You may have caught our interview with Dorian last week, but stay tuned to find out more about your new favourite band! This time, it’s keyboardist Christian’s turn…
When did you realise that piano was going to be “your” instrument?
Well, I didn’t really have much choice in the matter, the piano chose me! I genuinely cannot remember starting to play as I was around 2/3 years of age. I have to trust my mum’s version of events! She tells me that her and dad bought a Bontempi organ for me when I was around 2 and it turned into my favourite toy and they couldn’t get me off the thing! From then on there hasn’t been a time when I haven’t been playing.
My father was a bass/guitar player as well as the lead singer of his band but didn’t really play piano/keyboards. I picked it up by ear, creating songs and phrases and recreating songs that I enjoyed.
How has it felt to find fame online as a YouTube piano teacher?
That’s quite a funny question, because I’m pretty anonymous on the internet, even with almost a billion streams across my videos. I think I’ve made over 6000 videos yet probably only appear in 2 or 3 of them – and that was before a face reveal was a thing.
I really love YouTube, I started back in the early days in 2007, because there were around 5 tutorials of Axel F from Beverly Hills Cop and every single one of them was incorrect. I just filmed one to redress the balance and it took off, so from then on, I started making videos on a daily basis of pretty much anything I wanted to play.
I have four YouTube channels now, so the chances are that if you’ve used YouTube to figure out the piano or keyboard part to a song, you’ll have come across one of my videos.
These days I enjoy totally remixing parts of themes for memes and videogames and developing them into new songs entirely – then sharing the result as a video on a virtual piano, or creating original pieces based on a theme. But some comments have been so rewarding when people have told me that they were on the verge of giving up learning the piano, but found my videos and now they love it, or how I’ve been their online go-to for virtual lessons since they were young! It makes it all worthwhile!
Are there any classical pieces you dream of being able to play?
Being a self-taught musician with a limited grasp of sight reading I very much admire those guys that are classical virtuosos – there are so many great players about at the moment – but I also know where my strengths lie, and to be honest it isn’t in trying to play classical pieces. I’ve always loved to improvise, so much to the extent that I can honestly say I’ve never tried to replicate a song exactly as it was originally played. Sure, I’ve done that on YouTube videos to show how to play a part, but I normally forget it again instantly!
I love Beethoven a lot more than some of the more flamboyant incredibly technical pieces such as Liszt. No one could play like Liszt, but give me Moonlight Sonata any day (which I’ve always wished I could play, but being incredibly lazy, have never learned!)
My favourite Beethoven piece is the 7th Symphony, 2nd movement, which is all strings!
Are there any challenges when it comes to incorporating piano into a rock band? How did the transition come about?
Most of my favourite bands from the classic rock era had a strong keyboard/piano influence. I don’t think there’s too many challenges as a keyboard player as there are so many options available – on the aliensdontringdoorbells album Arrival I was lucky enough to have access to a classic Rhodes which we used on a couple of tracks. I love the sound of the Hammond organ, especially nice and dirty and distorted – we used the “Hammond” sound throughout the album. Then you have the Clavinet which we used on Blind to See and the Steinway grand that was used on Story.
I’ve also been a great fan of some cool sounding synths – a great synth can fill the track. There are numerous synth lines and pads throughout It’s Your Night and Daylight.
Plus I’ve always been a rock player – countless inspirations have had a huge keyboard influence – from Jon Lord in Deep Purple to Tony Banks in Genesis, from Rod Argent to Billy Preston. From the new guys, I have the deepest respect for Cory Henry, he’s just outrageous – and special mention to YouTube madman Mark Rebillet!
What is a classic rock song that you think would benefit from a piano solo?
La Grange by ZZ Top – it wouldn’t benefit, but it would be fun to play on!