Photo by Ryan King
Milwaukee multi-instrumentalist put a new band hold as well as her Punk Rock Rummage Sale. She talks about being ready for musical inspiration and learning stop-motion animation in the year when everything changed.
How has the lockdown affected your creativity?
It has been terrible for collaborative projects, but pretty good for solo work. The timing couldn't have been worse for music projects.
I was set to go on tour playing electric piano for Gino and the Goons with the other members of The Stink Lines as Gino’s backing band. Two other ladies and I had started a new group called Fun Bois, which just started to talk about booking shows and recording demos. After tours and practices for both projects were cancelled indefinitely, I stopped writing songs. I was just bummed and uninspired.
I had a stacked roster for the animated music videos I make for Norton Video, though, so I leaned harder into that. I'm self-taught at animation so the lockdown has been a great time to watch tutorials and hone the craft a little more.
I also went crazy with projects around the house and with my COVID garden (pictured).
Do you have a routine or schedule for staying in practice or working on new material?
I wish I were that person, but I'm not. Even in pre-lockdown times I knew this, so I set up my living space to be more conducive to creativity. I keep a guitar next to the couch, make sure the piano is open and ready for an attempt to play along with whatever song we are listening to, and I keep paper and nice pens around the house so I can jot down ideas as they come to me.
My husband [Ryan King] and I started playing surf rock instrumentals over the summer just to stay in practice.
|
|
Are you making plans for when you can resume playing in front of people again?
I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I run an event called The Punk Rock Rummage Sale which usually has 300+ attendees and 30 vendors. It has been on hold since April. I just started talking with Walker's Point Music Hall about hosting a monthly, small-scale version of the event that we can manage in a safe way by monitoring the capacity and having the event run longer with only a few vendors at a time.
Fun Bois just started practicing again at my house. We take every precaution at practice but playing a show at a bar with Wisconsin being the #1 hot spot in the country seems really irresponsible. I went out to two bars in the last couple months since they have reopened and both times people got pretty loose with the distancing and masks after they had a couple drinks in them.
I know it sucks but staying home is the fastest solution. I miss going out dancing at Mad Planet for Get Down the most!
To read more stories of Milwaukee musicians dealing with lockdowns, sheltering in place and more, click here.
To read more stories by Blaine Schultz, click here.
