How to go
What: Walk Off the Earth
When: 7 p.m. Jan. 19
Where: Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St., Cincinnati
Cost: $20
More info: (513) 872-8801, www.bogarts.com.
Walk Off the Earth is the quintessential 21st-century band, forming in Ontario in 2006, the same year YouTube launched. With no management, much less a record deal, in sight, they slowly built a fan base posting videos of themselves playing innovative covers of popular songs.
When their version of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” which featured all five members playing a single guitar, went viral, their success was secured. They play in Cincinnati this weekend in support of “R.E.V.O.,” their third album and first on a major label.
Courtesy of technology and the collapse of album sales, DIY has been an increasingly common route for bands seeking an audience. According to Walk off the Earth multi-instrumentalist Ryan Marshall, the “Eureka” moment came about two years after the band (and YouTube) came into existence.
“We did a Beatles cover and got 13,000 views,” he said. “That was more than the combined total of people we’d ever played in front of. Not many people knew what YouTube was at the time, but as it got bigger, so did we. We love it.”
Fans of the band are drawn to their idiosyncratic arrangements of popular hits. Their covers include Maroon 5’s “Payphone,” Madonna’s “Material Girl,” and Lorde’s “Royals,” among many others, where the members play multiple instruments, from the common to the exotic, on a single take that occasionally follows them through several elaborately staged environments with lots of props and intricate blocking, a trait Marshall said is “due to our lack of talent in the editing room.”
Their cover of Adele’s “Someone Like You” included a ukulele and an upright bass, taking the song from the grand diva stage to the front porch. Their version of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” was performed a cappella with a guest beatboxer. Marshall can’t even say how many instruments he plays.
“It’s a big number,” Marshall said. “I’m not the most amazing guitarist, but I can play almost any stringed instrument. I’ve been playing brass instruments since I was 6, and I’m a harmonica guy, too.”
Walk Off the Earth plays (and makes videos for) original music as well. “Somebody That I Used To Know” is the only cover of the 11 tracks on R.E.V.O. Posting covers on YouTube could be seen as a 21st-century version of playing popular songs to get people into to the club and then slipping in an original or two, but Marshall said the band confers equal status onto their covers.
“We give it a new flavor and by the time we’re done, it’s a different song,” he said. “We like to take songs away from pop radio and turn them into something that somebody who doesn’t like pop music would like. There are people who don’t listen to pop music — have never heard Adele or Taylor Swift — and they come up to us and say, ‘I never would’ve heard that song if you hadn’t done it.’ ”
YouTube is to Walk Off the Earth the way radio has been to most rock bands throughout history. Marshall said there was a good deal of pressure to follow up after the Gotye cover went viral, and they had fans who only knew that video and other fans that liked 5-10 other videos much more.
“We just do what we like, and don’t worry about it,” he said. “That’s one way of taking off the pressure. And by doing what we like, I think the genuineness comes through to the fans.”
Naturally, after the Gotye cover, several major labels came calling. The band was reluctant to sign away its music after achieving so much success on itsown, and even considered starting its own label but eventually inked a deal with Columbia Records.
“There were parts of the music business that we didn’t know anything about,” Marshall said. “We thought we had a really good hold on social media. Of course, you hear all the horror stories but luckily we had (our own success) as a bargaining chip. We knew we needed a company that had the experience and connections for a U.S radio airplay, which would get us to where we wanted to be, which is worldwide exposure. We think we made the right choice.”
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