How has lockdown been for you on a personal level?
In terms of day-to-day life, it’s not been terribly different for me really. I work from home anyway so, I guess, I am used to spending a lot of time in the house as it is. My lady and I had a little lad about 15 months ago, so she had been on maternity leave from work for the past year, and as such the lockdown has just extended her ability to be at home and spend time with me and our son. Working/writing/doing most things whilst having a small human to look after is quite an undertaking and I know a lot of other parents are feeling that pressure too. But we are all healthy and glad to have had lots of extra time together as a result of the lockdown.
Have you been able to be creative?
Absolutely not, I’m afraid. I don’t think I’ve even picked my guitar up once. It’s been full-on having to do childcare and work, so any creativity has been largely stifled for the moment. Thankfully, I had two albums that were due to be released this year, that have both come out during lockdown. So that’s been interesting, as I’ve had to do press for both the new Winterfylleth and Atavist releases around all of this uncertainty.
What do you think the short-term and long-term impacts of the pandemic will be on your art?
In the short-term, it obviously affects our ability to bring those new songs to our fans in the live environment and for people to be able to buy the album and merch from physical outlets. Equally, even if we could do a show somewhere, we haven’t even been able to rehearse as the studio has been closed and all of our gear is locked up there. So, it’s been a strange time to be in a band that is releasing new music.
Happily, it seems to have increased the sales and attention span that people have for the albums. Potentially because the thought of a new record and some fresh content is welcome to someone stuck in the house all day. I know that I have been keener to hear new albums, so it’s certainly changed the shape of the industry in the short-term.
Long-term, who knows? We are all hoping that by pushing our live commitments out by a year, that the world will have recalibrated by then and people will be able to gather in venues again. But it’s all a guessing game at this stage until we get the all-clear, or someone comes up with a means of doing shows with the appropriate safeguarding.
Are you hopeful about the future generally?
I think that I am generally a positive person, and have a lot of good things going on in life, so my outlook is generally one of hope. That’s why we decided to release our albums where other artists pushed theirs back. As a way of providing some small token of hope and interest to people who’ve been cooped up in Groundhog Day for 2-3 months.
I try to be hopeful about the future and would generally advocate that we are a resilient bunch of people as a nation, and that we will generally find a way through things together. So, let’s hope I am right!
What can fans and/or promoters do to support you in the coming months and years?
We would always welcome people purchasing our albums, shirts and merchandise, of course. But equally, messaging the social pages, sharing their experiences of our music, or even sharing it with their peers is also greatly appreciated. We are in this because we love it, and we know many others are struggling worse than we are. So, I guess that people just need to look out for their family, friends and neighbours until the world reaches a state of equilibrium again. If they want to listen to our band and support us around that then they are very welcome to do so. But we know there are lots of other important and stressful things going on for people. We’ll still be here when it’s done, so hopefully we’ll see you on a stage very soon.
- Winterfylleth have a new album “THE RECKONING DAWN” out on Candlelight/Spinefarm Records
- Atavist have our new album “III: ABSOLUTION” out on Candlelight/Spinefarm Records