How the Slow-Mo Guys have amassed 7.5 million YouTube subscribers around the world
YouTube sensations the Slow-Mo Guys today revealed their fame has grown so much that they have even been recognised in Nepal.
Gavin Free and friend Daniel Gruchy, both 27, met while working in a Waitrose in their home county of Oxfordshire but now boast 7.5 million subscribers for their detailed slow-motion videos of everything from flamethrowers to exploding giant water balloons, which have amassed close to a billion views.
Free, who moved to Austin, Texas, to focus on his video production career, said: “There are so many people using YouTube now — it’s where most people are going to be. We have people watching us from all over the world — slow-mo works in any language. I was in Nepal recently and a bunch of kids ran up to me as they recognised me. It’s crazy.”
The pair were speaking as they filmed a new short for Foster’s Rocks, which saw them smashing two balloons together filled with different coloured paints.
Gruchy is an explosives expert in the British Army and has one more year to serve before he plans to join his friend in Texas. He said: “The US is our biggest audience so it makes sense for us to be out there.” Free said of their work: “Our giant balloon video is a classic — our most successful with 137 million views. We also once spun a CD so fast it exploded. And anything with fire is great.”
The pair encouraged any would-be filmmaker to focus on the net. Free said: “If someone has a good idea, they’re better off online. The good thing about YouTube is that you have total control over your channel. There is no way you would get that creative control on a TV show. Just get out there and make it.”
