A Conversation with The Piano Guys – HuffPost 12.13.13

Mike Ragogna: The title of your latest album is A Family Christmas. What personal and musical memories do you have associated with Christmas?

Steven Sharp Nelson: Most of my favorite memories of Christmas revolve around music. I am blessed to be in a musical family. Every Christmas when we gather, everyone brings an instrument or two and we have a big Christmas “jam” session. We start with fun tunes like “Sleigh Ride”–heavy on the sleigh bells–then invariably morph into a more reverent repertoire typically crowned by an introspective chorus of “Silent Night.” It’s amazing how music can cement personal relationships, especially in family. I love my family dearly. And music simply sweetens that sentiment.

MR: How was this Christmas album created?

Al van der Beek: We love Christmas and we love Christmas music, so it was a very natural process for us to create our very first Christmas album. We started off by searching through Jon & Steve’s back-catalog–pre-TPG–and found some timeless classics. We then decided if those songs were good as-is or if they needed a little more TPG spin on them. The end result is a collection of original tunes and some of our favorite songs, including a 32-finger, 8-thumbed version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” done in the similar style as our cover of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful.” We’re hoping that it will become an instant Christmas classic for years to come.

MR: Regardless of if they’re on the album or not, what are your favorite Christmas songs and why?

Paul Anderson: Our selection and preference for Christmas songs is based less upon popularity and more on musicality, which causes us to gravitate towards the lesser known carols. As long as the music speaks to us, a Christmas tune will be a strong contender no matter how obscure.

MR: What are you all doing for Christmas this year?

Jon Schmidt: Since all of the kids will be together for possibly the last time before the oldest move out of the nest we are having a very small Christmas and using the money for a family vacation.

AVDB: Since we have young children, Christmas is a very magical time of year. It is very low-key and we spend all of our time together as a family–singing, laughing and eating way too much food!

SSN: A Christmas Jam Session with the entire family, it ends up being a decent sized orchestra when everyone brings their instruments! We also do a very special reenactment of the Nativity in which all the young kids in the family–including my 4–act out the parts. It’s always a little haphazard, but also very touching.

PA: I will be relaxing at home enjoying some much needed family time, so whatever they want to do, I’ll be doing.

MR: How The Grinch Stole Christmas or A Charlie Brown Christmas?

SSN, AVDB, PA and JS: We’re all GRINCH all the way!

MR: [laughs] What’s the creative process when you get together?

SSN: One of the most enjoyable parts of what we do is in our collaboration with each other. We all have different backgrounds, skill sets, and proclivities, but we are united by a common purpose: to get people to feel something when they watch our videos and listen to our music. Whether that’s merely an irrepressible smile, uplifting laughter, a recall of a special memory, gratitude for the beauty of the Earth, or even feeling God’s love, we all want to create something that touches people and incites positive emotions. We also are just kids at heart. We have 16 kids between us and we think they have such a natural knack for unfettered happiness that we like to look to them for inspiration when life gets über-complicated or we are tempted to take ourselves too seriously. There is, however, one thing we like to take seriously. Our spirituality. Somewhere between the collaboration of all the talents God has given us, the “fun” side of not taking ourselves too seriously, and the drive to make a positive impact wherever we can reach hangs our “creative space.” We meet, we pray, and then we do our best to create something unique, unexpected, fun, or moving. It’s not something that works every day. If it doesn’t, we try again the next day, and the next, until inspiration flows. Once we feel what we call a “chills up,” we know we are on the right track and we just keep working with as much tenacity as we can muster until the job is done.

MR: By the way, how did everyone meet, how did The Piano Guys assemble?

SSN: It all started in a piano store in a little Southern Utah town called St. George. Paul Anderson, the store’s owner, was looking for a new, unconventional way to market pianos. The name of the piano store? The Piano Guys.

Paul embarked upon a self-guided study of social marketing and started a YouTube channel and a Facebook page. He had seen videos “go viral” and was fascinated by this exponential phenomenon. He set out to engage potential customers with music videos that were entertaining and that showcased the pianos he had in his store, envisioning “viral videos” doing his marketing for him. Paul was an ambitious, talented risk taker and felt inspired that if he could find the right people to work with, he could create the number one music video channel in the world.

In walked Jon Schmidt. Literally. Jon had built a career in solo piano performance and had a concert in the St. George area. He asked Paul if he could practice on one of the store’s pianos in preparation for his gig that night. Paul explained his idea to Jon and asked if he would be willing to be in a video promoting both the store and Jon’s music. It was a win-win. Jon brought so much to the table. He had experienced the “music business” first hand. He had a gift for combining multiple genres of music in such an entertaining way that he had captivated and captured a broad, substantial fan base.

Enter Steven Sharp Nelson. When Steve was 15 years old, he met Jon when they had shared the stage at a concert in which they were both performing. Steve started joining Jon at more and more of his concerts. This rapidly grew into a great friendship and a complementary stage chemistry that had audiences in stitches and in tears in two songs or less. Steve was a multi-instrumentalist that had pioneered a new approach to the cello and to song writing. And his ADHD-fueled creative mind contained a queue of song and video ideas waiting to be produced.

Then came Al van der Beek. Al showed up on Steve’s doorstep to help when Steve was moving in just down the street. Al had heard Steve was a musician and he invited his new neighbor to his home where he housed a decked-out studio. Steve and Al began writing tunes together and discovered a supernatural songwriting partnership. Al’s studio and his engineering skills were to become the most important music-writing tool for The Piano Guys, except of course for Al himself, whose innate ability for songwriting had an essential sleek edge to it.

Our story is a miracle. We’re just a bunch of ordinary “guys” playing classically influenced instrumental music in videos that showcase incredible locations. And we’re doing well on YouTube? There are so many coincidences that the summation of each circumstance transcends “happenstance.” We do not take credit for our successes. We cannot. To do so would defy reason. We thank God, our families, and the people who have supported us by sharing our videos, purchasing our music, and encouraging us through comments and messages. Our mission will always be to produce music videos that inspire, uplift, and make the world a better place. If we can make a positive impact in even one person’s life, it has all been worth it to us.

MR: Sweet. What advice do you have for new artists?

JS: Don’t put all your eggs in the music career basket. Pursue two careers simultaneously until the music takes off. Keep it authentic. Keep it fun.

MR: Where do you see The Piano Guys five years from now?

PA: We are having so much fun. We don’t know why we would want to do anything different than what we are doing right now, writing music and filming videos in crazy locations!