From connecting with people online to performing live in front of thousands of fans, YouTube sensations Alex Goot and Against The Current finally made their way to Kuala Lumpur as part of their 2014 Asia/Australia Tour.
Alexander George Cut (better known as Alex Goot) began recording music at the age of 16 and spent most of his time self-producing all audio and videos to be released on various social network sites. The multitalented independent artiste rose to fame by leveraging on the power of social media and YouTube, whose channel has already reached over 1.8 million subscribers. From hits such as Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Time after Time”, to more recent hits such as Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” and Rihanna’s “Diamonds”, Goot has released since 4 studio albums, which consist of both his cover songs and his own masterpiece.
Following a similar path as Alex Goot, the pop rock band “Against The Current” rose to fame with their hit cover videos, such as Paramore’s “Ain’t it Fun” and Taylor Swift’s “Red”. The band consists of Chrissy Costanza as lead vocalist, Will Ferri as drummer, and Dan Gow as both vocalist and guitarist. They began posting cover videos on YouTube in 2011 and took it up a notch with their music through a powerful collaboration with other YouTube musicians including Alex Goot and Kurt Schneider.
Although they don’t post up their cover videos regularly, the joint collaborations has raked them over 58 million views to date.
With that being said, Alex Goot and Against The Current are now ready to reach out to even more fans as they are going on tour in Southeast Asia countries and Australia. This is their first time performing in Malaysia and it was our pleasure to meet them and talk to them about their thoughts on approaching the mainstream market and their choices of songs.
But before the interview began, they took the opportunity to send their deepest condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of those who were affected by the recent plane tragedy.
Dan Gow / Chrissy Costanza / Will Ferri / Alex Goot
With minimal exposure to the mainstream media, both Alex Goot and Against The Current managed to gain their popularity through social media sites and their respective YouTube channels. It sure took quite some time for the masses to notice them as they are all managing the musical works on their own, without signing any major music labels.
So when we asked them about getting into the mainstream market, Will jokingly said, “None of us are sellouts, by any meaning.” Goot felt that there was no reason to sign with music labels if they were to take away the content he wanted to put out. He said:
Personally I think there is a time that there is an arc of a “scoop story” on something women would be more into or women’s ideal. But I think that surpasses the time. If the fire isn’t there, I wouldn’t want to break into mainstream anymore.
As with all artistes, there will come a time when even the most successful band has to change their musical direction to adapt themselves to the ever-changing mainstream market. Regarding this matter, Will said, “I dont think we are going to change who we are, as in like how we sound. If people like it and it becomes a thing, then we are definitely ready.”
Chrissy the lead vocalist then added:
I think also, the mainstream market is changing so much. There are so many bands that even a few years ago, like the bands in 1975, have more alternative sounds. It’s not just manufactured pop songs that are becoming extremely popular. If the mainstream community is going to take into our music, that would be incredible. We are not going to change ourselves in attempt to break into that community. But if that’s what happens to be popular, and what people like to listen to, then that would be great.
In today’s music world, some major music labels venture into the foreign market by producing songs in foreign languages. The Korean entertainment industry, especially, is commonly known for venturing into foreign markets especially in Japan, China, and America. Obviously, the musicians under the labels face the bigger challenge of mastering their skills of singing in foreign languages.
Dan Gow / Chrissy Costanza / Will Ferri
So, when we asked Goot and the band about their thoughts on singing songs in different languages. Chrissy said, “I think it would be awesome, but I would be really afraid of being offensive for pronouncing everything wrong. Yeah I would probably end up being offensive because I pronounce everything wrong accidentally, and I’d never want to offend anyone.”
“I think a lot of artistes do that if they grow up multilingual and they can get their pronunciation right. If it’s a serious release, I just think the pronunciation and setting the whole theme is so important. There’s one Lady Gaga song with French pronunciations in it, we covered it, and some people are really mad about that. The French people are really particular about that thing,” said Goot who has previously covered Lady Gaga’s songs “Bad Romance”, “Born This Way” and “The Edge of Glory”.
Alex Goot also praised his friend Jason Chen, who is also a YouTube star, for his ability to cover Chinese songs with perfect pronunciation. Will then added, “If we ever get the opportunity to put our release in other country and like dub our own songs, that would be really cool. We have friends who’ve done that.”
Alex Goot & Against The Current performed at Bentley Music Auditorium in Mutiara Damansara on 24th August and headed to The Curve, Mutiara Damansara for an after party and a Meet and Greet session. Check out more pictures of Alex Goot & Against The Current in our Facebook album!