We always admire multi-instrumentalists.
It is not only because the musician has ample skill to pull off symphonies, but it also shows dedication to the art of sound. Their passion for music makes them want to play all of the instruments all the time. If only we as humans had more arms and legs to pull this off.
To play all the instruments at one time we don’t need more extremities—we just need hybrid instruments!
One day, Andrii Kovalov, the frontman of the band, had an idea to play their then latest track—Houston—on something more special. They wanted to use an instrument that did not exist yet, but one that they could design and put together themselves.
Brunettes Shoot Blondes is an indie rock-electronic band from Ukraine, consisting of members Andrii Kovalov, Roman Sobol, Yevhen Kobzaruk, and Dmytro Leonov. Bored Panda reached out to Brunettes Shoot Blondes for an interview on their impressive “two-man-orchestra” piano.
“When I was a kid, I used to have this Yamaha keyboard where you’ve got all the sounds you can imagine: strings, percussion, organ, xylophone, etc.
,” explained Andrii Kovalov the origins of the idea. “I could spend all day long just playing around with it. Years later, this weird idea popped into my head: wouldn’t it be cool to recreate this home keyboard, but using an actual grand piano? All other instruments could be built-in so that the piano keys would make them play.
So, I told my friends Roman Sobol (bandmate) and Kirill Svetashov (director of photography) about this idea and they said: ‘it’s crazy but we should give it try’.” (Immediately, a huge thank you to everyone believing in this!)
The initial idea was to take a grand piano and to transform it to play several different instruments using the same piano keyboard setup. Soon, the band created a vintage piano. They also went to Facebook and asked their friends to donate instruments that they don’t need. Roughly 20 instruments later, they had what they needed.
Bored Panda asked the Andrii whether they gave a special name to the piano, but no—they didn’t. “We just call it ‘The Piano’ because it’s the only one we have,” laughs Andrii.
However, there is a special reason why it was a piano in the first place, as explains frontman Andrii: “The piano was probably the only way to make everything work.
Plus, we really wanted to experience this feeling when you press a piano key, but you start hearing cello or something else. We actually got lucky that the piano we found was very old. The construction was made in a way that allowed us to put everything inside.
So, we basically divided everything into 3 sections: the left one for strings and organ, the middle one for the piano, and the right one for percussion.”
When asked what was the hardest part about making the instrument, Brunettes Shoot Blondes said: “The most difficult thing was to finish everything.
We were working on the instrument for three (!) years and sometimes we had this feeling that it’s never going to end. We were lucky to find the right people who could help us with the engineering part. Also, we weren’t sure about the design.
We spent days upon days on Photoshop just trying to find the coolest way the piano could be designed in.”
When asked about are there going to be any more songs using this instrument? They replied: “Currently, we don’t have any plans for new material,” explained Andrii of Brunettes Shoot Blondes.
“We released our own song using the piano and I think that having one video is enough for us at the moment. There is also a cool thing about it: we don’t want to keep the instrument forever, so we decided that it will now be available for sale. Anybody can buy it and perform their own music using the instrument.
Simple as that!”
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