A Podcast Conversation With ...Walk Off The Earth
The platinum selling and globally popular popsters recently branched into children's music, scoring a Juno nomination in the process. Learn more about their fascinating career in this FYI podcast.
By Bill King
Since the Burlington, Ontario band’s arrival in 2006, the indie-pop ensemble has cut a career path in and around the jagged edges of the pop mainstream. Those over-the-top floor shows, the braggadocio posing and less than flattering stage attire. Circus Maximus! The big top with no heart. Enter Walk Off The Earth.
Since 2012, there have been several platinum-selling recordings and major world tours.
More on the band:
In 2021, the band launched Romeo Eats, a food discovery show hosted by Walk Off the Earth lead singer Gianni Luminati and his then 3-year-old son Romeo.
The Walk Off The Earth and Romeo Eats album Romeo Eats Vol. 1 (released September 24, 2021, via Golden Carrot Records/The Orchard) received a 2022 Juno nomination for Children’s Album of the Year, making Romeo the youngest Juno Award nominee ever.
Gianni, along with Romeo’s mom, fellow Walk Off The Earth lead singerSarah Blackwood, Gianni discovered Romeo had an insatiable appetite for all things divine. The pair decided to share Romeo’s love of healthy food with their global fanbase with the hashtag #RomeoEats, which quickly became a viral hit.
As Romeo and Gianni explore a new food every episode on Romeo Eats, an original song produced by Walk Off The Earth is also featured about the particular food. With tracks like The Sushi Song and The Durian Fruit Song, Romeo Eats Vol. 1 includes a charming collection of sing-along hits.
Musical phenomenon Walk Off The Earth was thrust onto the international stage in 2012 and continues to take the world by storm today. In recent years the group has headlined the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater and Wembley Arena, sold out the historic Sydney Opera House, notched a top-10 single in Canada for 30 straight weeks, and made it all the way to the top of the Pop Album chart in the United States. They have collaborated with a wide variety of top-tier artists ranging from the likes of Snoop Dogg and Sarah Silverman to Keith Urban and Steve Aoki, selling millions of copies of their recordings and garnering billions of online views along the way.
In 2019 the band hunkered down in their home studio in Ontario and wrote what would become their 7th studio album “HERE WE GO!. Released via Sony in October of the same year, the album debuted at #1 on the US Pop Album chart and at #3 on Canada’s Top Album chart while also climbing to the #5 slot on Billboard’s Top Album chart.
In 2021, Walk Off The Earth released their 8th studio album Meet You There, spearheaded by the lead single Love You Right, featuring Danish superstar Lukas Graham. Performances at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage and Napa Valley’s BottleRock festival are on the horizon as the world begins to reopen, and the group has recently commenced production of an animated show titled WOTE In Space: The Infinite Tour that is set to arrive on a major streaming platform in the coming year.
This is where we begin on today’s FYIMUSICNEWS.ca Podcast with Gianni Luminati and Sarah Blackwood.