Fusion Festival performers Walk Off the Earth taking their YouTube success in stride
After ten years in the industry, the band recently landed a record deal.
By Estefanía Wujkiw
[associate culture editor]
You may know them for their cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”, but the Ontario band Walk Off the Earth has a lot more exciting, eclectic music coming our way in the near future, according to multi-instrumentalist Sarah Blackwood, who granted The Runner a phone interview the week before their show at Surrey’s Fusion Festival on July 21.
With almost 130-million views on YouTube for the Gotye cover, the band remains as independent and sincere with their music as ever. Blackwood said the band hopes to continue to “bring people to a different place when you listen to the music. As musicians, that’s what we want, to take people out of their heads or help them out or do whatever we can with music.”
The group’s members — Gianni Luminati, Ryan Marshall, Mike Taylor, Joel Cassady and Blackwood — have been in the music industry for over ten years, and with a lot of dedication and determination, they recently landed a record deal. “We work our asses off and we knew eventually that something awesome was gonna happen. The idea was there, the song was there, and then it just happened.” Talk about being in right place at the right time.
Their original album coming out in October will be “a few different styles of music, which we’re all about; rock and roll, some hip hop, cool folky stuff.” With a few collaborations up their sleeve, the record will be another staple of their perfection, “we use brooms on the floor, we didn’t sample anything, [and] all the sounds on the record are all organic.”
As for their iconic covers of well-known songs, Blackwood said, “We’re just gonna keep mixing it up, doing everything. We don’t like to restrict ourselves to anything in particular; that just kind of limits your possibilities.”
They will be playing at the Fusion Festival in Surrey, Saturday, July 21 at 7:30 p.m. on the Concord Pacific World Music Stage. Blackwood said that the “shows have gotten pretty awesome. Basically, we play our hearts out, be prepared for one of the best shows of all time.”
To watch video clips of Walk Off the Earth’s adventures on the road, with intimate backstage moments, follow them on www.keek.com/walkofftheearth.
