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It starts with Bedwars. Ranboo had wanted to do a video with Tommy and Tubbo so they’d joined one of his streams to get footage. Tubbo has fun. It’s nice to just let loose and have a little fun with his friends every once in a while. When the stream ends, Tommy and Ranboo continue to play while Tubbo messes around with his keyboard, playing random songs into the mic.
“Oh!” Tubbo exclaims at one point.
“Oh?” Ranboo asks.
“Shit!” Tommy shouts as his character gets knocked into the void.
“I got a new instrument!” Tubbo says happily, ignoring Tommy’s grumbling.
“What is it? Another ukulele?” Ranboo jokes. Tubbo snickers, looking to the several ukuleles he’s already got hanging on his wall.
“No,” Tubbo says. “It’s a synthesizer.”
“Wait, really?” Ranboo asks. “A synth?”
Tubbo hums in conformation. It’s a really cool instrument and though it took a while to get the hang of it, he doesn’t think he’s half bad. He’s created some pretty great sounds with it.
“Damn,” Ranboo says. “That’s actually pretty cool.”
“Thank you,” Tubbo says, then laughs as Tommy dies and Ranboo wins the game.
“Fucking hell!” Tommy shouts. He sighs and they start up a new game. Halfway through, Tommy starts laughing, “Ha! Everybody but Ranboo plays an instrument.”
“Wait what do you play?” Ranboo asks.
“Piano,” Tommy admits immediately, then, clearing his throat, he quietly adds, “and drums.”
“You play drums?” Ranboo asks, ignoring the jab.
“Yes!” Tommy shouts as he wins a fight and breaks somebody’s bed. “And yes, I play the drums. What of it?”
“Nothing, just…” Ranboo starts laughing uncontrollably. “We- we could make a band!” he barely gets the words out as he laughs. Tubbo starts laughing too. That would be cool. And hilarious. Twitter would have a field day.
“Are we ignoring the fact that you can’t play an instrument?” Tubbo asks him.
“Don’t trust what Tommy says,” Ranboo tells the other boy. “I play bass.”
...
So, Tubbo knows it started as a joke but… it actually sounds pretty cool. Starting a band, that is. Turns out, Ranboo also knows how to play guitar. It’s a few days later and they’re all on call with one another again, none of them streaming, when Tommy, of all people, brings it up again.
“What would we even call ourselves?” Tommy jokes. He gets three answers in quick succession.
“The Bumblebees,” Tubbo jokes immediately.
“The Children,” Ranboo suggests, even less seriously.
“The Multiplayers,” Tubbo says.
The call goes silent for a moment, then Ranboo says, “Hold on. Tubbo, that isn’t bad.”
...
One thing leads to another and… suddenly, they’re posting a song to YouTube on a new channel called The Multiplayers. The channel isn’t linked to any of them and the song is just an audio - over an image of a sunset Ranboo took a while ago - so nobody can connect their faces to their channels. They collectively decided that they wouldn’t show their faces as The Multiplayers so that if people liked them, they liked them for the music, not because they were already fans. Plus, it’s kind of funny having some sort of secret identity.
The song they post is a cover of “Weird!” by Yungblud and Tubbo isn’t sure how it happened but he ends up being lead vocals. It was difficult to put together, considering they’re scattered across two different countries and all. However, with learning how to use the synth, Tubbo learned a little about mixing too, so he was able to put all of their separate pieces together into one song.
Ranboo ends up having to record twice, since he’s the designated bass player and the designated guitar player, but it works out in the end.
The video gets four views, and three likes, probably from Yungblud fans who were just looking for covers.
None of them really care that it doesn’t get much attention. It was just a fun thing they figured they’d do because why not?
After doing “Weird!” and generally having a lot of fun with it, Ranboo suggests they just keep doing covers. Tommy agrees, citing that it’s nice to actually be doing something with his drumming knowledge since he hasn’t really played much since getting big on Twitch (and since starting college).
“Even if mother and fatherinnit complain about all the noise,” Tommy says, as if he’s actually making more noise than he usually does (he’s not, it’s just a different kind of noise).
The second song they do is “Techno Show” by Peach Pit. It doesn’t really require any piano or synth which ends up reinforcing Tubbo’s role as lead vocalist. Tommy ends up as, like, the lead backing vocalist because Ranboo isn’t sure if he’s comfortable actually recording his singing yet. Ranboo also ends up having to do both the lead guitar and the rhythm guitar parts in addition to the bass parts. It’s fine, though, because then Tubbo just mixes it all together.
The video is once again only audio with no video footage, just a poor-quality photo Tubbo took of a rainy sky last week. This time they overlay the photo with the title of the song and the original band’s name, as well as their band’s name.
It gets one view, one like, not that any of them notice. They are still busy doing other things like making videos and streaming on the Dream SMP.
...
Tommy proposes they cover Taylor Swift on the same day that Ranboo suggests they make a TikTok account, which Tommy vehemently opposes.
“It is how I got big as a streamer, though,” Ranboo urges. “Well, that and the SMP… But it would give our band a bit more exposure! We just have to upload, like, a few seconds of one of our covers and then tell people to check us out on YouTube.”
Tommy leaves the Discord call. Tubbo laughs, snorting at his friend’s antics. When Tommy returns a few seconds later, he sighs heavily. “Fine,” he pretends to say begrudgingly, “we’ll make a TikTok.”
They record a cover of “Betty” first. It’s a little more pop-punk than Taylor Swift’s version but it sounds nice. Tubbo gets to play around with some effects on the vocals (his again, he thinks he may have officially been dubbed lead singer) when he’s mixing the song to get a sort of far-away effect on the second part of the pre-chorus after verse three.
They post the audio from the first chorus on TikTok.
They post the full cover on YouTube.
“Betty” gets forty-six views, and twenty-seven likes. The Multiplayers get eleven subscribers.
...
It’s One Direction that makes The Multiplayers famous. It’s been a few months since they started the band. They’ve covered songs like “Minutes Away” by Jeremy Shada, “Shotgun” by George Ezra (in which Ranboo joined Tommy in doing backing vocals), a few more Peach Pit songs, and “Cabinet Man” by Lemon Demon. Tommy has been teaching himself guitar so that he and Ranboo can alternate playing for different songs.
And then Tubbo and Tommy are in a call with the Dream Team and Quackity one night. And Sapnap is streaming. And he gets a dono asking him what his favourite One Direction song is.
Sapnap, Dream, and Quackity get into a small debate over it and eventually conclude that Midnight Memories and Night Changes are pretty okay.
Tubbo knows that the second they say that, Tommy must have a shit-eating grin on his face. Sure enough, just a second after everyone has moved on from One Direction, Tommy sends something to The Multiplayers Discord chat.
And that is how they end up doing a cover of “Midnight Memories” by One Direction.
All three of them sing. They each play their parts. Tubbo mixes it all together.
They post it on YouTube.
They post a clip of it on TikTok.
It blows up.
The band blows up.
Because of One fucking Direction.
Tubbo laughs about it with Ranboo for a good ten minutes after they realize that.
...
A week after One Direction, The Multiplayers have a pretty decent following. A lot of the people who watched “Midnight Memories” clearly went back and listened to their other covers because the viewer counts on those increase drastically.
But then people start asking about them. The band has created a Twitter and an Instagram at this point and they keep getting questions. Who are you? How many members are in your band? Do you make original music? What are your names? Who plays what?
So they go with:
Player One: Keys/synth, lead vocals.
Player Two: Bass, guitar, backing vocals
Player Three: Drums, some guitar, lead backing vocals
And people kind of love it. They like the mystery, the secrecy, the unknown. And so, The Multiplayers amass a following.
...
“I wrote a song,” is the first thing Tubbo says when The Multiplayers have their next call. He’s really excited about it, especially since he wrote it for his ukulele instead of on keys.
“Oh,” Ranboo says. “Me too.”
“Are you guys being serious?” Tommy asks, sounding incredulous. Is this something to be incredulous about?
“Yes?” Tubbo responds. Ranboo hums. Tommy starts laughing, which isn’t unusual for Tommy but is unusual in the sense that Tubbo doesn’t understand what’s funny.
“I wrote a song as well,” Tommy says, catching his breath. Okay, yeah, it’s pretty funny, Tubbo must admit.
“Wait, Tommy, really?” Ranboo asks.
“What?” Tommy says, a little defensively. “You sound surprised. Don’t think I can do it, Big Man?”
“No, no,” Ranboo says. “I just didn’t know writing was something you wanted to do. Let’s hear it. But, uh, before you start. I should tell you guys that I may have also written another one. A song, I mean. I’ve got two.”
...
They end up releasing one of Ranboo’s songs first, mostly because it’s easier to add other instruments to a song that was originally written on a guitar. At least, for them it is. They aren’t exactly professionals. It takes them a while to figure things out, but once they get into the swing of writing, they all get pretty excited about it.
It’s called “Lost and Losing” and somehow, despite being written by their lead guitarist, didn’t have a guitar solo until after the other two of them had gotten their hands on it. It’s a bit of a slower pop-rock song and Tubbo really enjoys the bridge;
When rivers dry
Leaving scars behind,
And when cities sink
Beneath waves and rage,
I’ll wander,
And I’ll wonder,
Are we out of time?
They use The Multiplayers’ Twitter to contact an artist, commissioning them to make cover art for the song. Unfortunately, the only artists they really know of are ones who often make fanart for the Dream SMP, which means that a rumour starts that The Multiplayers are fans of the SMP. It’s not terrible, but they would have liked for there to be absolutely no connection between the band and the SMP.
Fortunately, people who make Dream SMP fanart are very good at what they do, and the cover art turns out amazing. (And, if, because of the rumours, their following grows a little bit, well, they aren’t complaining. There’s a reason they post their music to YouTube. They want to share it with people.)
...
The song gets really popular. The following they had from their covers only grows. “Lost and Losing” gets nine thousand views in its first week. That’s nothing compared to the numbers that they get as gaming youtubers and streamers but it’s pretty significant considering their band has only existed for a few months.
Things are going well. Things are going great! People actually enjoy their music, whether it’s their original song or their covers. Tubbo loves reading the comments that talk about each of them individually. The ones that say the bass sounds so good! The ones that say that person’s an amazing drummer, wow. The ones that say that piano sounds extraordinary. The ones that say their voices sound great together!
Because those comments mean that their band is actually doing something. It means that they aren’t just deluding themselves into thinking they’re good at music.
And well, nice comments are just that: nice.
So yeah, things are going well. And then Wilbur’s stream happens.
...
Wilbur’s doing a Just Chatting stream. Tommy and Tubbo have already been Facetiming each other for hours when Wilbur starts his stream and now Tommy wants to call Wilbur to bug him, which means that Tubbo’s going to join along for sure.
“We’re doing media shares,” Wilbur explains to Tommy, Tubbo, and the chat. “But this won’t be a You Laugh, You Lose. This is just going to be a chill stream.”
“A chill stream?” Tubbo asks. “Bye Tommy.”
“Oi! Fuck off,” Tommy shouts. Wilbur lets out a fake long-suffering sigh.
Things start off with a few funny videos. The three of them chat in between clips while Wilbur fucks around on the Origins smp. He said they could hop onto the server, too, but Tubbo’s already in bed and Tommy says it’s “too much work” to set up, or something like that.
A huge slew of animatics come next, which Tubbo thoroughly enjoys. There are plenty of new ones that he hasn’t had the chance to see yet. Tommy ends up going off on a tangent about how cool animators are which makes Wilbur aw at him. Tommy grumbles and Tubbo starts cackling-
-and then he’s not laughing anymore because that’s our song playing. That’s “Lost and Loosing”. Oh my god, what the hell?
He focuses his attention back on Wilbur’s stream and there it is. Someone media-shared the entire song.