What if I ain't no violinist?

196. Twoset Detectives

Brett faced the camera.

"These performers... if you can actually call them that.. are deceptive because they are earning money without actually playing their instrument.. They are not actually performing."

Eddy interjected.

"Well, I suppose they are performing in a way.. like acting or miming..? But as musicians, this is not acceptable, to use someone else's sound to make it look as if they are playing it themselves. They are using the effort and talent of someone else for their personal gain. In the case of the videos of these buskers we've shown you today, you see how these guys are earning money by cheating on their audience and ripping off the actual musician's sound they claim to be playing.  It is deceptive on two levels."

Brett nodded and added to Eddy's comment;

"So if you see any performances you thought were a bit sus, make sure you let us know of their links and send them in for us, Twoset Detectives to look into them for you."

"And in the meantime.. "

They delivered the last sentence in unison;

"Don't forget to pRaCtIcE!!!!"

"Hey, that was a good recording Brett."

"Yeah, well done to you too Eddy. Look, I need to practice."

"Sure, I just want to finish up some emails and I'll join you in a bit?"

"Sure, see you in a bit."

Eddy was sitting at the dining table with his laptop in front of him and was in the middle of responding to his first email when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket to answer it.

"Ya."

"Eddy?"

"Ya. Jordon."

"Shhh Eddy don't call out my name. Listen, I'm not on speaker am I ?"

Eddy softened his voice.

"No.. mate. Why ? Everything okay?"

"I need to talk to you."

Eddy let out a chuckle.

"Yeah, I suspected that since you rang me?"

"But I only want to talk to you Eddy. Not to Brett. He can't hear me, or you talking to me, can he?"

Eddy furrowed his brows.

"No.. he can't. He's practising in the filming room."

"Oh yeah.. I can hear him in the background. Okay. Look, I initially thought it would make an interesting reaction video, but I think it's... too much. So I take it back, I don't want you guys to use it. Or rather, I'll leave it to your decision."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I just emailed you a link I want you to listen to but you have to use headphones."

".. okay...?"

"Can you listen to it now while we're still on the phone please?"

"Yeah, of course... hang on.. yeah.. okay I'm just checking my emails.. my personal account? Okay... here it is.. so you wrote here;  this would make an iNtErEsTiNg reaction video.. It's a Youtube link?"

"Yeah.. click it. And for f*ck sake don't let the sound come through your speakers!"

"Okay okay I got it.. Here we go.... Oh it's Tchaik. Nice.  Wow it's a really nice sound.. wow how old is this kid... he's good, I like the tone.. the intonation is gorgeous.. the sound is so rich yet crisp.. I really like it...wow.. he's.. ...wait a second... wait.. wait.. no... oh no... what... WHAT THE F*CK!?!?!?!?"

"Shhhhhhhhhhhh!! Eddy keep your voice down!!"

"..Eddyyyyy? Are you alright?"

Eddy quickly composed himself as he shouted back;

"Yeah Brett, I'm fine!!!"

Jordon hissed on the phone;

"F*ck Eddy, nice one!!!"

"Sorry Jordon, I'm sorry... .... Look, it's okay.. can you hear that? Brett's went back to practising... OMFG Jordon.. how did you find this?!"

"I was just searching for Tchaikovsky violin concertos as any good Twoset researcher would do, right? ..And found this video of this little kid playing.. I clicked it then walked away from my laptop to do something so I wasn't looking at the screen... so I ..knew it wasn't legit straight away."

"Yeah, I was distracted by the visual of the kid too.. if I had my eyes closed I would've recognised it ..within the first 2 bars, I swear."

"Yeah I'm sure you would've Eddy... you see, I remember you saying how it annoyed you how these fake performers were deceptive because they are earning money using someone else's effort and talent.. so the more I think about it, I don't think we should use it for a reaction video.. it may result in giving this kid more hits."

"Yeah you're right.. OMG Jordon, I'm so glad you didn't just send this to us to review while we were filming.. I would've been really pissed but it would be much worse for..."

The video footage showed a young boy busking, filmed by his mother, narrating how talented her son was, while the boy played Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. Except, Eddy knew that was not the young boy's sound.

It was Brett's.