Now with four albums under their belt — which include re-arranged versions of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” — 2Cellos regularly tour the world. The duo will be stopping at Riverbend this weekend to support their newest album, “Score,” their first album to be entirely devoted to TV and film music.
2Cellos first gained notice when the video of their rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” went viral on YouTube. Luka Sulic, one-half of the 2Cellos duo (the other is Stjepan Hauser), said he was grateful to come of age in the era he did.
“The internet is a great platform, whereas before we would’ve had to convince a record label executive to believe in us,” he said. “The timing was crucial. We were lucky.”
The duo has often spoken of modernizing classical music performances to gain a wider audience.
“We always wanted to do film music, and nobody has ever done an album like this,” Sulic said. “The cello is perfect for this kind of music, because it’s so romantic and melodic. For the next album, we might go back to our roots with the rock and pop arrangements, and then we might do an all-classical album.”
Sulic said that because of the departure taken on their new album, their live show will have a slightly different feel.
“For the first part of the show, we’ll have a strings section and keyboards for the film music, and the second part is all rock stuff. There’s a much greater contrast.”
The films and TV shows represented on “Score” include “Rain Man,” “Titanic,” “Braveheart” and, unsurprisingly, given the original lead instrument is also a cello, “Game of Thrones.”
“(For ‘Game of Thrones’), we just switched the melody, added some improvisation in the middle,” Sulic said. “And we got to film the video for free back home, where the show is filmed. So it was fun.”
Several media outlets have noted the irony of Sulic and Hauser’s partnership given that they were rivals when they first met in the Balkans (Sulic and Hauser were born in Slovenia and Croatia, respectively), though Sulic said it was always a friendly rivalry.
“We met at a summer camp,” he said. “And there was a rivalry because we came from the same region and we went to the same competitions, and there weren’t that many cellists, maybe five of us. But we were always great friends and we became very close.”
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How to go
What: 2Cellos
Where: Riverbend Music Center, 6295 Kellogg Ave., just east of Cincinnati
When: 8 p.m. Sunday, July 30
Cost: $39.50-$85
More info: (513) 232-6220 or www.riverbend.org
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