Canadian alternative pop outfit Walk Off The Earth has been through quite a bit recently. Shortly after announcing possibly their biggest tour dates to-date late last year, longtime member Mike “Beard Guy” Taylor unexpectedly passed, leaving the remaining four to ponder their musical future. However, fortunately for fans (and the band themselves), despite slowing down production slightly, the band have moved forward and are currently about to wrap this US leg of their tour (which has included a much-anticipated show at Red Rocks) on Saturday, June 1st, at our Fillmore, before going on to Europe, which will include a date that the band are particularly excited for at Wembley Arena.
I got a chance to chat with Walk Off The Earth vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Blackwood late last year, shortly before their tragic loss. I ask what can be expected of the upcoming live dates and she tells me that they’ll definitely be in line with the band’s usual M.O.
“We have a pretty crazy live show. It’s always wild and we’re always throwing stuff around. We’re gonna go all out with production. For people who’ve seen us before, they know it’s always something that you’ll never forget.”
In addition to a plethora of their own material, Walk Off The Earth may actually be most famous for their internet covers of mega-pop hits (Their takes on Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” and Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You” have been especially noteworthy.) In just the past two months they’ve uploaded covers of Taylor Swift’s “ME!,” Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star” (featuring Sarah Silverman on lead vocals) and, and perhaps most impressively, a re-imagining of List Loeb’s “Stay (I Missed You)” (with Lisa Loeb) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first song by an unsigned artist to ever top the Billboard Hot 100. I ask Blackwood what it is that leads Walk Off The Earth to want to cover a particular song and she admits that it was initially based on trends, but that they’ve really come to enjoy the process of selecting their cover tunes: “Originally it was what people were looking for on the internet, like what people were searching for… But we just really like good songs and there are so many good songs out there these days, like Ed Sheeran will come out with an album and there are at least two bangers on it!”
Come see Walk Off The Earth Saturday night at The Fillmore and, in the meantime, check out their recent collaboration with Lisa Loeb on her biggest hit and the famous theme song of Reality Bites.
