Walk Off the Earth: YouTube Video 'Somebody That I Used to Know' Spreads Across the Earth (INTERVIEW)
- Posted on Jan 13th 2012 3:30PM by Aaron Brophy
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It's hit your inbox, your Facebook wall and your Twitter feed a dozen times already.
There's four men in black shirts (Ryan Marshall, Gianni Luminati, Mike Taylor, Joel Cassady) and one blonde woman (Sarah Blackwood). So far, so normal. Except all 10 of their hands are picking, plucking, strumming and tapping away at a single guitar simultaneously while they take turns on the vocals in a pristine cover of Australian band Goyte's hit, 'Somebody That I Used to Know.'
Twenty-six takes, 14 hours of filming and a week on the internet later and Burlington, Ontario band Walk Off The Earth have officially become a viral video sensation. We're talking 17 million (and quickly counting) views on YouTube and their version of 'Somebody That I Used to Know' currently sitting #1-with-a-rocket on iTunes Canada's top 10 sales chart.
Blackwood, a veteran solo performer and also member of the psychobilly band the Creepshow, knows these kind of events are lightning bolt moments and she's certainly enjoying the ride.
Watch Walk off the Earth's 'Somebody That I Used to Know' (Gotye Cover)
"It hasn't really sunk in," says Blackwood. "It's like, 'This is happening?' I was just laughing the other day because I was just so happy. I was like 'What the hell is going on? This doesn't happen.' So it feels really good, it feels super-good."
The catalyst for five-players-one-guitar came when Luminati -- known on his driver's license as Gianni Nicassio -- heard the Goyte song on the radio and got inspired.
"It was Gianni's idea," says Blackwood. "He brought it up to me at some point just being like, 'Sarah, I heard this song on the radio and it rejuvenated my faith in radio -- it doesn't suck, it's amazing, it's this wicked song.' He showed to me and I was like, 'Yeah' it's kind of Police-esque and original and neat.'"
From there it was just a matter of figuring out how the band would cover the song. With a history for unique video reinterpretations like the guitar juggling version of Radiohead's 'Karma Police," a kazoo-heavy remake of Bobby McFerrin's 'Don't Worry Be Happy' and spirited funk-thrash-jazz take on LMFAO's 'Party Rock Anthem,' the stakes were high.
"Every single video we make we try to make it more creative, or creative in a different way," says Blackwood. "I think Gianni mentioned he was always interested in doing a song with a certain amount of people on one instrument, whether it's two people on a guitar or whatever. And we researched it a little bit and on Youtube there's four people on one guitar so we were like, 'Five!' So we pieced the song and the parts together and we all made that video in the kitchen."
Maintaining the precision and discipline to execute their cover wasn't easy. Says Blackwood, "It's hard with five people because if even one person screws up, you have to start over and that happened most of the time."
In the video, the band's keyboard player Mike Taylor (the guy on the far right in the clip) has the seemingly comical job of simply holding the guitar's headstock while the other four play. It's been the focus of no shortage of attention amongst the 41,000+ YouTube comments like "RIGHT MAN = SPARTA," "Who is the the Man right? He is very cool :D," "guy on right get talked about most and he does nothing!!!! rock on that guy," and "Epic beard guy looks like Billy Mays."
"I think the biggest job was the holding of the headstock of the guitar," Blackwood says. "That was really important to do or all of us couldn't play it properly, so our guy at the end, Taylor, so if he kind of lost position -- because you can't stay still forever -- so if he started sinking down down we'd be like 'Mike! You're slacking!'
"He was holding down the fort for everybody."
Somebody needed to. According to Blackwood these Walk Off The Earth video shoots can sometimes get both dangerous and destructive.
"There have been so many misadventures," she says. "I've been hit in the face with a ukulele. We've broken things, we've thrown them up and not had our catchers there and they've been destroyed on the floor, all of that stuff has happened. There's always mishaps and things that break, but eventually in the end I think we've always gotten it."
It's a good thing the band are finding this success then. Because unlike, say, 'The Bed Intruder,' or Rebecca Black, Walk Off The Earth intend to use their newfound fame to make better music and videos.
"I think we're going to have more resources to do something we love," says Blackwood. "There's going to be 80 percent less obstacles in our way."
Watch Walk Off the Earth's 'Party Rock Anthem'
There's four men in black shirts (Ryan Marshall, Gianni Luminati, Mike Taylor, Joel Cassady) and one blonde woman (Sarah Blackwood). So far, so normal. Except all 10 of their hands are picking, plucking, strumming and tapping away at a single guitar simultaneously while they take turns on the vocals in a pristine cover of Australian band Goyte's hit, 'Somebody That I Used to Know.'
Twenty-six takes, 14 hours of filming and a week on the internet later and Burlington, Ontario band Walk Off The Earth have officially become a viral video sensation. We're talking 17 million (and quickly counting) views on YouTube and their version of 'Somebody That I Used to Know' currently sitting #1-with-a-rocket on iTunes Canada's top 10 sales chart.
Blackwood, a veteran solo performer and also member of the psychobilly band the Creepshow, knows these kind of events are lightning bolt moments and she's certainly enjoying the ride.
"It hasn't really sunk in," says Blackwood. "It's like, 'This is happening?' I was just laughing the other day because I was just so happy. I was like 'What the hell is going on? This doesn't happen.' So it feels really good, it feels super-good."
The catalyst for five-players-one-guitar came when Luminati -- known on his driver's license as Gianni Nicassio -- heard the Goyte song on the radio and got inspired.
"It was Gianni's idea," says Blackwood. "He brought it up to me at some point just being like, 'Sarah, I heard this song on the radio and it rejuvenated my faith in radio -- it doesn't suck, it's amazing, it's this wicked song.' He showed to me and I was like, 'Yeah' it's kind of Police-esque and original and neat.'"
From there it was just a matter of figuring out how the band would cover the song. With a history for unique video reinterpretations like the guitar juggling version of Radiohead's 'Karma Police," a kazoo-heavy remake of Bobby McFerrin's 'Don't Worry Be Happy' and spirited funk-thrash-jazz take on LMFAO's 'Party Rock Anthem,' the stakes were high.
"Every single video we make we try to make it more creative, or creative in a different way," says Blackwood. "I think Gianni mentioned he was always interested in doing a song with a certain amount of people on one instrument, whether it's two people on a guitar or whatever. And we researched it a little bit and on Youtube there's four people on one guitar so we were like, 'Five!' So we pieced the song and the parts together and we all made that video in the kitchen."
Maintaining the precision and discipline to execute their cover wasn't easy. Says Blackwood, "It's hard with five people because if even one person screws up, you have to start over and that happened most of the time."
In the video, the band's keyboard player Mike Taylor (the guy on the far right in the clip) has the seemingly comical job of simply holding the guitar's headstock while the other four play. It's been the focus of no shortage of attention amongst the 41,000+ YouTube comments like "RIGHT MAN = SPARTA," "Who is the the Man right? He is very cool :D," "guy on right get talked about most and he does nothing!!!! rock on that guy," and "Epic beard guy looks like Billy Mays."
"I think the biggest job was the holding of the headstock of the guitar," Blackwood says. "That was really important to do or all of us couldn't play it properly, so our guy at the end, Taylor, so if he kind of lost position -- because you can't stay still forever -- so if he started sinking down down we'd be like 'Mike! You're slacking!'
"He was holding down the fort for everybody."
Somebody needed to. According to Blackwood these Walk Off The Earth video shoots can sometimes get both dangerous and destructive.
"There have been so many misadventures," she says. "I've been hit in the face with a ukulele. We've broken things, we've thrown them up and not had our catchers there and they've been destroyed on the floor, all of that stuff has happened. There's always mishaps and things that break, but eventually in the end I think we've always gotten it."
It's a good thing the band are finding this success then. Because unlike, say, 'The Bed Intruder,' or Rebecca Black, Walk Off The Earth intend to use their newfound fame to make better music and videos.
"I think we're going to have more resources to do something we love," says Blackwood. "There's going to be 80 percent less obstacles in our way."
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