The world was shocked when Paris was attacked by extremist on the evening of November 13 and the attacks in Beirut the day before. Humanity weeps for those we have lost in these tragic events, but it we need to look at why this keeps happening.
Russell Brand has published a video of what he thinks we need to do to end terrorism.
His ideas are great.
We must come to the understanding that we are all connected and that we share this planet with each other.
Violence is never the solution to violence, that will only fuel the flames.
If we show nothing but love to each other that will take the power away from the brutality that humans are capable of.
It is time for us to rid ourselves of these wars and unite as one on this planet. When the history of man has reached its closure will it be ridden with acts of hatred .… or will it be the story of a logical and understanding species?
~~Russell Brand Gives The Solutions To Terrorism~~
It’s Time To Wake Up
~~Published on Nov 17, 2015~~
We’ve written about Russell Brand several times on our website, and that’s because he is one celebrity, on an ever-growing list of stars, who is using his tremendous reach in an effort to effect positive change in the world, as well as raise awareness about several key issues that are currently facing our planet.
The Tenors Become Vampires for ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ Video With Lindsey Stirling
The Tenors released the new music video for “Who Wants to Live Forever” on October 28, 2015, exclusively via Billoard.com. The video – which features Lindsey Stirling – dropped just in time for Halloween.
“Who Wants to Live Forever” is featured on The Tenors’ most recent release Under One Sky.
~LYRICS~
(Instrumental Intro featuring Lindsey Stirling)
(Fraser)
There’s no time for us.
There’s no place for us.
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us?
(Remi)
Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever? Oh,
(Clifton)
There’s no chance for us.
It’s all decided for us.
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us.
(Victor)
Who wants to live forever?
Who dares to love forever?
Oooh, Ahh,
(Clifton)
Who dares to live forever? Woah,
When love must die.
(Instrumental break featuring Lindsey Stirling)
(Fraser/Remi)
But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
(All)
And we can have forever,
And we can love forever.
(Victor)
Forever is our today.
(All)
Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever?
Forever is ours,
(Fraser)
Who wants forever anyway?
(Instrumental close featuring Lindsey Stirling)
~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~
Google Images
The Tenors (formerly known as The Canadian Tenors) are a vocal quartet consisting of Remigio Pereira, Victor Micallef, Fraser Walters and Clifton Murray. They perform operatic pop music that is a mixture of classical and pop, featuring songs such as “The Prayer” and Panis Angelicus from the former genre, and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah from the latter.
Originating from Canada, Pereira from Ottawa/Gatineau, Micallef from Toronto, Walters from Vancouver and Murray from Port McNeil, the Tenors have performed on more than 60 international television programs. They appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Celine Dion in 2010, at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, at the opening ceremonies of 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and on ITV (TV network) Diamond Jubilee Show at Windsor Castle for HM Queen Elizabeth II. The venues they have performed in include the Tel Aviv Opera House, and the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. They also appeared on the 2009 Grey Cupbroadcast and on CBC Television’s Holiday Festival of Ice.
They have shared the stage with Sarah McLachlan, Neil Young, Paul Anka, Justin Bieber, Paul McCartney, Brian McKnight, David Foster and Natalie Cole.
Who doesn’t love a good vampire scene set in a haunted castle?
In The Tenors’ video for their cover of Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever,” from their latest album Under One Sky, the quartet are vampires lamenting their immortality. The clip also features violinist Lindsey Stirling who contributed to the song.
Directed by Matěj Pichler, the video was shot in a historic castle in Prague, which locals have rumored is haunted by a previous family who inhabited the space 300 years ago.
The Piano Guys are an American musical group consisting of Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, Paul Anderson, and Al van der Beek.
They gained popularity through YouTube, where they posted piano and cello renditions of popular songs and classical music. Schmidt and Nelson’s music is accompanied by professional-quality videos shot and edited by Paul Anderson.
Paul Anderson owned a piano shop in St. George, Utah. He met musician Jon Schmidt as the latter walked in to ask if he could practice there for an upcoming concert.Months later, Paul Anderson and Tel Stewart (then just for fun) started making videos together with Jon Schmidt. It was not too long after that they did their first collaboration with Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, and Al Van Der Beek as the studio and music technician. After the five of them started collaborating the group really started to take off, producing a music video each week and posting it to YouTube.
~~Success~~
Several of the group’s YouTube videos have over 20 million views, while all of them have over 750,000. As of February 2014, The Piano Guys’ YouTube channel has over 345 million total video views and about 2,500,000 subscribers.
“OUR VISION IS TO CREATE MUSIC AND VIDEOS THAT INSPIRE & UPLIFT. WHATEVER WE DO, WE PUT OUR HEART AND SOULS INTO EVERY NOTE AND FRAME.”
The Piano Guys 2 is the third studio album by American musical group The Piano Guys. It was released on May 7, 2013, by Portrait (a division of Sony Masterworks). The album made its chart début at number 38 on the US Billboard 200.
The deluxe version of The Piano Guys 2 comes with a DVD featuring 11 music videos.
Today we are featuring “Begin Again” from their second CD with a major record label.
“Begin Again” is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her fourth studio album, Red (2012). It was written by Swift and produced by Nathan Chapman and Dann Huff, with Swift’s aid.
The song was generally acclaimed by music critics, many of whom praising Swift’s songwriting and complimented for coming back to her country roots for the close of the album. “Begin Again” generally was commercially successful, it became her second top ten hit on both US and Canadian charts following the hit single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together“, peaking at number seven and four respectively.
Ironically this song for us was about beginning again .. .and we filmed it in a café … on a Wednesday (see Taylor Swift’s lyrics). No kidding. But what’s crazy is we didn’t plan it that way. Just like so many of our songs and videos, miracles made it happen.
We were writing another cover tune and it was flowing like molasses uphill in January. After beating our heads against the wall for too long trying to make it work we stepped back and reset … and decided to begin again. But like so many things in life the struggle had a great payoff.
While we were writing the cover-tune-fail we found inspiration from a classical piece, as we often do — J.S. Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze” (Cantata No. 208 — you can hear a version of the original here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIUCR…). As we were listening to this piece it called to memory a tune from Taylor Swift’s album, “Red.” Her “Begin Again” melody and Bach’s Cantata seemed so well matched it was a mash-up made in Heaven.
We switched to Swift’s tune immediately and our arrangement finally started flowing like the Fountains of Versailles. 🙂 There were even moments (especially the Bridge melody of “Begin Again” and the primary melody of the Cantata) when the two seemed to play off and echo each other naturally. We wanted this arrangement to be a mix of the two styles — a pastoral, classical feel paired with a pop-country vibe … polished off by a bit of Valentine romance.
Then it was on to find a location!
We just did what we always do … find a bunch of locations that have potential only to find, at the last minute, that they don’t fit, can’t work, or won’t allow us to film…then, after all we can do, we’re gifted a location by a miracle! The day before we were scheduled to film, one of us woke up with an image in his head — a vision of a green European garden café. Where could we find any living plant, let alone a quaint outdoor Euro-café, in the middle of winter in Utah?
A GREENHOUSE!
As this blessing would have it, we found a perfect indoor garden setting in a greenhouse with a café vibe that was just what we had envisioned. And it was 4.3 miles away from where we were meeting! On top of that, an employee there said she was a “big fan” and went straight to the owner for us … who turned out to be a high school friend of Steve’s parents! And what day could they fit us in? A Wednesday. We don’t believe in coincidences.
Life’s too meaningful to believe in meaninglessness.
We ALL are connected through MUSIC!!
~~Taylor Swift – Begin Again~~
~~Published on Oct 23, 2012~~
Music video by Taylor Swift performing Begin Again. (C) 2012 Big Machine Records, LLC.
Last night I started a series to end the day showcasing “The Piano Guys“. As many of you know, these are very talented musicians who started posting their music videos on youTube.
The Piano Guys are an American musical group consisting of Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, Paul Anderson, and Al van der Beek. They gained popularity through YouTube, where they posted piano and cello renditions of popular songs and classical music. Schmidt and Nelson’s music is accompanied by professional-quality videos shot and edited by Paul Anderson.
“OUR VISION IS TO CREATE MUSIC AND VIDEOS THAT INSPIRE & UPLIFT.
WHATEVER WE DO, WE PUT OUR HEART AND SOULS INTO EVERY NOTE AND FRAME.”
Each time we write/arrange a tune we take a journey. We have to admit — this journey took us a lot further than we expected. Retracing our steps reveals several factors that made this a reality. As we started arranging it we had serious writer’s block. Perhaps some of the worst we’ve ever had.
In fact, one day instead of writing we went around the entire studio with a can of WD-40 and coated every piece of metal to ensure that we were a squeak-free studio. Then on a whim we decided to back away and take an entirely new approach to the song — an African approach. It may seem random in retrospect, but at the time it was an exciting way to restart the arrangement.
It was working, but our journey still was on foot until we called in Alex Boye, one of the most talented people we’ve ever met. Alex has this contagious energy that gave new life to the song and to us. He sings the tune in 4 different languages: Swahili, English, Yoruba (his mother’s native language), and Alex’s own African “scat” (we’ll call it … Scafrican). Most of the words you hear are translated from the lyrics in the original Coldplay Tune. We’re huge fans of Alex — We bet you are now too!
Follow Alex on Facebook here:http://www.facebook.com/alexboye.musi…
When we had finished the arrangement we all agreed that listening to it was like taking a journey to somewhere remote and ruggedly beautiful. How were we to depict this with a cello, African percussion and, most difficult of all, a grand piano?
We took a risky, but oh-so-valuable turn when we called in helicopters to air-lift us and our instruments where none had gone before! (Please excuse the Trek reference). Since no one had ever done this before where were we to go for advice? Well, we can tell you that Home Depot didn’t have a lot of answers (how disappointing) but we did clean them out of their strongest cable they had.
We don’t mind telling you that when that helicopter began lifting our brand new-never-before-played grand piano into the air we couldn’t help close our eyes and cross our fingers. We consider a blessing of Heaven that it worked. I guess we figured that if it didn’t, maybe it could still be a viral video — “PIANO MOVE FAIL“.
We ALL are connected through MUSIC!!
We’d like to thank from the bottom of our hearts, Duane Fielding who offered the helicopters and SkyHawk http://www.skyhawkhelicopters.com for not dropping the piano.
Half-way through the first day of shooting we discovered that, as typical guys, we had forgotten to bring ANY food or water to this remote location. We had two options: one, wrestle a mountain rodent and harvest cacti or two, starve. Duane, our head pilot, took pity on us. He took off (literally) and moments later landed in a Wendy’s parking lot, ordered 5 of everything (sadly, he couldn’t use the drive through) … took off again and brought us chicken sandwiches and hamburgers via airmail.
Thank you Duane! Flying in your helicopter was a dream come true for us despite the lack of doors.
Last night I prepared two “At the end of the day” … posts.
I used two songs from The Piano Guys. Both were fairly recent. They have started a series of songs which they intent to play at the Seven Wonders of the World.
However, I would like to start a series where their previous songs are showcased.
I will start with the first song on their first album.
What do you get when you mix up a marketing genius that does video, a studio engineer that writes music, a pianist that had a successful solo career, and a cellist that does pretty much everything?
The Piano Guys: a miraculous meeting of “guys” with the same intrinsic purpose – to make a positive impact in the lives of people all over the world through music videos.
The Piano Guys are an American musical group consisting of Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, Paul Anderson, and Al van der Beek. They gained popularity through YouTube, where they posted piano and cello renditions of popular songs and classical music. Schmidt and Nelson’s music is accompanied by professional-quality videos shot and edited by Paul Anderson and formerly by Tel Stewart. Their first three major-label albums The Piano Guys, The Piano Guys 2, and A Family Christmas each reached number one on the Billboard New Age Albums and Classical Albums charts.
~~History~~
Paul Anderson owned a piano shop in St. George, Utah. He met musician Jon Schmidt as the latter walked in to ask if he could practice there for an upcoming concert.Months later, Paul Anderson and Tel Stewart (then just for fun) started making videos together with Jon Schmidt. It was not too long after that they did their first collaboration with Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson, and Al Van Der Beek as the studio and music technician. After the five of them started collaborating the group really started to take off, producing a music video each week and posting it to YouTube.
~~Success~~
Several of the group’s YouTube videos have over 20 million views, while all of them have over 750,000. As of February 2014, The Piano Guys’ YouTube channel has over 345 million total video views and about 2,500,000 subscribers. In June 2011, The Piano Guys won the “Most Up-and-Coming Channel” award in the YouTube “On the Rise” contest with “Michael Meets Mozart” with Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson.
~~Signing with Sony~~
In September 2012 it was announced that the Piano Guys had been signed by Sony.This resulted in a world-wide release of the album The Piano Guys, followed in 2013 by The Piano Guys 2.
“Our vision is to create music and videos that inspire & uplift. Whatever we do, we put our heart and souls into every note and frame.”
~~Titanium / Pavane (Piano/Cello Cover) – David Guetta/Faure – ThePianoGuys~~
~~Story behind the song~~
Have you ever awakened with a melody in your head and you don’t know how it got there? That was the beginning of our PianoGuys’ version of David Guetta’s “Titanium (feat. Sia).” Paul especially loved this tune — he lobbied us to arrange the song, but after we could not find a way to begin the arrangement. Every time we tried it just didn’t flow. We also were concerned that the hook of the tune was nothing but the beat and lacked a lead melody, which would make it more difficult to convey with piano and cello.
Steve woke one morning and couldn’t get a melody out of his head. It was Gabriel Faure’s “Pavane” — a hauntingly beautiful melody that weaves in and out of richly sequenced harmonies and fluid counter-melodies. It had been a favorite of his as a child, but he hadn’t heard it for years. In the studio that same morning we tried the melody over the top of the chorus of David’ Guetta’s Titanium and it was like witnessing a reunion of two childhood friends. The main melody of the Pavane and its supporting chords, transposed and changed stylistically to mimic Guetta, also fit nicely as the intro we had been searching for.
And we thought since Guetta and Faure are both French it must have been meant to be!
If you’re not familiar with “Pavane” Listen to a version of Bobby McFerrin singing it with La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN-cY-… (As a boy Steve heard this very version live in concert and it evidently had an indelible impression on him!)
Classical music is such a big part of who we, ThePianoGuys, are. You can hear it in everything we write. We love pairing it with the music of today.
This was the most difficult music video to set the “stage” for thus far. We considered so many locations — a copper mine, a steel mill, an industry factory, a mountaintop ski resort, a wildflower meadow, a desert bluff, and many others. As you know we love putting pianos and cellos in crazy places (a common comment is ‘how the heck did they get the piano up there??’) — places that show off breathtakingly beautiful landscapes.
When Mark Wade with Garfield County’s Department of Tourism called and offered full creative access to its national parks we abandoned all of our tabled ideas and focused on showcasing Bryce Canyon National Park — an incredible place of raw beauty and geological history written in rock. It is a place like no other.
We feel so blessed to have been able to film there.
All of the sounds you hear in this tune were created by the piano; electric, steel, acoustic & carbon fiber cellos; vocals; and a tambourine.
This video was filmed at Bryce Canyon National Park in cooperation with the Garfield County Office of Tourism. For more information go to http://www.BryceCanyonCountry.com.
Thanks to Bruce Fullmer and Mark Wade for their assistance in location scouting and project management. See more of Bryce Canyon in this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQA-qg…
We ALL connected through MUSIC!!
~Titanium/Pavane – David Guetta ft. Sia (Tyler Ward & The Piano Guys cover)~
It Is What It Is 