Piano Guys prove classical music not confined to concert hall


4 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — A group of Utah men is proving classical music doesn't have to be confined to concert halls. They hit it big by putting their spin on some of the hottest hits.

The Piano Guys’ classical take of "Story of My Life" by One Direction rivals the original in popularity. In fact, the four middle-aged dads have more YouTube subscribers than the uber-popular boy band.

“I think to this day we’re still pinching ourselves,” said Al van der Beek.

These Utah dads have made classical music cool.

“We’ve always wanted to take classical music out of the concert hall, figuratively, and put it in entirely new context,” said group member Steven Sharp Nelson. “Weave it in pop music, stick it in an original tune, put it in a film score. You know, all of a sudden the music and musicians are now in places we’ve never seen before.”

Their unique sound resonates with people. The Piano Guys are selling out concerts all around the world, and they just released their fifth album. But their music videos have really made them into stars.

The guys have more than 50 videos, and they're nowhere near calling it quits. They give all the credit to video producer Paul Anderson.

“Paul’s vision and goal at the onset of this (was) to put a piano, a cello, in crazy places you’ve never seen them before,” Van der Beek said.

“When he told us, ‘I wanted to hit all Seven Wonders of the World,’ we just thought he was crazy, but we’ve done two of the seven. They’ve played the Great Wall of China and the Christ Redeemer statue in Brazil. So, we’re on our way,” Van der Beek continued. “So now we’re going to make it work no matter what happens. Paul seem to just find a way.”

Piano Guys prove classical music not confined to concert hall

“I think a lot of people on YouTube are seeing that the video component is just as important as the music component. You put that together and it just makes it more powerful,” he added.

That YouTube power caught the attention of Sony Music. The Piano Guys got more than a million views in their first month after releasing their first video three years ago. The record label respected that.

“I think we’re really fortunate to hit at a time when YouTube was really hot, a couple of years ago, when everyone was sharing videos,” Van der Beek said. “That was the hip thing to do on Facebook. But without that component, social media, I don’t think we would be where we are today.”

Nelson added, “I think there is a model out there, and I think we’ve explored that. Record labels are recognizing that and partnering with artists and capitalizing with artists, and capitalizing on what they’re doing, yet still do what they do best. It’s wonderfully symbiotic mutualism that is so great.”

Photos

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Mike Headrick

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast