Walk off the EarthA ban

d

Sarah

Blackwood

Mike Taylor

Ryan

Marshall

Joel

Cassa

dy

GianniLuminati

What?Originally from Burlington, OntarioCanada, this band formed in 2006

Why?They came together with a similarpassion in mind: music, and are heavily influenced by wanting totransform music into something thatis visual and not limited to auditory

General description of band and music?“We often get asked what the meaning behind our band name is. What does Walk Off the Earth mean? More than anything else, it's a state of mind.

When you're deeply entranced by a collection of musical compositions and your day-to-day stresses become a lot less bothersome, you've walked off the earth. You forget that your boss is a dick-weed, that your neighbor is a racist...or even that your girlfriend has been spending a little too much time with your best friend! You let the pulsing rhythm, the soaring melodies and the lush harmonies take you away to a place where nothing can affect you. Walk Off the Earth with us!” (Taken from their Facebook Page)

“Made up of multi-instrumentalists Ryan Marshall, Gianni Luminati, Mike Taylor, Joel Cassady, and Sarah Nicole Blackwood, the band has become known for its innovative cover songs, which feature the group members trading instruments with one another midsong or elaborate one-take performances where the song is built piece by piece by a single member playing every instrument. Though Walk Off the Earth have released two albums, 2007's Smooth Like Stone on a Beach and 2010's My Rock, their real success would come by way of YouTube, where the band had been steadily building a fan base with covers of Adele, B.o.B, and fellow Internet celebrities the Gregory Brothers. The group started to take off in 2012 after its cover of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know," performed by all the bandmembers simultaneously playing one guitar, received 70 million views in two months, earning Walk Off the Earth not only praise from the original artist, but a contract with Columbia Records, which released R.E.V.O. (an acronym of the band's motto, "Realize Every Victory Outright") early in 2013. ~ Gregory Heaney.” (Taken from their Myspace)

Ryan Marshall - Guitar/Harmonica/Trumpet/Bass/Vocals +Gianni Luminati - Bass/Drums/Guitar/Ukulele/Vocals +

Mike Taylor - Keys, VocalsJoel Cassady - Drums/Percussion/Samples

Sarah Blackwood - Ukelele / Guitar / Vocals / Percussion + (Taken from their Facebook page)

Click Play to Watchthe Music Video

Primarily known to cover other artists’ songs, this cover of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know went viral due to thecreativity of the music video

Their 3rd album R.E.V.O, and most notably their first mainstream album, consists of original songs, as well as their #1 cover of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know. Red Hands is their #1 hit single, followed by popular songs such as Gang of Rhythm and Summer Vibe

Click Play to WatchMusic Video

“The band built its fan base independently with no help from record labels, booking agents, or management.” (Taken from Wikipedia)

Click Image to Navigate through their Social Media sites

Since starting their YouTube channel on July 30, 2008, WOTE has expandedtheir use of Social Media in order to attract new listeners, as well as findingnew ways to interact with their current fans. After their cover Gotye cover exploded, reaching over 35 million views in under two weeks, “the massive fan response quickly drew attention to their collection of innovative songs and videos spanning their last 5 years and generated an unprecedented flood of media interest” (Taken from their website).

Click Play to Watch

Interview about their new found

fame

Each social media site they use caters to their purpose in using such platforms.

Myspace features their music while connecting users with other bands that have similar music to WOTE, and giving them the opportunity to engage with their top fans.

Twitter and Instagram function as publicizing quick blurbs of information and pictures of their daily lives, upcoming events, tours, and new music. Facebook does the same, but due to there being no character restrictions, WOTE is able to provide more details to their fans about where they are and what they can expect from the band in the coming days.

WOTE also has their own website which features all of these things, as well as specific tour dates and how to buy tickets, merchandise, detailed bios of the band members, contact information, and more photos, videos, and music. However, their YouTube channel is their definite go-to. All of these sites serve this main purpose for the band: marketing themselves and their music in order to reach a broad number of fans all across the real world and online world.

Click Image to purchase their 1st debut album

In addition to marketing, this band is well aware that the music industry has evolved when it comes to selling their music. While their album is available for purchase in-stores such as HMV, many of their fans have resulted to buying their album online: an effective strategy for many musicians in this generation.

Has WOTE found the audience that theyare trying to appeal to?As mentioned earlier, the band takes pride in making their music as much as a visual experience as an auditory experience. Visuals ranging from a house made out of boxes, the five-people band playing on one guitar, and their fast-paced, amazing visuals in their first original song music video, makes it clear that there is not one particular audience they are trying to appeal to considering their goal for their music is to enhance their fans entire experience. Though their music falls under the genres Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Reggae Rock, and Experimental Rock, there is no doubt that with a growing fan base of 1.6 million subscribers, almost 400 million views on YouTube, and more than 840,000 likes on Facebook, the “ideal” audience does not seem to matter because they are doing exactly what every band/musician needs to do in order to even attempt to attract an audience: be creative. Timeless bands such as The Beatles are still mainstream until now because of their creativity, and Walk Off the Earth is nothing short of amazing in that sense because of the various genres that they fall under, as well as their commitment to something different in the music industry.

What kind of content does the band post?This question is best answered if you center in on one of the social media platforms that the band uses. Take Instagram for example. While it is expected for the band to post pictures of their band making music, the majority of the pictures consist of documenting their lives as individuals leading normal lifestyles. Ranging from the family life (Sarah Blackwood having become a most recent mom), buying a new house, band members being silly, and even taking the occasional selfie, this band is definitely successful in conveying to their fans that they are still normal people. Considering most of the pictures are of Sarah, it is clear that she manages this SNS more so than the other band members. I think the fact thatthe band documents theirlife as just regularhuman beings, makes them evenmore appealing totheir fans becausethey portray themselves asdown-to-earth andrelatable. Click Image to see more Instagram Pictures

Does your band post consistently?Yes in fact, WOTE engages with their social media platforms quite frequently.

YouTube videos are posted almost every week, while Facebook posts and tweets on their Twitter profile equal up to at least a few a day. Put it this way, the band does not go more than a a few days without posting news about their music and tour, as well as pictures with their fans. The fact that the band is consistent with

their posts shows that they are dedicated to engaging with their fan base and have the intention of expanding it. In the last few weeks, they have been

hashtagging #GORtour to publicize their tour that began in 2013, which debuts their 3rd album R.E.V.O. Interestingly, it stands for “Realize Every Victory

Outright.” Now there’s some food for thought!

Does WOTE engage with their fans effectively? How so?I believe that they are committed to engaging with their fans in comparison to many other bands that I listen to. Most recently, Sarah Blackwood held a question-and-answer period on Twitter which encouraged their fans to ask them questions, to which Sarah replied to them. Similarly, their Twitter feed is filled with these replies to their fans as well as retweets about WOTE’s music and what the experience is like for their audience. Hashtagging #GORtour for example, is another method of getting people to talk about their music via SNS, as well as allowing them to engage with other people who also enjoy their music. Mentioned in one of the readings, bands who actively talk to their fans via SNS are more likely to keep their fan base as well as expand it because they become more personable as well as showing their fans that they notice all of the tweets, Facebook posts, and YouTube comments.

Could they be doing more?Of course there is always more room for improvement, but it is clear that WOTE manages their SNS’s quite well. They are well aware that their fan base was created and is maintained through social media considering their breakout video was from YouTube. In this sense, the band is on the right track in continuing to include their fans in their experience as musicians.

How does WOTE converge/overlap the online and physical sphere? As mentioned in the previous slide, WOTE’s fan base primarily began through social media and continues to be maintained in this way. Edmonson mentions in her article that most small bands start off this way and branch out into different ways of marketing their sound in real life as oppose to relying on the online world. Though WOTE sells band merchandise and posts pictures of themselves with their fans, they have not yet mastered methods in merging the real world and the online world. Any and all information about tour dates, new music, and “swag” are currently only available online. It will be interesting to see how and when they will expand their horizon in this way.

Are their methods effective?So far it has been effective. However, it will definitely be beneficial for the band to begin to advertise themselves through posters, and musical sets in small venues, in order to transcend their heavy online presence into the real world.

“I got this old guitar,The strings are rustyBut it's all I need...” – Gang of Rhythm by Walk off the Earth

theguardian.comNew Band of the Day: Walk off the Earth

by Paul LesterApril 25, 2013

contactmusic.comWalk off the Earth: R.E.V.O. Album Review

by Alex Lai

rollingstone.comWalk off the Earth ready for Victory on R.E.V.O. – Album

Premiereby Sarah Bellman

March 11, 2013“Making music is like a puzzle...we like puzzles!” (Taken from their Twitter)