Classical pop act Aston have built some serious online buzz with the release of the viral video cover of “Telephone” and their soon-to-be-released new single “Bulletproof.” I caught up with the band’s cellist Hanna Oblikov today to talk about online success, performing on The Matty Johns Show, and what it’s like arranging chart toppers for her classical act.
You’re Aston’s cellist. What inspired you to take up the instrument?
I was actually three when I started. It wasn’t really my choice; my dad’s a cellist, my mum plays the flute as well so it was kind of a parent thing. But after I left school I decided I’d continue on. I don’t know, I just loved it. It was just in my blood and my family had always done it; it was kind of all I knew. I think my mum said when I was little she saw my hands and said “She’s going to play cello.”
But starting at three though, do they have little cellos?
Yeah, little mini cellos. I think they’re a quarter size, or an eighth. They’re really cute. They’re really little.
You were all trained at the Conservatorium of Music. So what inspired you to start playing Rihanna rather than Rachmaninoff?
We’d done it for a few corporate sort of gigs, and we were really quite surprised by how it came off. We just thought it was normal, whatever we did, but the people who listened and heard us, they just came up and absolutely raved about it. And they would always be so excited by it. And I mean we’ve done a whole heap of classical gigs and no one really comes up and says anything! So we realised that people were more inspired by that kind of music.