The Piano Guys became an Internet sensation by way of their immensely successful series of strikingly original self-made music videos. They’ve made 35 since joining forces a little more than a year ago, including their most recent hit video, an innovative 10-handed version of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful.” But it’s the Guys’ highly original blend of classical music with pop that has really been the cause of an Internet phenomenon that has now brought them to their major label debut album, The Piano Guys, to be released on Sony Masterworks on October 2nd, 2012. The album features more of the imaginative mash-up arrangements that The Piano Guys are already famous for, including sources ranging from Michael Jackson to Mozart, The Bourne Identity to David Guetta. It also includes an original song and innovative takes on hits by One Direction, Adele and Christina Perri.
But just who are The Piano Guys? Actually, there’s only one piano player, Jon Schmidt, and one other instrumentalist, Steven Sharp Nelson, on cello. Yet the other three – Paul Anderson, Tel Stewart and Al van der Beek – are equally significant members of the group. The Piano Guys’ name comes from Anderson’s piano store in St. George, Utah, which was called The Piano Guys. The spectacular Piano Guys videos, which have so far netted over 130 million YouTube views (and 500,000 new views a day), are essentially divined by Stewart and Anderson. “Jon had built up a fan base for 20 years, and we used that as a springboard for getting exposure,” Anderson notes, “but it’s all about the merits of the videos, and share-ability. People see them and then share them with their friends on Facebook, and before you know it, they can take off.”
The Piano Guys are now readying an album launch video for the album’s lead track “Titanium/Pavane” – a mash-up of French classical composer Gabriel Fauré’s “Pavane” with David Guetta’s “Titanium,” the Guys having previously lensed a lovely take on Guetta’s “Without You.” And a clip will certainly be created for “Arwen’s Vigil,” a Piano Guys original. But “Beethoven’s 5 Secrets” merits special mention. The piece itself employs five separate melodies from the four movements of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, in conjunction with OneRepublic’s “Secrets.”
