Your Voice, Your Community. This Week: How Are After-School Programs, Performing Arts, and Music Education Faring?
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Like everyone else, it's been tough. We were roughly three sessions away from completing our new album (horn section, keyboards, backup vocals) when the pandemic hit. We had a mini-tour scheduled for France in August - cancelled. Our upcoming month long tour in the UK for November - cancelled. Summer/fall gigs - cancelled. Streaming gigs - nice, but not much money in that.
Some small venues have opened up on Long Island, and we've done a couple of trio gigs. Fun, but not like playing with the whole 9 piece band! I've made a few music videos to keep sane, but it's hard to keep inspired between the pandemic and the political situation.
Plus, all the folks who keep things going - roadies, sound men, venues, bar tenders, agents, etc. are all scuffling. Hell, even the union (mine is Local 802, AF of M) had to lay off over half of its people.
I'm lucky in that I also do freelance IT work (mainly break fix stuff), but that's been crap also - because a lot of it is retail, and retail has gone to hell. I started doing that, going from a hobby to making money at it, because DJs destroyed my livelihood and I had a house and family to support, and music just didn't cover it anymore. But that just goes to show that it's not just the music industry that's suffering, it's a lot of businesses (except health care - they're doing GREAT).
I'm just hoping we can hold on, and build something better from the ashes of what was.