Nobody expected him to play so beautifully.

Maybe it was the roughneck outfit, more suitable for a pub than a piano. Or it could be his fingers – calloused like a working man’s as they danced across the ivories.

Whatever the reason, a video of a painter playing a piano recently swept TikTok.

Archie Gould works for Electrostatic Coating in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was on the job outside a library last week when he saw the piano set up for public use.

For years, Archie had been telling his coworkers that he could play the piano, but they could be forgiven for not believing him. He had never played in front of them, and have we mentioned he doesn’t look like a classical pianist?

So when Archie sat down on his lunch break and started playing like a Billie Joel, it was bound to draw attention.

His field supervisor, Kerrie Yates, recorded the performance on her phone and uploaded it to her TikTok account. The video quickly racked up half a million views, to Archie’s surprise.

“I think half the reason that the video blew up is because I looked like a construction worker,” Archie told a local TV station. “No one expects a construction worker to just whip out some classical music like it’s nothing.” 

Archie comes by his talent honestly. His father was a pianist and would sit Archie in his lap to watch him play. Once he learned all that his father could teach him, he turned to YouTube for advanced lessons.

Now that he’s a painter, Archie doesn’t have as much time to play. But he did get to perform multiple times during the weeklong job outside the library.

It just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover, especially when it involves a painter.