Some band that you now know: Walk off the Earth

One of those guys, Joel Cassady; Toronto resident and drummer of Walk off the Earth, keeps the beat throughout the entire song, tapping rythmically on the body of the guitar. Cassady was just as surprised as his bandmates at the great response to their Gotye cover video. 

 

"We knew we had a pretty good formula put together for this one, but we certainly weren't prepared to get anywhere near this level of attention," said Cassady. 

 

Walk off the Earth, an indie rock band from Burlington, Ontario, huddled around one acoustic guitar; each member with both hands on it, to record a cover of Gotye and Kimbra’s “Somebody That I Used to Know" which, to the band's surprise, went viral and now has nearly 19 million, 500 thousand views on YouTube. 

 

So what is it that made this video such a hit? Russel Crowe's recommendation tweet, and the public recognition that the video received from both of the song's original artists may have helped, but the video was obviously outstanding enough to reach the great heights that it did. 

 

"It was great to get the approval of both Gotye and Kimbra via Twitter - I think that's really the ultimate goal for a musician when creating a cover song," said Cassady. "

 

"The video combines several appealing elements that a lot of people look for when searching out a new buzz-worthy video - the mix of a slightly gimmicky concept, an attractive girl and an "epic guy" (Taylor on the right) proved to be something of a perfect mixture for us," said Cassady. "The original song has obviously generated a massive amount of buzz as well, which only fuels the viewer base that much more."

 

Though they are new to the viral video scene, WOTE is no stranger to the music industry. 

 

"The band has a considerable amount of collective experience within the music industry," said Cassady "We've been able to get some very trustworthy people on board quickly enough to help us weed out the spam and move forward with the most promising offers."

 

WOTE's official Facebook page describes the band as "one of the only "truly" indepenedent bands in the music industry today. They have had no help from record labels. They gained much of their success through word of mouth." 

 

And word of mouth certainly helped this band out with their viral cover video. 

 

"We have been inundated with press, performance and record label contacts from all around the world over the past week," said Cassady "We're travelling to Los Angeles next week to speak with some label reps and will also be performing the cover on live TV."

 

Chances are you've already seen this video, and if you haven't, A: you need to spend less time under that rock of yours and B: you just simply need to see it. 

 

"It's a very exciting time for the band, that's for sure."