c music tv talks to 2cellos · c music tv talks to 2cellos c music tv’s studios, london, england,...

© C Music Entertainment Ltd 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

C Music TV talks to 2CELLOS

C Music TV’s Studios, London, England, 24 June 2011

Interview transcribed by Josey Maguire at C Music TV.

C MUSIC TV – Anne-Marie Minhall: 2CELLOS, Luka and Stjepan, welcome to C Music TV. We want to

know everything about you today and a bit, I suppose to begin with, about what your musical

backgrounds were. Luka let me start with you. What’s your musical background and where did you

first pick up a cello?

Luka: I was very young. I started playing cello when I was 5 and my father was a cellist so he put the

cello in my hands and took me to music school. I don’t really remember how I started but I just

remember that I was always crazy about cello and it was my big passion since early years.

Do you remember some of the first pieces you would be playing?

L: Not the first pieces but slowly I was playing harder and harder pieces until I came to Smooth

Criminal.

And so what about you, Stjepan? What was your first experience of playing the cello?

Stjepan: It is a real miracle that I started playing cello because the city that I come from, no one

knows what a cello is. So it’s really strange because I just heard it on the radio or something and I

was amazed by the sound. It’s the closest to the human voice and so pleasant and so beautiful so I

just felt I had to start playing cello.


Do you remember some of the pieces that you enjoyed playing when you were first starting out?

S: I don’t sorry!

What about the challenges then, when Luka was saying about playing more challenging pieces? Can

you both remember what was the first work that you thought was going to be a bit of a challenge?

L: I remember for me I was like 11 or 12, the Saint-Saëns concerto. I have to play this concerto. It

was like a big mountain to climb for a kid.

S: It was the same for me. It’s like the first concerto that kids start playing.

L: The first proper popular cello concerto, which kids are allowed to play.

You mentioned your father, Luka. What about other musical influences? What did you like listening

to?

L: I was very lucky because my first teacher was a very interesting person. He was a writer, he was a

cellist, of course and he was also an alchemist. He was travelling a lot in mountains. He was a very

broad-ranged intelligent guy, so he kind of got me interested in music very much and made me love

music since I was young. That’s actually the most important task of a first teacher, to make you fall in

love with music.eyp

S: Well, I was not really interested in cello when I started learning it at first at elementary school

because everyone was making fun at me in school so it was really painful and I wanted to quit so

much. But then somehow in the last year of elementary school, I fell in love with it and started

practicing like crazy and that’s it.

Who was the first person to recognise your talent?

L: Himself.

S: Did anyone recognise my talent? That’s good. I didn’t really have a good teacher in the beginning

so someone who came from outside.....

L: I discovered him on YouTube.

S: Be serious, this is TV man. Someone who came from outside had a bit more of a proper cello than

the teacher I started with and she saw a big capacity in me and everyone was amazed. What was she

seeing in this kid? As soon as she told me I was talented, I got so much will to start practicing and I

improved like crazy. In one year, I did 6 years.

Do you remember your first musical performance?

S: Yes, it was very good. For a little kid it was good.


And Luka, what about you? What was your first musical performance?

L: The first performance I remember my mother was accompanying me on piano and I was so scared

I didn’t want to go on stage and she was pulling my hand on to the stage. I was looking facing the

other direction, towards the wall, not the audience.

S: He’s still the same today.

And the teacher that you were telling us about earlier on, is that the first person to recognise your

talent do you think or was there somebody else?

S: He has no talent.

L: He was the first teacher to recognise and also my parents, you know. Our parents they sacrificed

themselves a lot. They had to drive us to lessons, paid for the masterclasses at the school. It was a

very big sacrifice from them.

S: They drive us by car and we drive them crazy.

Was there one moment for either of you that you both thought, separately, this is going to be my

life, my career? Or was it just a gradual process where you knew that you were going to become a

professional cellist?

L: I knew from the start I’m going to be a cellist, since I was 5. That was always my main priority in

my life, so we didn’t have childhood like normal kids because we had to practice and we didn’t go

out much.

S: We were abnormal kids.

Is that when you first became friends? The cello brought you both together?

S: Yes. Two psychopaths. We met in a masterclass and we felt that we have same problems, you

know. We were both really fanatic about cello and music and we just started hanging out.

L: We made some jam sessions playing duets.

S: We got drunk and tried to play together. It was out of tune but the chemistry was so strong. We

knew it was going to be something.

After school in Croatia, what brought you both to England? How did your studies progress? Stjepan,

you first.

S: Well, when I finished my high school in Croatia, I knew lots of teachers here in London and they

invited me to study here and it was a whole new life for me. I came here with absolutely no

knowledge of English and I just came here. And I still don’t know English, as you can hear, but it’s

better now. I was here for 4 or 5 years here in England.


And did you enter music competitions while you were here?

S: Yes I went to many competitions. I got many prizes and it was good. Its normal progress for a

young artist to attend all the competitions and masterclasses.

Do you gain good experience as a musician by entering competitions?

S: Yes. But I don’t really like the competitions, because music is not a sport. You can’t really judge it.

And after music college, you’ve been performing with various orchestras and at various concert

halls. Tell us a little bit about the kind of experience that was and some of the places and orchestras

you’ve played with.

S: I played many recitals and concertos with the orchestra and also I had a piano trio. We did lots of

concerts and chamber music and stuff and it was great, until Luka came to London. I had a great

classical music life and then this little boy spoiled everything. No, but I felt a bit restricted by only

doing classical music because I felt I had the energy for whole stadiums, for thousands of people and

I was just playing for selected people and usually it’s the older generation in little halls, so I felt

restricted a bit. So then we decided to start something new.

How then did life change, Luka, when you left Croatia and came to study here?

L: I graduated in Croatia and went to study in Vienna for 4 years and finally I came to London in

September and The Royal Academy of Music. We started hanging out more because before we

didn’t see eachother because he was in London and I was in Croatia and Vienna but we were always

in touch and very good friends. The interesting thing in Croatia, many people considered us to be big

competition and we were always friends and many people were surprised when we decided to join

forces and make something together, which is a good example if we work together, what you can

achieve. I came in September and we started making plans and during the winter holidays, we

recorded the ‘Smooth Criminal’ video and uploaded it and since then, it exploded and went viral. It

received 3 million hits in 3 weeks. It never happened in the history of classical or crossover music.

It’s incredible.

And since then it’s risen and risen and you’re at about 7 million at the moment?

L: Yes. We recorded ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ video by Guns ‘N’ Roses and it’s going viral as well.

Even Guns ‘N’ Roses presented it on their Facebook page, which is a very big honour for us.

S: For ‘Smooth Criminal’ we were contacted by a choreographer who originally did the choreography

for Smooth Criminal and was very close with Michael Jackson.

L: He said Michael would love the video.

S: So it’s the best possible compliment.


Can you give us an insight into how you would choose which songs to play together? Smooth

Criminal is quite a different tune to Welcome to the Jungle, so what hooks you both?

S: When you listen to some pop song or rock song, we know straight away if it’s going to work on the

cello or not, because it has certain riffs or rhythms which we know straight away if it will work on

cello or not. You can’t do just any Michael Jackson song. I mean, Smooth Criminal was by far the best

choice from him to work on cello.

L: And it has to have a melody, for instance, music nowadays, which is in the clubs, the pop music,

doesn’t have any melody. It’s one note, na na na na na na, so you can’t play this on the cello. So we

had to cover some really good music from before. U2, you know, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Sting, all great

music.

S: Actually our aim is to return rock to fashion. Because these kids are listening to total rubbish and

junk and our hearts really hurt when we hear what they’re listening to. We want to bring back real

music.

When people watch you, if they’ve not seen you already on TV, playing these two tracks in

particular, it’s a very physical performance. What are they like physically, both of those tunes to

play?

S: It’s very tiring and challenging. It’s like working all the time. It’s like working as a butcher.

L: It’s really fun at the same time because you don’t have any borders; you can do whatever you

want. These are your arrangements and you can change the arrangements. You can play faster and

no one will judge you for a slide you did, like Michael Jackson didn’t intend for this slide to be in this

style, like it is in classical music.

You decided to get your heads together, having played together for many years, knowing how

eachother works and the chemistry between you, take us back to how the very first video of

yourselves playing Smooth Criminal and then uploading it started. Where did that seed of an idea

come from?

L: We always wanted to do something crazy and something attractive on the cello...

S: ...and something new.

L: Something new. Make cello popular among the younger generation. Also many young musicians

our age started just to survive and we were sick of student life as ell so we wanted to do something

about it. we recorded the audio for Smooth Criminal in a village in Croatia.

S: Very cheap.

L: Very cheap. And he met his friend 2 days before the video shoot....


S: Everything happened so quickly, I mean, it’s a miracle. And we did the whole arrangement in 2

hours through Skype. It’s crazy. Everything happened in just a few days and the video was on

YouTube. And just a few days after, Elton John called personally on the mobile and then Ellen

DeGeneres, all the other big TV shows and all the major labels contacted us. It was like a real

American dream, it’s crazy.

Tell us more about the Elton John phonecall, because that must have been quite a jaw-dropping

moment.

L: Well I was warned that I would be called by him from the principal of the Royal Academy of Music

and he called on the phone and said he loved the video and what we do and also other stuff we had

on YouTube. The same afternoon, he invited us to join him on tour, so we will be touring around the

world with him next year.

When you’re on stage, is it just the two of you or do you get to play with Sir Elton as well.

S: Yeah, we’re playing with him.

L: Thirteen songs with him and his band, so we are part of the group.

Give us an idea of what Elton material you’re performing with him.

L: We play thirteen of his songs. Some of his songs already have signature string parts in them so we

arranged and adopted them for cellos and we added something.

S: We also do lyrically slow, beautiful songs, only the piano and cello and him. It’s really nice.

Apart from going on tour and being on stage with the great man, is it right you had an invitation to

the party of the year held by Sir Elton last night?

S: Yesterday was great. Also it was George Michael and there were many celebrities.

L: The White Tie & Tiara Ball.

So who did you see there and did you talk to any of the musicians? You talked about George

Michael, are there any other people?

L: Last night we performed at the White Tie Ball, which is an evening to raise money for Elton John’s

Aid Foundation. We played there with Sir Elton himself and also George Michael and we met many

interesting musicians and celebrities.

That’s interesting that you bring up about performing live. What’s the energy like for you both when

you’re performing live, whether it’s something like that at a private party or whether you’re on stage

in front of thousands of people in a stadium or rock arena?

S: In any case, we always have lots of fun on stage and its great, the atmosphere, with the other

players and with Elton, it’s great.


L: There’s always lots of adrenaline and we usually need a new bow after every show.

S: After every song.

You’ve mentioned trying to reach a new audience, a younger audience and bring the cello to more

people and obviously the internet has proved to be already a hugely successful way to do that for

you two. Is then the next step to do more live performances but in perhaps more unusual venues or

unusual people that you’re playing with, like Elton John, because people are going to see Elton John

wouldn’t expect to see a couple of cellists on stage doing their own thing as well?

L: We want to do our own shows very soon and also maybe to form a band so it will be like AC/DC

band. Angus Young on cello, Brian Johnson on cello. With guitars and drums and bass.

S: We want to have a rock band and kick some a*ses on the stage.

You had an insight into what C Music TV is doing. I wondered if you had some advice for our young

viewers if they’re interested in taking up the cello or if they want to hear more cello music. Any

thoughts on that?

S: Please listen to the cello.

L: We are very honoured to be doing this interview for C Music TV and we want to share our passion

for good music and cello with the world.

S: Please don’t listen to rubbish at home. Watch C Music TV.

Let’s find out some of your thoughts about the work that C Music TV does and particularly its aim of

bringing classical music to new international audiences. It sounds like you’ve got a lot in common,

2CELLOS with C Music TV, would you agree?

L: Yes.

How important is it for you to bring your style of music to new and different audiences.

S: It is very important to attract as many kids as possible to music because they are our future

audience and they need to be raised with good music and not spoiled with rubbish music. I think by

education people with great music, and the cello is such a beautiful instrument, people will become

more sensible and the world will become a better place.

L: (singing) Heal the World...

Both: (singing) Make it a better place, for you and for me...

S: I think we could stop all the wars just with a cello, 2CELLOS.

Tell me, both of you might have different views on this, what is the best things about playing the

cello?


L: The cello is the coolest instrument you can imagine.

S: It’s like a female body. When you touch the cellos, it’s like touching the women. It’s the same

feeling. The cello is actually my girlfriend. I will never break up with her.

L: The cello is the most complete instrument.

S: It’s like making love with a girl actually, when you play a cello.

L: The cello has the biggest range of all string instruments. You can play it as a guitar, you can do

percussive sounds on it, and you can play it as a violin, almost like a double bass. It’s the closest to

the human voice. It has endless possibilities.

S: It can be like really slow, romantic, beautiful and it can rock harder than any other instrument. It’s

so complete, so universal.

L: So is Sony.

Your debut album out this summer, did you enjoy the process of being in a studio and working on

your first album and obviously lots of different material? How much involvement did you have?

Were you given suggestions, have a go at this? Or did you say this is what we’d like to do?

L: The great thing about making our first album was we had complete freedom...

S: Artistic freedom.

L: Artistic freedom in choosing the material and we produced and arranged all the songs on the CD.

S: They let us have this freedom because we had already made a brand out of ourselves with our

first video. This was the idea and the sound we wanted to achieve through the whole album and so

they trusted us completely, our vision and our ideas.

L: Usually with other crossover artists, the major labels make them stars and make arrangements for

them, choose their orchestra, choose the songs and the material, we kind of chose everything by

ourselves, so it’s a very good feeling. Our first album is called 2CELLOS and it is being released by

Sony Masterworks.

S: Please buy it. We need money. I’m joking.

L: It features big hits by Michael Jackson, Guns ‘N’ Roses, U2.

S: Coldplay, Hot Play, Nirvana.

L: Sting. Lots of great music.

S: It’s like music for all time. And we chose two new bands for the album; Muse and Kings of Leon,

because we had to choose something which was new, but at the same time, they follow the

tradition of the previous bands like U2 or Nirvana. Great music.


Which U2 tracks have you done and why?

L: We did ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ and ‘With or Without You’.

S: And they’re masterpieces by themselves, but on cello they become so atmospheric and so

touching because it combines with the beautiful melodies and also, for example, ‘Streets’ is also

rocking at the same time really hard, combined with beautiful melodies it’s a really special effect on

cello.

And the same with Nirvana? Tell us why you chose to record that track?

S: We needed extra minutes.

L: Nirvana can rock really good on the cello so it was a natural choice to arrange this song.

How has life changed for you at the moment, now that you’re doing interviews and we’ll be seeing

and hearing a lot more of you in the coming months? Is life very different for you both at the

moment?

S: Since our first video came out we haven’t had even one minute break. It’s crazy. It’s different.

We’ve been through the whole world already in these few months.

L: It’s very exciting. It’s not easy sometimes but we got used to working hard and every day it’s a

blessing for us in our new rock star life.

But you are getting plenty of time to play and to perform and to practice still?

S: Well it’s not much time to practice anymore because we are on the tour always, on the plane or

the bus.

Describe an average day when you’re doing the Elton john gig. Talk us through from morning

through to performance and post-performance.

L: Well, we wake up at 12 then go to spa.

S: It’s a very hard life. Then we eat lunch. It’s horrible.

L: We’re on tour now with Sir Elton John so we change hotels all the time in the tour bus, airplanes,

you know, different venue every day. Many people. But it’s really cool.

S: It’s fun.

What kind of reaction have you had, first of all from fellow friends and people that you’ve been

studying with and teachers you’ve been studying with? What’s happening to you both at the

moment?

S: We get support from everyone. Everyone is very excited and proud.


L: The great thing is how this video was accepted in all fields, also classical fields, to open rock.

Everyone loved it.

S: And I think the reason why it is appreciated, even in the classical world, is because what we do is

so demanding, so hard, even harder than playing any classical piece for the cello, so that’s why we

can get appreciation from the very top cellists. It’s not like an easy way out, like usually crossover is

about, but it’s a really big challenge.

L: Many crossover musicians, they pick classical masterpieces and put some techno beat behind it

and they turn it into rubbish.

S: And what we try to do is to take a pop or rock song and turn it into classical masterpiece, so I think

is the opposite.

In terms of the tracks that you recorded for the album, which of them caused you the most

headaches? Which were the most challenging to get just right?

S: Well, we are very fast. We do things very quickly but maybe ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ took us

longer...because he doesn’t know how to play.

L: ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ was very demanding song to arrange because you have to make the

sound of a whole band on just two instruments. We experimented a lot...

S: It was like creating a whole symphony. When we were recording it was like recording Tchaikovsky’

6th symphony on to cellos.

L: So we experimented a lot. We tuned our cellos differently, not normally. Abnormally. And we tried

to get a full sound as possible.

Can I ask you both before the album deal came about and the chance to tour with Elton John, what

were the plans? What were you both aiming to do?

S: Before the video?

Yes, before the video took off.

S: We will continue to have a miserable life. I’m joking. No, we definitely had to do this, otherwise

our life would be completely empty now.

Why is music important to you? What has driven you to be musicians?

S: Music is like so important to us. It’s actually the most important...it’s always a priority. When we

perform, it’s like giving and sharing to a big audience and it feels so great that God gave us talent to

spread all over the place.

L: In the future, we want to fill bigger and bigger venues. Our goal is to play in big stadiums and rock.


S: And it’s still a pleasure to communicate to thousands of people through music. This is our first

language actually, not the one that we are doing now, as you can hear.

Obviously, many many young people will be seeing you now on C Music TV and hearing your

thoughts and watching you play and learning about the album and C Music TV is a very different way

for people to first experience classical or cinematic music. I wondered in terms of young viewers,

who this might be their first encounter seeing two cellists play, how important is something like this

in terms of a channel to reach whole new audiences?

S: We are very happy that there exists channels like C Music TV who can share this kind of music

with young audience and a wider audience because people are bombarded with trash music

nowadays so it’s great that there is still channels where you can hear great music and we are very

happy and honoured to be on this channel.

How important is technology nowadays to spreading classical music, or music that you’re not going

to hear in a club or on a pop station?

L: For us, the internet was like the best possible thing that could happen to us because if you have

something and you put it online and it receives such big feedback, then big major labels start to get

interested in you, but if the internet didn’t exist and you had to prove somehow, you would have to

convince by yourself the director of ‘x’ major label that this is something people will like. So YouTube

is a democracy.

S: It’s most important. Media is most important because people...

L: ...can see you. And hear you.

c music tv talks to 2cellos · c music tv talks to 2cellos c music tv’s studios, london, england,...

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