Qveen Herby Interview by Carol Wright Photographer: Alex Hinsky
In 2017, Amy Noonan (aka Qveen Herby) took creative control of her career. Formerly known as the frontwoman of the duo Karmin, Noonan started releasing music independently and with a completely different style. Instead of putting out pop songs, Qveen Herby (pronounced Queen Herby) releases rap music that empowers and uplifts her fans. With her newest release, EP 8, she’s ready to take the rap world by storm (plus her DMs are open for creatives wanting advice).
When did you know you wanted to be a musician full-time? I knew I wanted to be a musician full-time probably in high school at some point. I thought, ‘wow I’m pretty good at this’ and I decided to pursue a music education at an actual college, so that was a pretty big commitment. I was scared shitless because when I grew up, and where I grew up in the midwest, it was like unheard of to pursue music as a career or even try to formalize it in any way. So I definitely decided but it wasn’t really until after I graduated music school and we like hit that first recession in 2009 that I was like, ‘alright we’re gonna figure this out’ cause I definitely don’t want to work a normal job. What do you think you learned at Berklee that you still take with you in your career now? I know people say this a lot about their college experience, but more than anything, it was proving to myself that I could handle this lifestyle and I could do it on my own without the help of my parents or anybody. Really it was my turning point of independence. Not as much like the classes cause now of course like even music technology, all this stuff has changed so much. The class I took on the business, I mean it was like just brushing the surface. I do use a lot of knowledge that I got from my Pat Pattison lyric writing classes — he’s an OG songwriting teacher at Berklee — and this guy Livingston Taylor, who’s James Taylor’s brother. He taught a class just about getting on stage and establishing a presence, and I remember my mind was blown cause I had never even considered it. You spend all this time trying to be good technically at music and then you’re like, wait it’s still important to connect with the audience on an energetic level. It’s an amazing school, but it is really up to the individual student to figure your shit out. 9
