TWOSET VIOLIN
You heard it here first – classical music is trending again. The genre is being pushed to the forefront thanks to two comedians who also happen to be extremely talented violinists. TwoSet Violin is founded by Brett Yang and Eddy Chen, whose musical comedy is loved by over three million followers on YouTube alone. I knew that Brett and Eddy were world class violinists with an extremely large following on their channel and platforms, so I thought that they would have very little time for my questions when I met them on the set of their photoshoot with Tirade World. I was wrong – the pair were the most humble, kindhearted and funny musicians that I’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing. The duo kept the interview light-hearted as they looked back on their careers, but it was abundantly clear through the way that they talked about classical music, that their passion was no joke.
Interview by DANIELLE FOX
Photographs by MACAMI
Brett and Eddy are both extremely passionate about classical music, but more so about making it a genre that is fun and relevant to Gen Z and future generations. I asked them why it was so important from them to preserve classical music.
Brett: Classical music is like fine wine, the more you look into it, study it and learn about it, the deeper it gets. It's like this endless ocean of stories, melodies, harmonies and emotions. To me it’s very interesting how it's translated through music notes on a piece of paper, and what’s even more interesting is that it’s still here and it’s passed on through time. We feel like part of our role is to maintain it and bring more people to it. We recognise that the entry to classical music is tricky and you have to learn a lot about the music, so we’re trying to make that easier and give people more time and space to be able to learn more about it and explore.
Eddy: Preserve is a very interesting term, something about the word makes me think of a mummy. Classical music has stayed with us for hundreds years and our relationship with it as a society has naturally evolved. It’s not necessarily that it’s being preserved, maybe the pieces are presevered through time, but I just see ourselves as being part of this exciting journey of change. The internet is changing so many things and culture is always changing. I feel like TikTok introduced a completely different culture altogether and it’s just exciting to be part of a large global community of musicians. We’re just one of the bigger influencers in this field, but really there are a lot of people that are passionate about classical music. We're just exploring this genre of music and it’s values, and how this community can evolve to adapt with the future.
In 2017 Brett and Eddy slept and busked on the streets until they made enough money via Kickstarter to fund their first world tour. The traditional way to fund tours is through government grants and sponsors, but the pair explained to me why they didn’t go down this route.
Brett: To be honest in 2017 we were younger and I didn’t have the skills to convince people to give us grants. I didn’t think that our tour would be something that the government or individual sponsors would be interested in. We were just two goofy kids online and we didn't think that sponsors would understand what we did, and to be honest we were still discovering what we were doing too. Our best bet was to call on the people, our audience and our fans that were there at the beginning of TwoSet Violin.
Eddy: What we did have at the time was a social platform, which we were very lucky to have, so funding our tour in this way was more in line with what we do anyway. Government grants and sponsors are just a different feeling to our comedy YouTube channel and our brand, so we felt more comfortable crowdfunding.
Their first world tour saw TwoSet Violin selling out concerts in some of the biggest cities in the world. I asked Brett and Eddy to tell me about their most memorable moments from the tour.
Brett: Multiple things are coming to my head, but one of them is actually preparing for the tour. It’s memorable in the way that it was so chaotic. We were doing almost everything ourselves and every agency was saying that we needed to book venues one or two years in advance, and I was like, “We might be irrelevant by then, we only have one shot at this.”
Eddy: We were working with traditional classical music venues and classical music agencies and they work in two year timelines, but social media works in one week cycles (laughs).
Brett: Exactly so I thought, “You know what, I'll try and book everything in three months”, which made the whole tour slightly chaotic. Every day I was chasing emails and calling people up, while figuring out our costs and insurance. It wasn't the best tour plan to be honest, we were even booking flights as we were going, but we made it happen. In terms of concerts, my most memorable one was with soloist Hilary Hahn, an idol that we both look up to and definitely one of the greatest violinists of our time. To have someone that we have both looked up to our whole lives say that they are a fan and are willing to jump onstage with us was incredible.
Eddy: She met us in New York and mentioned that she would be free in a week and a half in Boston, so we said to her “Let’s perform together!”, and Brett managed to book a venue and a concert in less than two weeks.
Brett: It was crazy because she’s busy, she's a travelling soloist, so when she said “Why not Boston?”, I was like “yeah, why not?!” I had originally planned a week off in New York because I just wanted to see the city, but when Hilary said that, I knew that we had to change our plans and go to Boston, and it was the best concert ever.
TwoSet Violin currently boast over three million YouTube subscribers who religiously watch their music and comedy skits. I wanted to know how the ideas for the videos were formed.
Eddy: I feel like people are going to expect a cool answer…
Brett: We drink some tea, we light a candle and we meditate. (laughs)
Eddy: The honest answer is that you watch YouTube videos and TikToks and see the trends that are happening, and when ideas come to you, you write them down. I don’t judge any ideas because an idea and the execution of that idea are two separate things. People seem to be so scared of having a bad idea that they block their own creativity, but you shouldn't be scared to have a bad idea. For me, I have so many ideas that I need to decide which ones are the good ones because I don’t have time to do all of them.
In 2017 Brett and Eddy performed their live classical comedy act, ‘TwoSet Live’ on stage for the first time. I asked if they preferred performing live or making YouTube videos.
Eddy: YouTube videos are easier than live shows – live shows can be pretty intense, but we prefer a balance of the two. I love touring, but touring all the time would just be too draining. On the other hand, YouTube videos can be done from the comfort of your home, but it’s not as exciting as a tour.
When asked for an example of an exciting moment on tour, Eddy told me about a moment that he will always remember.
Eddy: We were coming from Canada across the border into the United States and Americans are known for their strict customs, so I was a little bit nervous even though we had our visas. I had heard so many stories that I was anxiously going over everything in my head while waiting to be questioned. It was made worse when the customs officer points at me and calls me over, but he says, “You’re that violin guy from the YouTube video about the fast violinist, HA, you’re funny!”, and just let me pass. He was so excited and I was still sweating from the stress.
Brett and Eddy are both classically trained and during their childhood attended youth orchestra together. We discussed the artists in the classical music genre that inspired them to create music, and how these influences have changed over the years.
Eddy: When I was in high school I looked up to David Oistrakh, the OG Russian violinist. He has legendary status and his sound is amazing, just like silk. Vengerov was another big influence who we just did a video with recently, which was crazy to be working with someone who I used to studiously watch when I was around 16. Hilary Hahn, Janine Jansen, Kavakos, Itzhak Perlman – as a musician you’re always looking for inspiration and influences. You go through different phases where you discover one particular artists interpretation of a piece and go, “I really like the way they play this”, because that's the other thing, we’re not often playing our own music, we're playing music from composers and it’s interesting how different artists and orchestras can make that same piece of music sound so different. Sometimes we listen to a particular soloist perform a piece and even though the notes are the same you ask, “How did she make that sound so much more alive here and why do I feel so excited listening to this person playing this rather than someone else?”
Brett: That's the thing about classical music – it’s a lot of the same pieces, but a great artist or performer makes it unique without destroying what the composer intended.
I wanted to know if there were any moments at the beginning of TwoSet Violin when Brett and Eddy thought they wouldn’t be successful, and if so, how they overcame these moments. They both laughed before answering.
Brett: I think that still happens to us every day, even now. Every day I wake up and I’m like, “Oh, we’re still around for another day.”
Eddy: Look at how many celebrities get cancelled or become irrelevant. For some reason the algorithms change or their content no longer fits what the algorithm wants, even though they’re still making kick-ass content.
Brett: You kind of get used to embracing that uncertainty and learn to be ok with it.
We looked back at how far TwoSet Violin had come and I asked Brett and Eddy if they always knew that this would be for them.
Brett: Definitely not.
Eddy: I don’t understand people who plan out their careers 20 years in advance. I just can’t relate to that. I’ve met people who are 18 and say, “At 24 I’m going to get this job at this company and at 27 I’m going to have 2 kids and get married to this type of person”, and I’m like, “How can you see into the future?” Like no one predicted COVID-19 was going to happen, so you just have to go with the unknown and learn to adapt.
Not only are Brett and Eddy paving the way for future classical musicians via TwoSet Violin, but they also have their own fashion label centred around classical music themes. ‘TwoSet Apparel’ is a mixture of everyday practice wear and street-style. I wanted to know what made the two want to create their own label.
Brett: For us growing up as musicians we never really had anything that we could wear that identified with us. We were always wearing the big brands like Nike and Adidas, but as a classical musician there wasn't really anything that made us think, “Yes, that’s what we want to wear!”. That got us thinking that our community might appreciate a clothing line where they felt like it related to them and that spoke to who they are.
Eddy: You think Billabong- you think surfers. You think adidas- you think athletes. You think Supreme- you think skateboarders, but there wasn't really anything for classical musicians.
Brett: There are some brands that try to incorporate classical music, but somehow they always just miss the mark, so that’s what inspired us to create this.
Eddy: It’s pretty cool to see photos of people attending classical music concerts wearing TwoSet Apparel.
When asked if there were any other avenues that they would like to pursue in the future, Brett kept everything under wraps.
Brett: We have a lot of projects coming up, but we can’t reveal too much. Everyone just needs to keep and eye out and watch our channel and socials- we have big projects coming up this year. One project that I can tell you about is our live concert- it’s something different for us that we’re excited about.
Eddy: It will be similar to our tours, but online.
I asked the pair what they would be doing right now if it wasn’t for their music careers. There was a very long pause before Eddy answered.
Eddy: I have no idea, but I can tell you what my mum would have wanted me to do, which is to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer. I actually did get into medical school, but I turned it down at the very last moment. It was like a movie scene where someone is about to get married and the guy at the alter says, “Any objections?”, and the bride runs away – that was me. I was the bride standing at the alter thinking, “Do I accept?” and then music was the guy shouting out, “I object!”. I thought about accepting, but music was calling me.
Brett: This is a really hard question to answer, but I probably would have been an architect.
Eddy once said that the most important thing to him was finding a purpose that was greater than himself. I wanted to know if preserving classical music was his purpose.
I said that? (laughs) It sounds like a pretty bad-ass quote. I feel like it’s such a deep question and you know that you have to give a really simple answer or a really deep answer. The short answer is yes, it’s one of my purposes and my main passion. I have a lot of thoughts on it, but we’d be here all night.
Brett said in an interview that travelling the world was his dream as a child. I asked if he had a new dream, since he had now achieved this one. He thought about it and laughed.
Brett: My new dream is to travel the universe and the solar systems. In all seriousness a new dream of mine would be to see more people get onboard with classical music, and get to the point where everywhere we go there's classical music around. Even just to have more people talking about it – where it came from and how it started.
The two then shared some advice for everyone reading.
Brett: Learn an instrument. A lot of people say that they regret not learning an instrument as a kid. Everyone practice, even if it’s just once a week. You don’t want to have any regrets.
We talked about what can fans could expect to see from TwoSet Violin in the last few months of the year, and what was on the cards for Brett and Eddy in the future.
Brett: The live concert! That’s one thing people can expect to see more details on soon.
Eddy: We have so many projects. We’ve been working very hard with our team to get better at doing larger scale projects. We want to do projects that aren't just our typical YouTube videos or tours- even though a tour is a big project. Life’s short and I feel like we’ve wasted enough time during this pandemic. There's so many visions that we’ve had and it’s just killing us not to turn them into a reality. I don't know if it’s a blessing or a curse, but we have these creative things that we want to do and over time the longer it becomes and the older we get, these dreams just stay there getting stale and it kills us on the inside. So lately I’ve been like, “You know what, we need to get these out into the world.” We just want to give everything that we can give.
