Walk Off the Earth

With all five members intertwining their arms, huddling around one acoustic guitar and collectively plucking strings, singing lines and tapping out rhythms, Canadian indie-pop eccentrics Walk Off The Earth became a viral sensation in 2012 when their homemade, one-shot video notched up over 70 million views in just two months. Multi-instrumentalist Gianni 'Luminati' Nicassio originally opened a studio and started playing with Ryan Marshall in 2006, but early albums 'Smooth Like a Stone on the Beach' and 'My Rock' made little impact and life as independent artists was a struggle. Things started to change when they gathered together singer Sarah Blackwood, drummer Joel Cassady and keyboardist Mike Taylor from different local bands in Burlington, Ontario and they were quick to participate when a new trend for bands posting homemade cover versions on YouTube began to take off. After re-working tracks by Adele, Bruno Mars and The Beatles in their own playful, DIY style, it was Luminati who came up with the unique idea for the band to all play one guitar together. They chose 'Somebody That I Used to Know' by Australian songwriter Goyte as an experiment, and although the video took over 14 hours to record, it quickly became an online phenomenon making them an overnight sensation. By the end of 2012 they had received hundreds of millions of social media views, appeared on 'The Ellen Degeneres Show' and starred in videos with South Korean pop star Psy. Columbia Records soon came calling to help them release the album 'R.E.V.O.' and they soon put out singles 'Red Hands' and 'Gang of Rhythm' which became instantly popular. The band later collaborated with DJ Steve Aoki on 'Home We'll Go (Take My Hand)' and with beatboxer KRNFX on Taylor Swift's song 'I Knew You Were Trouble'. Blackwood and Luminati went on to have three children together but the band remained reliably endearing, inventive and infectiously joyful and returned in 2016 to win their first Juno Award and release their fourth studio album 'Sing It All Away'.

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