August 18, 2025 • 24 mins
Fresh off a wildly successful European tour, guitar virtuoso Bernth and bass wizard Charles Berthoud, undisputed masters of their instruments, have joined forces to bring their technical mastery, dynamic performances and jaw-dropping musicianship to Australia for 3 very special events.
With over 4 million followers across their platforms, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for fans to witness the guitar and bass heroes emerge from the screen onto the stage to perform together live. This tour is an unmissable event for fans of virtuoso musicianship and those eager to experience the real-life chemistry between these YouTube giants. Whether you’re a follower of Bernth‘s intense technical guitar work or Charles Berthoud’s genre-bending bass lines, this is a must-see show for music lovers and aspiring musicians.
HEAVY was fortunate enough to spend time with both of them to talk more.
"I also have a YouTube channel," Bernth replied after Charles introduced himself. "That's what we both have in common. It's where we kind of met virtually, and we started playing roughly two years ago, just some one-off shows, then decided to do our very first tour this year. We started out in Europe, and in a couple of weeks we will be in China, South Korea, and then finally in Australia to end the next leg of the tour."
Talk turns to their popularity on YouTube and how their musical paths entwined initially.
"I filled a couple of guitars with water to see what that sounds like and drilled some holes into others," Bernth explained, highlighting some of the experiments he has performed online. "And those videos often went viral because it looks quite interesting if you see like a drill going inside an acoustic guitar. That led to people actually checking out the music I played with those instruments, and that finally led to people wanting to see those videos or songs performed live. And that's also how we met."
"One of his crazy ideas was to pitch shift his guitar down into a bass register," Charles took over, "which then led a lot of people to leave comments saying you should do something with Charles Berthoud. Then Bernth uploaded a video that said, My Problem With Charles Berthoud and that was an interesting way to start the day. The first thing I saw in the morning was that someone has a problem with me (laughs)."
In the full interview, Charles and Bernth shared insights on cultural nuances and audience interaction with their music, emphasizing the tour's unique blend of music, banter, and challenges to engage attendees. Bernth recounted his journey from being a session musician in Austria to gaining popularity on YouTube through viral guitar experiments, while Charles reflected on their initial collaboration, which was seamless due to their thoughtful song arrangements.
The conversation highlighted the friendly rivalry between bass and guitar, with Charles humorously asserting the superiority of bass. They both expressed excitement about their upcoming shows, aiming to create an immersive experience that showcases their individual styles and collaborative spirit and more.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.
With over 4 million followers across their platforms, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for fans to witness the guitar and bass heroes emerge from the screen onto the stage to perform together live. This tour is an unmissable event for fans of virtuoso musicianship and those eager to experience the real-life chemistry between these YouTube giants. Whether you’re a follower of Bernth‘s intense technical guitar work or Charles Berthoud’s genre-bending bass lines, this is a must-see show for music lovers and aspiring musicians.
HEAVY was fortunate enough to spend time with both of them to talk more.
"I also have a YouTube channel," Bernth replied after Charles introduced himself. "That's what we both have in common. It's where we kind of met virtually, and we started playing roughly two years ago, just some one-off shows, then decided to do our very first tour this year. We started out in Europe, and in a couple of weeks we will be in China, South Korea, and then finally in Australia to end the next leg of the tour."
Talk turns to their popularity on YouTube and how their musical paths entwined initially.
"I filled a couple of guitars with water to see what that sounds like and drilled some holes into others," Bernth explained, highlighting some of the experiments he has performed online. "And those videos often went viral because it looks quite interesting if you see like a drill going inside an acoustic guitar. That led to people actually checking out the music I played with those instruments, and that finally led to people wanting to see those videos or songs performed live. And that's also how we met."
"One of his crazy ideas was to pitch shift his guitar down into a bass register," Charles took over, "which then led a lot of people to leave comments saying you should do something with Charles Berthoud. Then Bernth uploaded a video that said, My Problem With Charles Berthoud and that was an interesting way to start the day. The first thing I saw in the morning was that someone has a problem with me (laughs)."
In the full interview, Charles and Bernth shared insights on cultural nuances and audience interaction with their music, emphasizing the tour's unique blend of music, banter, and challenges to engage attendees. Bernth recounted his journey from being a session musician in Austria to gaining popularity on YouTube through viral guitar experiments, while Charles reflected on their initial collaboration, which was seamless due to their thoughtful song arrangements.
The conversation highlighted the friendly rivalry between bass and guitar, with Charles humorously asserting the superiority of bass. They both expressed excitement about their upcoming shows, aiming to create an immersive experience that showcases their individual styles and collaborative spirit and more.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is Charles Bear two. I'm a bassist. I've mostly very
active on social media. I've got decent YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook,
TikTok and play a lot of solo stuff. But also
now more recently the Escape the Internet tours with Burnt
(00:25):
and the last one had over England and the upcoming
Australian stuff has the omnific which I'm very excited about
and yeah, really looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Great. My name is Berent. I'm a guitar player. I
also have a YouTube channel. That's what we all have
in common. That's where we kind of met virtually, and
we started playing together roughly two years ago, just some
one off shows and decided to do our very first
tour this year, and we started out in Europe and
(00:59):
in a couple of weeks will be in China, South
Korea and then finally in Australia to end the next
leg after tour.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Nice guys, thanks for joining us today. I's supposed to
speak with you.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
No way, so you will join Forces for the first
time in Australia for three select shows, kicking up in
Brisbane on October thirty first before hitting Melbourne and Sydney
over consecutive nights. Like sounds like you got a bit
to do before you come here, guys, is are pretty busy.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah yeah, and it'll be our first ever shows in
China and Korea as well. Actually, so really looking forward
to it. And yes, so'll the beast. I think is
it seven shows in China and then one in Korea.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, so we'll.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Be definitely nicely warmed up by the time we get
to Australia. Yeah. So yeah, which the show should be
like really at its peak once we get to Australia.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
What about like a vision places Like you mentioned China
and Korea for the first time, you're do in Australia
for the first time. So do you talk to people
that you know that have been here before and sort
of find out what to expect or do you rather
go in cold and just take things as they came.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I don't know if you remember, Charles, but it was
just a couple of weeks ago. We met with guitar
player that's from Australia. He plays for Earth Wind and
Fire and he had a couple of recommendations and I
think he will actually send us some stuffs. He was
mostly in Sydney active in Sydney, I think, so maybe
we can check some of that out. But do you
(02:36):
have anything did you hear anything from China and South Korea?
Any recommendations?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Have never been anywhere. I don't even know where they are.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I mean, well, our friend Mike Dawes did a
tour in China and so he had some tips for us.
I also met Basis who did a tour in China,
and he had some interesting stories. Apparently it's not a
good idea to ask the audience to clap along, is
(03:11):
what I've heard. Apparently it's like kind of not allowed
or something.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
But you're up there planning, they're not clapping at least
you're not going to take offense.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So yeah, exactly, we will crowded corection instead. Were already
hoped that crowds are really great.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Here, very very loud, so be prepared for some boisterousness.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
That's what we want.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We like that.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
So for those who might not be too familiar with
the tour, it's called the Beans and Charles Escape the
Internet Tours. So I don't know why, but every time
I say that or I read that, my mind goes
to Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Vital roles.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, well it won't be quite like that, but it
will be a little different from the average show. I think,
since we're both YouTubers, will be taking a lot of
what we do online to the stage, so it won't
just be playing songs back to back. They'll be there's
quite a lot of banter in between and some challenges.
(04:26):
The big debate every time we play a show is
always which instrument is better, bass or guitar. I mean
bass always wins. Yeah, so there's gonna be It's what
(04:49):
we do on YouTube, but brought to the stage and enhanced,
taken up a level. So it's not just music, but
there is also a lot of music involved.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And now it's both excellent prop like your bvise player,
your guitar play. A bit aside from that, if people
haven't heard too much about it, you don't know much
about it. Gives a bit of background on bicy use
and where you come from and how you got to
this stage.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So on my end, I actually started out as a
session and live musician in Austria. That's where I'm from
originally before I moved to Los Angeles, and I actually
come from the life and from the touring world, and
started my YouTube channel much later, And it depends on
where people know me from. Either they know me from
the YouTube channel, or from some of the metal bands
(05:37):
that I played with, or from the popek that I
played in Austria. We made a couple of platinum records
together and recently, just a couple of weeks ago, played
a stadium of fifty thousand people, which was great. But
this band is only famous in Austria, so it really depends.
Some people know me from that, others from YouTube, others
(05:59):
from from the stuff. But I think the YouTube channel
is the biggest thing by now and over there, I
play guitar most of the time. I do some kind
of crazy experiment here and there. I filled a couple
of guitars with water to see what that sounds like,
drill holes into others, and those videos often went viral
(06:20):
because the thumbnail looks quite interesting if you see like
a drill going inside an acoustic guitar, and that led
to people actually checking out the music I played with
those instruments, and that finally led to people wanting that
to see, wanting to see those videos or songs performed
live and that's also how we met. I guess with
how I met with Charles online on YouTube?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, well yeah, but did One of his crazy ideas
was to pitch shift his guitar down into like a
bass register, which then led a lot of people to
leave comments saying you should do something with child's bad too,
And then he uploaded a video that said my problem
with Charles Bair two and I was wondering, you know,
(07:08):
that was an interesting way to start the day. It
was kind of the first thing I saw in the
morning was just someone has a problem with me, and
I was wondering what I had done, and I clicked
on the video and saw that Bert was actually very
politely challenging me to a battle. He kind of complimented
quite complimented me quite a lot, but then also challenged
(07:30):
me to a battle, which was kind of funny. So
we did the battle and that's kind of where everything started.
We did collabs after that, and then finally actually met
in person maybe two years later and started playing shows together,
and that's how all of this kind of came to be.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I'll tell me burn when when you put that challenge up?
And he said, what I do when you did that?
How much thought went into that, Like you did you
think it through and think what possibly happened when he
got to that and I've already buy it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, Yeah, I thought a lot about that because it's
kind of a bit of a palsy thing to do,
because if there's no response to a videos like this,
it's kind of weird, Like if you put out something
like that and challenge someone, because I didn't, some people
think stuff like this is very staged and you already
reached out and you already planned the video, it's maybe
already recorded, and then you do the big drama video
(08:26):
where you actually challenge the other YouTuber or musician. But
that was really just the only thing that I did
because I thought, maybe that's an interesting way of trying it.
Because if you send someone like Charles at DM, he
has a lot of followers on Instagram, he probably won't
see it. If it doesn't follow me. If I send
him an email, he might not see it. So I thought,
(08:48):
that's my one shot to kind of make an almost
controversial looking drama thumbnail and hopefully get him to click
on it. And it actually worked. It took a while,
it wasn't on the same day it took I don't know,
almost a week or at least four or five days,
or I kind of gave up hope already. But it
(09:09):
was cool to see because I did put some thought
into it, because I wanted it to look kind of dramatic.
But on the same side, I'm not really a fan
of YouTube drama stuff, so I also wanted it to
be very friendly because I was a big fan of
what Charles was doing. So it looks like I did
(09:30):
it correctly. I think it could have also gone wrong,
like if the video also had a psychastic undertone, and
if it would have been unfriendly, I don't think Els
would have been happy to work with me. For example,
I didn't want to mess it up.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Chells, your honest when you first saw that childs when
you wake come first, So I like, was your first
sort like why the hell does this guy think is?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Or did you? Did you well?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
When I saw the title and thumbnail, I thought I
thought I'd done something wrong. I didn't. I couldn't remember
doing anything wrong, but I thought like maybe I'd accidentally
copied one of his songs or something, you know. But
then pretty quickly when I opened the video, I realized
it was just yeah, some good old fashioned pretend drama,
(10:20):
which was nice.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
That's like you say, that's a very ballsy thing to do, bro,
but good only that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I never did that again. Was the first and only time.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It probably would work as well the next time.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, people, people already figured out that I'm kind of
the nice person.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
That now.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
It's just pretty obviously you are both excellent what you
do individually, But coming together and getting your music to
blend in well together?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Was that difficult at first?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Uh No, it's actually very easy, which is actually surprising. Normally,
when I try to collab with someone like Burns who's
really good at their instrument, it's quite common that like
they kind of want to be the focus all the
(11:18):
time and so there that makes it really hard for
me to really put across anything, especially since guitar is
just in the register that's it draws your ear more.
It sounds like the lead instrument more of the time,
especially if it's playing really busy stuff all the time.
(11:40):
So playing Yeah, when Burns and I first played together,
it clicked almost immediately, partly because we we'd arranged the
songs in a way that each of us get a
lot of space, so Burn doesn't just play the lead
(12:04):
all the time. Even if I'm playing a lead part,
he plays an accompanying part, which not not all really
good guitarists have that ability as well. Yeah, exactly, But
also just because Burnt practices so much, he already knew
(12:26):
all the parts perfectly, so the first time we played
together in person, it sounded good almost immediately.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah. I feel like one of my favorite things that
we do is we have some songs that we worked
on together, where Charles usually sends me the main idea
a really cool tapping bassline most of the time that
I can arrange something around. So we have that where
it's a clear liberational effort. But we also play each
(12:56):
other's songs live where Charles is adding some bass to
my songs and I'm adding some guitar parts to his songs.
And the cool thing is if you don't know, I think,
if you're in the audience and you don't know which
songs are written by which of us, and what songs
are collaboration songs, you don't really hear a big difference,
(13:17):
which is kind of cool, I think, because that was
my fear at the start with my songs because they
are quite busy here and there, and I didn't really
write them to be like full band pieces. But Charles
just finds really great ways of either harmonizing or adding
(13:37):
something completely new that I would have never thought of
because my bass parts are not that great. I think
like a guitar player, so I always put a lot
of thought and effort into the guitar stuff and try
to make it perfect, and then I don't have enough
brains bass left anymore at the end of the session,
and that just program a little bit of bass. So
I didn't even see the potential with a lot of
(13:58):
these songs. And for these tours. We also have amazing
drummers all the time, which is also something that mostly
when when we make music together, we program the drums,
so I be more and more how great it is
to have experts at at their instrument contribute to the
arrangements so that everyone can really focus on what we
(14:23):
do best. And I'm not the best bass player for sure,
so it sounds sounds really, really, really cool and much
much better now.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah, so I'll have to ask you this question individually, guys,
but most musicians they're happy just to learn the guitar
or just to learn the bass, you know, and get
by doing it. But you guys have gone one hundred
steps further, like you've excelled at what you do. Like
what what drove you to want to just be better
than just to play?
Speaker 3 (14:49):
You know, I should want to be something more.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
For me, it's mostly it mostly started out just that
the bassis who interested me the most were the ones
doing all the crazy stuff. So it started out with
like people like Cliff Burton and Flee. So they both,
especially Cliff, they play in a way that's not conventional,
(15:21):
you know, and it's pretty virtuosick. They're doing crazy acrobatic
stuff on the base and that's just always interested me
from an early age. One of the first like amazing
musical experiences I had was watching the solo in one
by Metallica, the tapping solo, which at the time I
(15:43):
thought was like impossible, you know, it just looked so
fast and sounded so cool, and so I've always wanted
to play that kind of stuff like more, yeah, more,
just virtuosic, acrobatic, And I really enjoy the process of
(16:05):
just pushing the limits more and more and more, and
I probably will never stop unless I like get an
injury or something, which I really hope I don't, but
I think it's always more fun for me if it
feels like there's always more to learn. I think if
(16:25):
I ever start getting bored, if there's ever like a
period where I feel burned out or bored, it's usually
just because I can't I don't see the path forward
and I don't know what it is I want to
get better at. And so I'm always happiest when I'm
like trying to figure out how to improve and I'm
(16:46):
feeling myself improving.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah, from me, it's very similar because it's what a
lot of people I might remember. My father, for example,
I'll asking me why I'm going to the conservatory to
study guitar for four and a half years because I've
already been playing for ten years, and it was like why,
It's like you already know how to play guitar. So
(17:14):
this is something that a lot of people don't really see.
The better you get and the harder you work, the
more you actually see I guess it's the same old thing.
The more you know, the kind of less you'll actually
know because you'll just hear so many different things in
your own playing, and you listen to music in a
completely different way. The better you get at your instrument,
(17:36):
and you always hear things that are interesting and that
you maybe can do. For example, when I listen to
a fusion record, I'm not a fusion guitar player. I
always pick up some stuff and I hear something that's
very interesting to me that I then want to learn
from my own stuff. So there's not really a finish
line at all, and there's always something left to learn.
(17:58):
And especially if you go and play live on stage,
if you do a one and a half hour or
three hour set, even you will never walk off stage
thinking I played every single note perfectly. This was the
perfect show. It could not have been any better. There
will always be something that you want to improve. It's
just that the definition changes over time. So after like
(18:21):
your first shows, you might have played a part in
the completely wrong key, or you forgot a riff and
it was really embarrassing, and that might be a major mistake.
And at this point where we are at right now,
a mistake is something a bit different, where you might
play a part and it's rushing or dragging a little bit,
(18:41):
or you're not happy with the dynamics, or you played
something that's a bit improvised and you'll after that feel
like I could have come up with something a little
bit better. So not necessarily stuff where the audience can
notice a huge mistake or something, but there's always something
you feel like you could have done better. And I
think that's not really bad. Some people see that there's
(19:02):
a bad thing. I actually think that's cool because it
would be said to kind of reach finish points or
the goal with your instrument and then you're done. It's
kind of cool that there's a lifelong journey and that
you're never fully satisfied. I think it's actually pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Yeah, well, said Mane. Now lovely, one last thing, guys, like,
what's each of yours signature moves on your guitar? And
by should whatably be saying in Australia.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I would say the thing people usually associate me with
on bas is tapping, and there's definitely going to be
a lot of that in the show in Australia. Yeah,
but there's also gonna I'm gonna be outside of my
comfort zone sometimes too, because Burnt sometimes forces me to
(19:54):
play with a pick just so that he can then
show how much better he is at playing with a pick. That, yeah,
there might be a point where I have to play
with a pick as well.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, for me, it's mostly different picking techniques. Those are
a lot of a lot of those kind of videos
went viral on my channels because I really like to
dissect picking techniques and play around with a lot of
different techniques and even make up some of my own
kind of There's a thing called modular picking that I
like to do that I'm not saying I completely invented
(20:33):
or I'm the first guy to think about it. It's
just that I came up with this kind of approach
as a kid, and I didn't really see it anywhere
else where. It's essentially a combination of three picking and
economy picking and just different picking approaches, and that sometimes
I talk about it a little bit on stage as well,
because I always assume that this is as interesting for
(20:54):
other people as it is for me. So it's mostly
about different interesting picking pig with me, like alternate picking,
sweet picking, economy picking, but modular picking stuff, hybrid picking
and all of that. But there will be some of
that for sure.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Nice I just sld a little white lie before I've
got one more question for you guys. I just want
to reiterate something that you said before, because I know
there's a lot of people out there that think of
bass and guitar and just think it's gonna drag on
a little bit and it could be too much in
a concert just having those instruments. But yours isn't all
encompassing show, Isn't it so not just play play for
(21:28):
two and a half hours and nothing else goes on?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
It's actually more of the NY Time, it's spectacle.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, definitely. So we've got of course, we have a
full lighting show, including a led wall with which has
cool visuals, but also we play videos on there sometimes
which like kind of sync up with the song we're
about to play. But then between songs, yeah, there's a
(21:56):
lot of banter and kind of almost stand up comedy
and also just a lot of the kind of on
both our channels, we do all these like crazy challenges
you know, where we'll like play that. I have one
where I took three of the strings off my bass
so I only have one string and I play a
(22:18):
bass solo with one string and it's the same. You know,
Burnt does these challenges too, and so since people know
us from YouTube mostly we have these sorts of challenges
but live, which really puts the pressure up quite a
lot because you've actually got to try and pull this
stuff off live. So there's challenges. There's like the comedy elements,
(22:45):
there's the we use the led wall to kind of
like show the stories of our channels and how we
ended up meeting and stuff like that. So it's a
pretty immersive experience that is not just about the music.
And also keep in mind that we've got the Omnific
(23:06):
opening for us too, which is going to be very cool,
and there will be a point where I think all
of us will be playing together, me, Burns and the Omnific.
So there'll be three basses, one guitar and one drums,
which is I think the appropriate setup for the ultimate band.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
You're what's going on.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I've never heard three bass players at the same time,
so I'm a bit scared of for the audience, not
for me, because I'm playing India monitoring and I only
have myself in my in ears, so I will be fine.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Well, thanks very much for your time. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Burton Charles Escape The Internet is in Australia for three
dates starting in Brisbane, type of thirty first I believe
they're still tickets avaiable, but if you want to be better,
getting quickly and I'll see the Brisbane shake guys you
want me.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Thanks for coming, Thank you,
Is Charles Bear two. I'm a bassist. I've mostly very
active on social media. I've got decent YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook,
TikTok and play a lot of solo stuff. But also
now more recently the Escape the Internet tours with Burnt
(00:25):
and the last one had over England and the upcoming
Australian stuff has the omnific which I'm very excited about
and yeah, really looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Great. My name is Berent. I'm a guitar player. I
also have a YouTube channel. That's what we all have
in common. That's where we kind of met virtually, and
we started playing together roughly two years ago, just some
one off shows and decided to do our very first
tour this year, and we started out in Europe and
(00:59):
in a couple of weeks will be in China, South
Korea and then finally in Australia to end the next
leg after tour.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Nice guys, thanks for joining us today. I's supposed to
speak with you.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
No way, so you will join Forces for the first
time in Australia for three select shows, kicking up in
Brisbane on October thirty first before hitting Melbourne and Sydney
over consecutive nights. Like sounds like you got a bit
to do before you come here, guys, is are pretty busy.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah yeah, and it'll be our first ever shows in
China and Korea as well. Actually, so really looking forward
to it. And yes, so'll the beast. I think is
it seven shows in China and then one in Korea.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, so we'll.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Be definitely nicely warmed up by the time we get
to Australia. Yeah. So yeah, which the show should be
like really at its peak once we get to Australia.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
What about like a vision places Like you mentioned China
and Korea for the first time, you're do in Australia
for the first time. So do you talk to people
that you know that have been here before and sort
of find out what to expect or do you rather
go in cold and just take things as they came.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I don't know if you remember, Charles, but it was
just a couple of weeks ago. We met with guitar
player that's from Australia. He plays for Earth Wind and
Fire and he had a couple of recommendations and I
think he will actually send us some stuffs. He was
mostly in Sydney active in Sydney, I think, so maybe
we can check some of that out. But do you
(02:36):
have anything did you hear anything from China and South Korea?
Any recommendations?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Have never been anywhere. I don't even know where they are.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I mean, well, our friend Mike Dawes did a
tour in China and so he had some tips for us.
I also met Basis who did a tour in China,
and he had some interesting stories. Apparently it's not a
good idea to ask the audience to clap along, is
(03:11):
what I've heard. Apparently it's like kind of not allowed
or something.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
But you're up there planning, they're not clapping at least
you're not going to take offense.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So yeah, exactly, we will crowded corection instead. Were already
hoped that crowds are really great.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Here, very very loud, so be prepared for some boisterousness.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
That's what we want.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We like that.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
So for those who might not be too familiar with
the tour, it's called the Beans and Charles Escape the
Internet Tours. So I don't know why, but every time
I say that or I read that, my mind goes
to Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Vital roles.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, well it won't be quite like that, but it
will be a little different from the average show. I think,
since we're both YouTubers, will be taking a lot of
what we do online to the stage, so it won't
just be playing songs back to back. They'll be there's
quite a lot of banter in between and some challenges.
(04:26):
The big debate every time we play a show is
always which instrument is better, bass or guitar. I mean
bass always wins. Yeah, so there's gonna be It's what
(04:49):
we do on YouTube, but brought to the stage and enhanced,
taken up a level. So it's not just music, but
there is also a lot of music involved.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And now it's both excellent prop like your bvise player,
your guitar play. A bit aside from that, if people
haven't heard too much about it, you don't know much
about it. Gives a bit of background on bicy use
and where you come from and how you got to
this stage.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So on my end, I actually started out as a
session and live musician in Austria. That's where I'm from
originally before I moved to Los Angeles, and I actually
come from the life and from the touring world, and
started my YouTube channel much later, And it depends on
where people know me from. Either they know me from
the YouTube channel, or from some of the metal bands
(05:37):
that I played with, or from the popek that I
played in Austria. We made a couple of platinum records
together and recently, just a couple of weeks ago, played
a stadium of fifty thousand people, which was great. But
this band is only famous in Austria, so it really depends.
Some people know me from that, others from YouTube, others
(05:59):
from from the stuff. But I think the YouTube channel
is the biggest thing by now and over there, I
play guitar most of the time. I do some kind
of crazy experiment here and there. I filled a couple
of guitars with water to see what that sounds like,
drill holes into others, and those videos often went viral
(06:20):
because the thumbnail looks quite interesting if you see like
a drill going inside an acoustic guitar, and that led
to people actually checking out the music I played with
those instruments, and that finally led to people wanting that
to see, wanting to see those videos or songs performed
live and that's also how we met. I guess with
how I met with Charles online on YouTube?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, well yeah, but did One of his crazy ideas
was to pitch shift his guitar down into like a
bass register, which then led a lot of people to
leave comments saying you should do something with child's bad too,
And then he uploaded a video that said my problem
with Charles Bair two and I was wondering, you know,
(07:08):
that was an interesting way to start the day. It
was kind of the first thing I saw in the
morning was just someone has a problem with me, and
I was wondering what I had done, and I clicked
on the video and saw that Bert was actually very
politely challenging me to a battle. He kind of complimented
quite complimented me quite a lot, but then also challenged
(07:30):
me to a battle, which was kind of funny. So
we did the battle and that's kind of where everything started.
We did collabs after that, and then finally actually met
in person maybe two years later and started playing shows together,
and that's how all of this kind of came to be.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
I'll tell me burn when when you put that challenge up?
And he said, what I do when you did that?
How much thought went into that, Like you did you
think it through and think what possibly happened when he
got to that and I've already buy it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, Yeah, I thought a lot about that because it's
kind of a bit of a palsy thing to do,
because if there's no response to a videos like this,
it's kind of weird, Like if you put out something
like that and challenge someone, because I didn't, some people
think stuff like this is very staged and you already
reached out and you already planned the video, it's maybe
already recorded, and then you do the big drama video
(08:26):
where you actually challenge the other YouTuber or musician. But
that was really just the only thing that I did
because I thought, maybe that's an interesting way of trying it.
Because if you send someone like Charles at DM, he
has a lot of followers on Instagram, he probably won't
see it. If it doesn't follow me. If I send
him an email, he might not see it. So I thought,
(08:48):
that's my one shot to kind of make an almost
controversial looking drama thumbnail and hopefully get him to click
on it. And it actually worked. It took a while,
it wasn't on the same day it took I don't know,
almost a week or at least four or five days,
or I kind of gave up hope already. But it
(09:09):
was cool to see because I did put some thought
into it, because I wanted it to look kind of dramatic.
But on the same side, I'm not really a fan
of YouTube drama stuff, so I also wanted it to
be very friendly because I was a big fan of
what Charles was doing. So it looks like I did
(09:30):
it correctly. I think it could have also gone wrong,
like if the video also had a psychastic undertone, and
if it would have been unfriendly, I don't think Els
would have been happy to work with me. For example,
I didn't want to mess it up.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Chells, your honest when you first saw that childs when
you wake come first, So I like, was your first
sort like why the hell does this guy think is?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Or did you? Did you well?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
When I saw the title and thumbnail, I thought I
thought I'd done something wrong. I didn't. I couldn't remember
doing anything wrong, but I thought like maybe I'd accidentally
copied one of his songs or something, you know. But
then pretty quickly when I opened the video, I realized
it was just yeah, some good old fashioned pretend drama,
(10:20):
which was nice.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
That's like you say, that's a very ballsy thing to do, bro,
but good only that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I never did that again. Was the first and only time.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It probably would work as well the next time.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, people, people already figured out that I'm kind of
the nice person.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
That now.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
It's just pretty obviously you are both excellent what you
do individually, But coming together and getting your music to
blend in well together?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Was that difficult at first?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Uh No, it's actually very easy, which is actually surprising. Normally,
when I try to collab with someone like Burns who's
really good at their instrument, it's quite common that like
they kind of want to be the focus all the
(11:18):
time and so there that makes it really hard for
me to really put across anything, especially since guitar is
just in the register that's it draws your ear more.
It sounds like the lead instrument more of the time,
especially if it's playing really busy stuff all the time.
(11:40):
So playing Yeah, when Burns and I first played together,
it clicked almost immediately, partly because we we'd arranged the
songs in a way that each of us get a
lot of space, so Burn doesn't just play the lead
(12:04):
all the time. Even if I'm playing a lead part,
he plays an accompanying part, which not not all really
good guitarists have that ability as well. Yeah, exactly, But
also just because Burnt practices so much, he already knew
(12:26):
all the parts perfectly, so the first time we played
together in person, it sounded good almost immediately.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah. I feel like one of my favorite things that
we do is we have some songs that we worked
on together, where Charles usually sends me the main idea
a really cool tapping bassline most of the time that
I can arrange something around. So we have that where
it's a clear liberational effort. But we also play each
(12:56):
other's songs live where Charles is adding some bass to
my songs and I'm adding some guitar parts to his songs.
And the cool thing is if you don't know, I think,
if you're in the audience and you don't know which
songs are written by which of us, and what songs
are collaboration songs, you don't really hear a big difference,
(13:17):
which is kind of cool, I think, because that was
my fear at the start with my songs because they
are quite busy here and there, and I didn't really
write them to be like full band pieces. But Charles
just finds really great ways of either harmonizing or adding
(13:37):
something completely new that I would have never thought of
because my bass parts are not that great. I think
like a guitar player, so I always put a lot
of thought and effort into the guitar stuff and try
to make it perfect, and then I don't have enough
brains bass left anymore at the end of the session,
and that just program a little bit of bass. So
I didn't even see the potential with a lot of
(13:58):
these songs. And for these tours. We also have amazing
drummers all the time, which is also something that mostly
when when we make music together, we program the drums,
so I be more and more how great it is
to have experts at at their instrument contribute to the
arrangements so that everyone can really focus on what we
(14:23):
do best. And I'm not the best bass player for sure,
so it sounds sounds really, really, really cool and much
much better now.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah, so I'll have to ask you this question individually, guys,
but most musicians they're happy just to learn the guitar
or just to learn the bass, you know, and get
by doing it. But you guys have gone one hundred
steps further, like you've excelled at what you do. Like
what what drove you to want to just be better
than just to play?
Speaker 3 (14:49):
You know, I should want to be something more.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
For me, it's mostly it mostly started out just that
the bassis who interested me the most were the ones
doing all the crazy stuff. So it started out with
like people like Cliff Burton and Flee. So they both,
especially Cliff, they play in a way that's not conventional,
(15:21):
you know, and it's pretty virtuosick. They're doing crazy acrobatic
stuff on the base and that's just always interested me
from an early age. One of the first like amazing
musical experiences I had was watching the solo in one
by Metallica, the tapping solo, which at the time I
(15:43):
thought was like impossible, you know, it just looked so
fast and sounded so cool, and so I've always wanted
to play that kind of stuff like more, yeah, more,
just virtuosic, acrobatic, And I really enjoy the process of
(16:05):
just pushing the limits more and more and more, and
I probably will never stop unless I like get an
injury or something, which I really hope I don't, but
I think it's always more fun for me if it
feels like there's always more to learn. I think if
(16:25):
I ever start getting bored, if there's ever like a
period where I feel burned out or bored, it's usually
just because I can't I don't see the path forward
and I don't know what it is I want to
get better at. And so I'm always happiest when I'm
like trying to figure out how to improve and I'm
(16:46):
feeling myself improving.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah, from me, it's very similar because it's what a
lot of people I might remember. My father, for example,
I'll asking me why I'm going to the conservatory to
study guitar for four and a half years because I've
already been playing for ten years, and it was like why,
It's like you already know how to play guitar. So
(17:14):
this is something that a lot of people don't really see.
The better you get and the harder you work, the
more you actually see I guess it's the same old thing.
The more you know, the kind of less you'll actually
know because you'll just hear so many different things in
your own playing, and you listen to music in a
completely different way. The better you get at your instrument,
(17:36):
and you always hear things that are interesting and that
you maybe can do. For example, when I listen to
a fusion record, I'm not a fusion guitar player. I
always pick up some stuff and I hear something that's
very interesting to me that I then want to learn
from my own stuff. So there's not really a finish
line at all, and there's always something left to learn.
(17:58):
And especially if you go and play live on stage,
if you do a one and a half hour or
three hour set, even you will never walk off stage
thinking I played every single note perfectly. This was the
perfect show. It could not have been any better. There
will always be something that you want to improve. It's
just that the definition changes over time. So after like
(18:21):
your first shows, you might have played a part in
the completely wrong key, or you forgot a riff and
it was really embarrassing, and that might be a major mistake.
And at this point where we are at right now,
a mistake is something a bit different, where you might
play a part and it's rushing or dragging a little bit,
(18:41):
or you're not happy with the dynamics, or you played
something that's a bit improvised and you'll after that feel
like I could have come up with something a little
bit better. So not necessarily stuff where the audience can
notice a huge mistake or something, but there's always something
you feel like you could have done better. And I
think that's not really bad. Some people see that there's
(19:02):
a bad thing. I actually think that's cool because it
would be said to kind of reach finish points or
the goal with your instrument and then you're done. It's
kind of cool that there's a lifelong journey and that
you're never fully satisfied. I think it's actually pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Yeah, well, said Mane. Now lovely, one last thing, guys, like,
what's each of yours signature moves on your guitar? And
by should whatably be saying in Australia.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I would say the thing people usually associate me with
on bas is tapping, and there's definitely going to be
a lot of that in the show in Australia. Yeah,
but there's also gonna I'm gonna be outside of my
comfort zone sometimes too, because Burnt sometimes forces me to
(19:54):
play with a pick just so that he can then
show how much better he is at playing with a pick. That, yeah,
there might be a point where I have to play
with a pick as well.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, for me, it's mostly different picking techniques. Those are
a lot of a lot of those kind of videos
went viral on my channels because I really like to
dissect picking techniques and play around with a lot of
different techniques and even make up some of my own
kind of There's a thing called modular picking that I
like to do that I'm not saying I completely invented
(20:33):
or I'm the first guy to think about it. It's
just that I came up with this kind of approach
as a kid, and I didn't really see it anywhere
else where. It's essentially a combination of three picking and
economy picking and just different picking approaches, and that sometimes
I talk about it a little bit on stage as well,
because I always assume that this is as interesting for
(20:54):
other people as it is for me. So it's mostly
about different interesting picking pig with me, like alternate picking,
sweet picking, economy picking, but modular picking stuff, hybrid picking
and all of that. But there will be some of
that for sure.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Nice I just sld a little white lie before I've
got one more question for you guys. I just want
to reiterate something that you said before, because I know
there's a lot of people out there that think of
bass and guitar and just think it's gonna drag on
a little bit and it could be too much in
a concert just having those instruments. But yours isn't all
encompassing show, Isn't it so not just play play for
(21:28):
two and a half hours and nothing else goes on?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (21:30):
It's actually more of the NY Time, it's spectacle.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, definitely. So we've got of course, we have a
full lighting show, including a led wall with which has
cool visuals, but also we play videos on there sometimes
which like kind of sync up with the song we're
about to play. But then between songs, yeah, there's a
(21:56):
lot of banter and kind of almost stand up comedy
and also just a lot of the kind of on
both our channels, we do all these like crazy challenges
you know, where we'll like play that. I have one
where I took three of the strings off my bass
so I only have one string and I play a
(22:18):
bass solo with one string and it's the same. You know,
Burnt does these challenges too, and so since people know
us from YouTube mostly we have these sorts of challenges
but live, which really puts the pressure up quite a
lot because you've actually got to try and pull this
stuff off live. So there's challenges. There's like the comedy elements,
(22:45):
there's the we use the led wall to kind of
like show the stories of our channels and how we
ended up meeting and stuff like that. So it's a
pretty immersive experience that is not just about the music.
And also keep in mind that we've got the Omnific
(23:06):
opening for us too, which is going to be very cool,
and there will be a point where I think all
of us will be playing together, me, Burns and the Omnific.
So there'll be three basses, one guitar and one drums,
which is I think the appropriate setup for the ultimate band.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
You're what's going on.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I've never heard three bass players at the same time,
so I'm a bit scared of for the audience, not
for me, because I'm playing India monitoring and I only
have myself in my in ears, so I will be fine.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Well, thanks very much for your time. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Burton Charles Escape The Internet is in Australia for three
dates starting in Brisbane, type of thirty first I believe
they're still tickets avaiable, but if you want to be better,
getting quickly and I'll see the Brisbane shake guys you
want me.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Thanks for coming, Thank you,
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