Walk Off The Earth Is Celebrating Life, Love, and Music

We can’t deny it, Canadian musicians have been sweeping into the States and into our hearts in a big way, and Juno Award winning, multi-platinum musical group Walk Off The Earth is one of those examples. The Burlington, Ontario quartet is preparing to embark on a massive headlining tour and walk right onto some of the biggest stages across the U.S.

After seeing massive viral success in 2012 with their cover of Gotye’s “Somebody I Used To Know,” which has now been viewed over 12 million times on YouTube, the indie-pop band watched their lives change over night and have endured ups and downs over the last seven years. They have logged an uncountable number of hours on the road in tour buses, have had marriages and families, and even experienced the death of one of their very own band members, Mike Taylor, in December of 2018.

As the 2019 summer concert season is kicking off, Walk Off The Earth are now back into the swing of things with new music and a live show, soon to hit Colorado’s own Red Rocks Amphitheater. We recently spoke with Gianni “Luminati” Nicassio and Joel Cassady about what makes this upcoming tour so exciting and how fans can expect something from the band they have never seen before!

What are you most looking forward to on this tour?

Joel Cassidy: Definitely Red Rocks! I feel like this venue is in the top ten places to play for every musician.
Gianni “Luminati” Nicassio: Our VIP experience at our shows. Connecting with the fans on a personal level is so coo,l and hearing the stories about how we have affected their lives; it’s so inspiring.

What can audiences look forward to seeing at the upcoming show in the Colorado?
JC: Tons of excitement! It’s an all sensory experience with sound, lights, images, and video.
GLN: Lots of new songs, and some interactive comedic skits peppered in on our new video wall.

What do you enjoy most about touring and playing these shows across the country and the world?
JC: Getting a chance to celebrate the music and recordings, and sharing what they mean to us with all of our fans. They are why we are here in the first place!
GLN: The food culture in different cities, and of course the live shows!

What is something that most people don’t know about tour life?
JC: It’s a lot of waiting around, and hanging out in green rooms. Being on a bus is less luxurious than some would think. You are basically sleeping in a coffin for a month.

What are some of the differences audiences all over the world?
JC: US and Canada is pretty much the same but I will say European audiences do take it to another level.

Can you talk about the band’s process of songwriting and collaboration?
JC: Someone always brings an idea in and then we send it back and forth. We will start with vocals, then usually scrap it all and start again until we find something that sticks.

What has been a really cool experience that stands out in the studio or the songwriting process?
JC: We have an upcoming original single that we wrote for our fallen member (Mike Taylor), and it was a really cathartic process to create something in his honor and name. The songwriting process really provided us with some level of closure, and gave us the ability that we were doing his
legacy right. It was truly a group effort.

Can you talk about how you decide what songs to cover and how you come up with the compositions?
JC: We like good songs first and foremost, and if one of us can’t get a song out of our head, that’s our starting point. Then we will start looking for parts we can WOTEify!
GLN: We have a HUGE tickle trunk full of weird instruments that we’ve yet to put into videos. When we hear a song that inspires us, we pair it with some of our weird and wacky instruments, and that’s the beginning of the process!

What do you want LGBTQ audiences to know about Walk Off The Earth?
JC: Our band seems to bring people together who have experienced different struggles in their lives, and have found friendship in our music that they may have not discovered otherwise. It’s always nice to hear how our music has inspired them and has a positive effect.

We actually had a story come across our lives a few years back about a young child who is transgender and wanted to share their story with us. We did a full video for our song “Alright,” which is about being positive in the face of negativity and boldly being the person who you truly are.
This fan really resonated with the song and they were the premise of the entire video where we could share their story.

Catch Walk Off The Earth on tour this summer, with the exciting stop in the Mile High City’s own Red Rocks Amphitheater on May 15!