Bandlife during Covid-19 – Part 2
Here is the second batch of bands who contacted us to tell their story about how this pandemic affected their plans. Things are moving fast and comparing to the last week UK is in full lockdown while the US is planning to close few states.
Hope everyone is staying safe and keeping the social distancing. We are doing it and we can say it’s not easy living with human interactions for a long time.
Elepharmers
One of the bands I love the most, Elepharmers are a heavy fuzz trio from Sardinia. I’ve talked with El-Chino, one of the two guitarists of the band and main vocals, about their cancelled European tour. Here is what he says:
“We planned a tour to promote our latest album Lords of Galaxia, released in November 2019 for Electric Valley Records. The tour was organised with the help of the associations Monolithix and Agitoriu and included 10 shows between Northern Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
Being in Italy, where the COVID hit first we had the feeling that our tour was jeopardised since mid-February and we started talking with the promoters and venues hosting the shows explaining what was going on in Italy, especially in Lombardia which was the region where we had few shows booked.
We believed it was too risky to start a tour in those times and just after agreeing with the Swiss and German promoters that the best option was to cancel the shows the Italian government decreed the health emergency and the lockdown of the whole country.
After months of hard work, after booking accommodations, transportations, our tour was cancelled. It would have been an opportunity to meet new audiences, play in cities never seen before and at the same time meet old friends and consolidate the work of the 2018 tour.
But we feel like our tour and concerts are the last concern. The whole world is in standby fighting the war against this invisible and deadly enemy. We hope this nightmare will end soon and everyone starts to live normally again.”
Bandcamp: https://elepharmers.bandcamp.com/
Shop: https://elepharmers.bigcartel.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elepharmers/
Almost Honest
Almost Honest are a funk doom rock band from New Cumberland, Pa. They wrote to me their story.
“We had a New England tour get cancelled and next month we were going to be heading to Canada for the first time. That’s looking like it is going to get cancelled as well. We ordered merch and albums for the tour and now we have a surplus. Any help in any way would be much appreciated. Below are links to our website, Facebook and Bandcamp. We would greatly appreciate the help. Thank you so much”.
Website: https://www.almosthonestofficial.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlmostHonestOfficial/
Bandcamp: https://almosthonestpa.bandcamp.com/album/seiches-and-sirens-2
Hexum
Hexum is a Party Stoner Punk and Roll outfit from Canton, Ohio. Here what they say:
“The Corona Virus has cancelled out shows this weekend and next weekend and put a delay on our recording process do to some of our guys getting called into work on the days they had off.”
Bandcamp: https://hexum.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hexumband/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHDq92cQ8fo
Iron Kingdom
The Canadian Iron Kingdom were far away from home when the emergency put a stop on their tour. Here what Chris, the singer and one of the guitarists of the band, told us:
“We were on tour in Europe having out main festival cancel just days before our performance, we were relying on the show for much of our expenses, we will survive, but a little help will be appreciated”
They safely reached their hometown, but they had to stay isolated for 14 days due to the mandatory quarantine.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ironkingdom
Website: https://www.iron-kingdom.com
Viridius
Ryan from the melodic death metal band Viridius reached out and tells his story:
“Fortunately, we were not hit as hard as other bands, but we have been taking a three-month hiatus to prepare new material and strengthen our live performances and were finally going to return to the stage on starting on the 6th of March.
Fortunately, that was unaffected by world events, but the shows that followed on the 17th of March, as well as a handful for April, have been cancelled due to the quarantine.
Of course, we support this decision and feel the quarantine/lockdown is the right approach to such a serious situation, but we have worked quite hard establishing the connections we’ve made to try and put the next batch of shows together and it is quite frustrating starting from the beginning again!”
You can find more about Viridius on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ViridiusMDM
Bandcamp: https://viridius.bandcamp.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7wG3d29XzByqke0yRBDfqc?si=97yiZaxRTsqGsIM-kSHi9w