How our musicians are dealing with the coronavirus shutdown
Bands that depend on touring for their livelihood are sitting at home – but many of them aren’t staying quiet. Expect to see a flood of new music soon.
Dave Gleeson doesn’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.
In fact, the frontman for The Screaming Jets and The Angels thinks we could be in for a rock revival the likes of which we’ve never seen – provided we can weather the storm that is enforced isolation.
Adelaide Hills-based Gleeson, and other Aussie musos, are promising a summer jam-packed with live music and arts as creative types emerge from lockdown armed with screeds of new material.
“The fact that people have been put into isolation against their will means that they’re craving music right now,” Gleeson said.
“We’ve got hardcore fans – whether it be The Screaming Jets or The Angels – they’re there at every show. They’re the ones aching for us to return.”
Gleeson said he’d been using his isolation time to work on a solo album that had been on the drawing board for some time.
A new Screaming Jets record, which he and the band were meant to start recording this week, has unfortunately been put on hold.
“My advice to musos is to hang in there, get better at what you do … it’s the perfect time to do those things that you often don’t get the chance to do because you’re working too much,” he said.
“Two months ago, I was looking at my schedule and thinking, ‘Man, how am I going to fit all this in?’” Gleeson said he was itching to play music again, both for the love and the money.
“I think we’ll be announcing a Jets tour for early in the new year, and I think pretty much everyone’s doing the same,” he said.
“We all love playing, you know? And apart from that, it’s our livelihood. It’s not like we’re all sitting around in houses like Mariah Carey or Madonna singing silly songs.
“I mean, I’m applying for dole just like everybody else. Luckily, there’s royalties still coming in from radio play and the like, but it’s not like we were squirrelling away money in the ’80s and ’90s. We were in rock bands!”
For Ben Marwe, frontman of Adelaide band Bad Dreems, the coronavirus shutdown has meant cutting the band’s European tour short and racing home before flights were grounded.
“I’ve just finished my isolation after returning from the UK,” he said as he drove to his “day job” as a landscape gardener.
Marwe echoed Gleeson’s thoughts that, while a very difficult time for musicians financially, isolation could actually be a bonus artistically.
“I think it’s a really interesting time for creatines because you never really get time to sit back and reflect on your product,” he said.
“It’s going to be interesting on the back end of this – everyone’s going to want to book the same venues and tour at the same time and try to recoup some lost funds. Maybe some new festivals will pop up because of this.
“It’s a positive, even though it’s on the back end of tragedy. And I think it’s really important to stay positive at the moment.
“Play your part, do the right thing, and at the end we’ll, hopefully, all be better for it.”
Sarah McLeod, solo artist and frontwoman of Adelaide alternative legends The Superjesus, said bands would be itching to get back together and play once isolation was over.
“The electronic artists, they can still make their music. But bands actually can’t get together and play,” she said.
“When things go back to normal, it’s going to be the bands that are going to be really keen to play.”
McLeod, who said new solo and Superjesus records were in the pipeline, said she had maintained virtual interaction with fans during the lockdown.
“I need to stay busy, and I need a reason to work, so I’ve set up a Patreon site and I play for those guys on there,” she said.
“We’ve even had virtual dinner parties where we talk about what’s going on in the world and just hang out.”
Beyond that, she says, it’s write, write, write.
“Musicians work in cycles – you tour, then you go underground and write,” McLeod said.
“Now that we’re forced into isolation, you’d be a fool not to be working on new stuff. We’re going to see a flood of new music all around the world.”
Luke Boerdam, frontman of ARIA-winning Aussie rockers Violent Soho, said while the rug had been ripped from under his band, there were still ways for housebound fans to support their favourite acts.
“Buy records, stream records – but preferably buy – and just buy as much merchandise as you can,” said Boerdam, whose band won the ARIA for best group and best rock album in 2016.
While he admitted that there were strange days ahead for the music industry, he insisted there was light at the end of the tunnel.
“I hope to God that in October, or whenever this finishes, every band in Australia wants to tour at the same time,” Boerdam said.
“It’ll be hard to pull off, but at the same time if everyone’s been locked up for six months then they’ll be keen to go out every night.”
Of course, if the rock renaissance is going to happen, then we’re going to need viable venues at the end of all this – something publicist Sarah Martin and the team at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel are working hard to ensure.
The Gov, as it’s known, has live music most nights of the week, but has been hit hard by the shutdown.
Ms Martin said most artists, though, had rescheduled rather than cancel.
“We’re looking upwards of 150 rescheduled shows by the time The Gov’s doors open again,” Ms Martin said. “We expect the live music world will explode with goodness when this is all over.”