Walk Off The Earth’s Mike Taylor and Ryan Marshall talk covers, new album

Walk Off The Earth, the headliners of Tuesday’s SGA spring concert, sent Mike Taylor and Ryan Marshall Lumination’s way after the show to talk about their new album R.E.V.O. (out March 19), the process of recording a cover song and where the YouTube celebrities might be found next. While both are known for their versatile roles in the group (not limited to trumpet),  Taylor can be seen behind the keyboard, and Marshall is usually up front on vocals and guitar. The band’s big break came when their cover of Gotye’s chart-topping hit “Somebody That I Used To Know” (featuring the huge guitar) received over a hundred million views on YouTube. The group has been performing with the ‘multiple people – one guitar’ angle for around six years, and the novel technique helps give the band a unique identity. “Multiple people on one instrument has always been a part of this band, and so, every time we do a video, we want to try and bring our live show into the video, and same thing with the live show. We try and bring YouTube to the stage,” Marshall said. The style and inspiration to cover the Gotye hit sent the band skyrocketing to internet fame. “So, all of those together gave us this idea of ‘let’s get as many people on one guitar as we can’, and the timing with the Gotye song was just a fluke,” Marshall said. “It was a great tune, and not too many people had heard it in North America, and we loved it.” “It was a perfect storm,” Taylor added. Cover songs are one of the...