Interview: George Bilios
2Cellos are composed by Croatian cellists Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser. The hard work and the passion for music is the motivation that created what they are.
In the past, they have collaborated with important artists, such as Sir Elton John, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Andrea Bocelli and George Michael.
They rock in a classic way and they turn the music industry upside down for a different postmodern sound. They managed to be known by the global audience, and their covers have transformed old hits in new masterpieces.
Their global tour keeps on and their tickets have been already sold out in many countries.
Do you think that boundaries need to be broken in order to lead to success?
We believe that hard work and dedication is essential to succeed. If you really believe in something and are prepared to give everything you’ve got, you can reach real success and of course, boundaries need to be broken along the way! It is important for young musicians that they don’t follow anyone’s path. “Everyone should try to find their own way and don’t follow the rules; rules are there to be broken. Only by breaking the rules can you make something exceptional in life” Šulić said.
If you were not musicians what would you like to be?
Music is our lives, so we can’t possibly imagine being anything else but musicians!
Before you achieved recognition did people believe in you? Did you ever think that you would achieve such success and do you think it was because of hard work or a matter of good luck?
Ever since we were really young, we always dreamed of being professional cellists but we never thought we would reach this level of success. It’s completely new to us! We were sort of thrown into this totally different world.
We’ve never experienced this madness before in our lives. It is unbelievable to think we already have over 900,000 YouTube subscribers and have worked with artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Andrea Bocelli, and George Michael!
We believe that we achieved this success because of hard work of course, but also we were very lucky to get the support from Sir Elton John. “He’s 67 and it’s just incredible to watch him every night give 120 percent. He is a living legend and it was like a dream to collaborate with him,” says Sulic of John.
How do you want to make the audience feel after a gig?
For us it is important that we bring lots of energy and passion, when we play the cello, as we want to inspire and energize the audience! Cello is such a universal instrument that means so much to us because it has so many possibilities and is capable of doing so many different things, different sounds, effects. We wanted to expand the possibilities of playing the cello and develop ways and techniques of playing it, and show to the world how cool, diverse and powerful this instrument can be! We had this big desire to attract a wider audience, and make young people interested in the instrument and great music in general.
There was always this rock animal inside of us that wanted to explode and one side of us wanted to fill up big places, arenas, stadiums, we wanted to experience this euphoria, crazy screaming fans, light show, adrenaline, wild rock atmosphere, we were so excited about this idea!! We always played with a lot of passion, energy and adrenaline, even the classical pieces, and were sometimes criticized for that, and now finally we can rock our souls out.
Until now you have 3 albums doing covers. Are you planning on an album with your own music solely? Is that a bigger step that you want to pursue?
We want to become known for more than covers of popular songs; we want to be recognized as pioneers who’ve taken something old and made it completely new again. We like the word arrangement or transcription, because what we try to do is really to flip it around and put our own spin on the song and create something different. It’s all about creating something new and different. Perhaps in the future we will concentrate solely on our own music but we will have to wait and see!
Is there a city you have visited on tour that has excited you?
We love Madrid and are so excited to be coming back to perform there!
Please mention 2 values in your life?
We both value dedication to what we do and try to push ourselves to not only be the the best classical cellists but to also expand our horizons by rearranging contemporary songs to reach new and bigger audiences.
We also value creativity hugely. We love to challenge ourselves and believe that we must push the boundaries of where we believe the cello can go and the audience we can get it to via our interesting song choices.