Q&A: Chaos Chaos Celebrates a Decade of ‘Committed to the Crime’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
TEN YEARS AFTER THE RELEASE OF ‘COMMITTED TO THE CRIME’ – the transformative EP that placed Chaos Chaos on the map, the sibling duo of Asy and Chloe Saavedra has unveiled a limited-edition vinyl that celebrates this pivotal moment in their career. The release is particularly special because it features a reimagined version of the beloved track “Do You Feel It?,” arranged for a string trio — a graceful, heartfelt take on a song that has resonated deeply with fans and that has taken on new meaning for the sisters themselves over the past decade.
“Do You Feel It?” holds a uniquely intimate origin story. Composed on a humble 25-key MIDI keyboard in the kitchen of their packed Brooklyn apartment, Asy and Chloe drew from the rawness of their surroundings and explored themes of young love, tangled family bonds, and the allure of escape, blending these elements into a song that brims with the emotional complexity of growing up.
Reflecting on the significance of this release, Chaos Chaos shares, “We wanted to make this special strings version of 'Do You Feel It?' to show our appreciation to everyone who has been there supporting us for the 10 years since the release of Committed To The Crime. Our band broke up for three years, and recording this version of 'Do You Feel It?' after having gone through that painful time gave us a new perspective on the song and on the importance of maintaining our sister relationship. This release is incredibly close to our hearts, and we’re so excited to share it with you.”
The reimagined arrangement sees “Do You Feel It?” recast through a refined, orchestral lens, transforming it from a gritty, indie-pop track into a sweeping string piece that exposes the song’s emotional core. While the original recording hinted at a raw desperation to break free, the string arrangement underscores the bittersweet nostalgia of that era, offering fans a reflective, almost cinematic experience of a song they thought they knew.
With this anniversary release, Chaos Chaos celebrates not only the music but also the powerful journey they’ve navigated together as siblings and collaborators.
Their next record returns to the sound of Committed To The Crime. The songs are centered around codependency, both in their bond as siblings and in their relationships with others. It’s their darkest material yet, but also their catchiest and most experimental.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
ASY: I am always picking up inspiration through anything, even non-music related elements and other art forms. I love reading books or watching a film and getting inspired for music through that, even though it's a different art form. I think what really inspires me is the world building element of it. Films that are really visually beautiful and also have this story and you feel like you're in that world. I love thinking of a song in that way too. Chloe and I both have been really focused on lyrics and having that be a big part of the story and the vision for the song. Journaling gets me inspired. I feel like I need to have a message or some kind of a story for the song before I start the song. I read a lot of books. I've been into memoirs, where people are weirdly honest about their experience, and they describe the weird nuance of being a human. I'm especially focused on women or queer women’s experiences.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
ASY: I like that question. I think my ideal thing would be if it feels both like they're entering a surreal space, or just a creative space that's different from the normal every day. It transcends the mundane, but if they also feel like it's a safe space to just feel whatever emotions they're feeling. I think it'd be cool if there's a sense of familiarity that people feel listening to, or they can relate to me being honest about stuff that makes them think about their own experiences, and the songs give them a place to process things.
LUNA: You just released your limited edition tenth anniversary vinyl of your Committed To The Crime EP. How does it feel to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Committed To The Crime? What emotions and memories does this milestone evoke for you as a band?
ASY: It was really interesting to go through that release. I think we have a tendency to not look back and move forward and blast through new music. It was really amazing to almost be forced to celebrate that album. I think having some time away from it, we fully appreciated the stuff we were talking about. In a way, it seems like there's a lot of the same themes that we have been talking about, just from a different life perspective. It was healing to listen to the stuff and know that that's where my head was at 10 years ago. Also re-recording a version of “Do You Feel It?” was interesting. I feel like I could see that song in a different way and bring a different, more mature version to it. It was really fun to celebrate that album with the fans too, because I think in the past, we didn't play enough of those songs live.
LUNA: Why did you choose to release this anniversary edition on vinyl, and what do you think the physical format brings to the listening experience?
ASY: I'm not actually a vinyl nerd or anything. I love the experience of it, but I am not someone that has a super particular setup and tons of vinyl. I just love the experience of listening to it. My favorite way to do it would be laying on the floor and listening to an album all the way through and just going on the journey. You go on the journey of that album, that artist's journey, and then also your own mini journey within that. Whenever we listen and experience art, we are really just tying it back to our own experience. I love giving people a reason to fully focus on themselves and that moment in the art. I think Spotify doesn't really allow that. It's inspired a different type of listening relationship, so the physical format felt like the perfect way to celebrate that album.
LUNA: What inspired you to reimagine “Do You Feel It?” for a string trio? Can you describe the creative process of arranging the song for this format?
ASY: We played the Adult Swim festival in 2018 with the LA Chamber orchestra, and they played that song with strings, and it was just amazing hearing it in that way and being on stage with a full orchestra. We knew that the song already worked with strings. Our band broke up for two years. Our sister relationship was really struggling. We feel like doing this song again is going to feel really emotional. We knew that the string version would be the right tone. It was pretty easy for me to work on the string arrangements. It felt pretty intuitive and easy to do the string arrangements, and it added the right layer, and more melancholy to the song that I was feeling. I think the result is really beautiful because you're forced to just be in the moment and let whatever happens happen in that moment, and not overthink. I think that's what happened with this version. We just went into the studio, recorded it, everything felt natural.
LUNA: What is your favorite song from Committed To The Crime and why do you love it? Is there a certain lyric or message that stands out to you the most?
ASY: “Do You Feel It?” is my favorite song. It honestly makes me feel emotional playing it for the shows we played recently. I couldn’t look at Chloe because when we did our first sound check, I felt like we were both getting really emotional, almost crying. We just tapped into the emotion. Especially after taking a break and returning to it, it's really close to my heart. It was one of those songs that was written from such an honest place.
LUNA: How does this special release reflect your personal connection to your fans and their role in your journey over the past ten years?
ASY: I love that question, because that feels so spot on to what we've been talking about recently. It's been so amazing to connect with the fans in a different way and talk to them about what the music has done for them and their relationship to it. We've been engaging with our listeners and fans more recently around this release, and it's felt so amazing because all of our fans are so awesome. A lot of them have been through really tough life experiences, and it's so cool to know that we could play some part in helping them in any way. I just feel super grateful because I don't know what we've done to have such support from a loyal fan base. I feel really lucky.
LUNA: What did you learn during your three-year break that has shaped the music you're creating now?
ASY: I think we both went on our own hero journeys. Chloe was drumming for Caroline Polachek and Eartheater. She learned a lot from touring and playing with those artists. I scored a video game and a film, and some of our new music has been pulled into the score. It feels really exciting for me to use that stuff in the new material. We were also both together and separately going to therapy during the break. It was really hard, because at that time, we didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't know if we would be able to repair our relationship or band. We had no choice but to just be more honest and real and vulnerable – with ourselves and in the music. That's really a big thing now, like, if it doesn't feel scary honest, then it's not good enough.
LUNA: How have you matured as artists and storytellers with your latest releases this year such as “Control” and “Ethical Plum” since your previous releases?
ASY: Those were interesting because they were written during the pandemic, in between things getting a bit tough with our band, but we were still working, and then we took a break and released those songs. It was a different process for those but it felt like they were the perfect stepping stone to our new material. We were trying out different sounds and focusing a lot on the lyrics and wanting to be vulnerable about our experiences, and make sure to put that into the song. They're both actually written in pretty different ways. But “Ethical Plum,” I started on my computer. I do that with some of the songs where I'll just do a lot of the production and have a version of the song, and then we'll go in and rework it. But with that one, I was having a lot of fun with weird sounds. I get excited about the challenge of adding weird things, and making a weird combination of sounds work. I broke some rules and it sounded good. I think we're both fully enmeshed with every part of the song, the songwriting, even though every song can be like a slightly different process, but we're both equal members, and we have equal roles in the songwriting.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the upcoming year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
ASY: It feels like a new beginning. We are almost done with an album. I'm really excited and a little bit scared to release it. It's interesting how every part of your career always feels different. You have a different perspective. I've been doing music for a while, but it never feels the same. Performing the shows recently has felt so awesome in a different way. I love it so much. I feel like they've been my favorite shows we've ever done. I just want to be able to play shows for people, and get our music out to people and connect with the fans. I would love to have a slightly bigger platform to do that on, but I'm just really excited to get this music out there.
