what things were conflicting. And what was conflicting most was schedules. We agreed to split. Now we both have more time for our obligations. We've been touring a lot more, she's been touring more. She does her videos. We both have been able to do more. We didn't kick her out. It was a mutual decision.
[Rony]
For example we change the titles of our videos to "featuring Mimi Imfurst". She requested it so that she there wouldn't be confusion with bookings.
How was it being back on stage and being able to perform the full versions of your older tracks?
[JC]
Actually we perform the full versions all the time. Rony and I take turns on some of the vocal performances. We don't leave anything out. That show was fun because we knew a lot of the fans would be excited to see the old version of XELLE. We had a great time together.
Moving forward, you just released a track called "Sweat", which is my favorite video of yours to date. What was the inspiration here?
We thought it would be really great to take from the 80s aerobics mentality and that whole culture of how everyone is so obsessed with the outside physical image and physical perfection. We thought it would be really funny to poke fun at that.
[JC]
And since the song is so sexual, we thought we should make the video more lighthearted and funny. We don't have to go in a super sexual way. We also wanted a platform to show fuller figured women dancing and being fierce -- showing the world that you can be fabulous and look hot in whatever size you are.
My favorite part of the video, and who really knows why, was Svet Thunder! Did you know him before or did you cast him?
[Rony]
It took us four audition days for us to find him! Once he stepped in to the room we were like --
[JC]
It's Ovah!
[Rony]
It was unbelievable. He walked in and we knew we'd found our man.
This video has so many crazy cameos! Bianca Del Rio, Andrew W.K.? How did you get all these crazy big names?
[JC]
People help us out with these things all the time. A fan of ours' who's a publicist put us in touch with Courtney. We were friends with Andrew's wife Cherie Lily who's also a pop and dance artist so she hooked us up there. People do us a lot of favors.
Ok, serious question though. Andrew W.K. knew that this was a joke right? He seemed so serious.
[JC]
No he got it. He' just so funny like that. He actually sent us a much longer clip. He sent us a three minute speech to motivate people for fitness. He was hilarious. He definitely knew, though.
Before we go, as musicians you have so many fans that are out there trying to accomplish what you've done. What advice do you have for your fans struggling to make their dreams reality?
[JC]
I would say that it is the most important thing in life to do what you love doing. If it is something that you really love and makes you happy, you can never stop. That is your mission in life, to do what you love. People sometimes have trouble believing you can make it happen, but if you spend your life working on it you will get somewhere with it and you will learn lessons along the way. We couldn't live without music, interviews, photoshoots, and meeting our fans. That's what we love to do. If you commit to what you're doing and keep doing it, it will go somewhere.
[Rony]
Also just do you. There's no use spending your life trying to be someone else. You can't spend your life trying to be the next Rihanna, Britney Spears, or Lady Gaga. They already exist. You don't need to be them. Just be you and people will respond.
You can check out the hilarious -- and cameo crazy -- "Sweat" video on YouTube. Don't forget to pick up your own copy of the new jam on iTunes. And last, make sure to 'like' them on Facebook for info on upcoming shows and releases!
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