Navigating the Crash of the 2020 Music World (So Far)

(Garmisch-Partenkirchen - one of the first stops on Emily's business trip to Germany)

 

Our friends in Berlin who put us up own a bar that we visited on our first night in town. The bar had what I thought to be a pretty good turnout, though it was apparently a slow night for them. One of the patrons was a renowned opera singer, and her partner was the Komische Oper Berlin vice concertmaster. They expressed how worried they were about their careers changing as they already had cancellations throughout the world. Within a day, my friend’s bar and all of the other bars and restaurants in Berlin were given a week to shut down with no reopening date in mind. Talking to these people who had more extensive careers than my own and more on the line, I knew then that my upcoming shows and events back in the States would surely be canceled or postponed.

 

Skip ahead a couple of days to Hamburg, and it was time to meet with Apostolos, the owner of Soundhoops. We had to call the restaurant we had planned to meet to make sure they were open, which they were, though with limited service. As we dined and talked, the restaurant manager ranted and stormed about, frustrated with the small crowd, his cook, and the global pandemic affecting his business. His sign outside mentioned Live Music, and I thought to myself, “Who will come to listen now?” but I certainly didn’t tell him that. Hey, one good thing- the meeting with Apostolos went great!

The rest of the trip was a mess as Airbnbs canceled our reservations since folks didn’t want to risk themselves being around travelers. Airlines denied us our flight home due to miscommunications within the overwhelmed system and the U.S. funneling people through only a handful of airports with screening capabilities. Ultimately, we got home just a day later than we were supposed to and went immediately into a voluntary two-week quarantine.

(Waiting in a huge line at LAX to be scanned before heading home)

Like many musicians during this time, I got many messages informing me and my various projects that an upcoming show, festival, practice, etc., would be canceled until further notice. Along with those cancellations, as a drum instructor, I had to switch my in-person drum lessons to online lessons, and not everyone is comfortable learning that way. Suffice it to say, I lost a lot of work and very quickly. I became depressed, unmotivated, and directionless without the life I had built up and had become accustomed to. A realization that had never occurred to me before was how much of my identity and confidence were tied up in playing live shows. It turns out that the concerts were my happy place. To suddenly be without them and with absolutely nothing on the books took a toll on me. I barely drummed from April to June, besides teaching. Some smaller bright spots would appear, like Outlaw Drums choosing me as their Drummer of the Month, recording drums for Fire Follows, or meeting with bandmates in the back yard and hanging out from afar, but my overall enthusiasm remained weak.

The turning point in getting my attitude back was through a recording gig I had set up for July with my friend, Andy Jones, who goes by the name Berkley (https://alwaysberkley.bandcamp.com/). I could no longer travel to his studio in Denton, Texas, as we had planned, so after several postponements, we decided to go with remote recording for the entire album. 

This was a game-changer for the slump I had fallen into. It was daunting, and while I had a ton of equipment already and a basic understanding of home recording, I knew if I wanted to take this new path seriously, I needed to up my game. Plus, Andy is a professional audio engineer, he knew exactly the sound he wanted. We ended up sending many sound bites and references back and forth before I got the tunings and mic variations just right. I utilized Andy’s guidance, YouTube, EmilyDrums.com, and many other websites and friends with suggestions on recording, mic set-up, sound dampening, EQ, all sorts of stuff to try getting the best sound possible. Andy and I have worked on this album for a couple of months now, and it’s proven to be just the thing to get me inspired to play again, and I have since taken on more clients. This new recording venture is still a work in progress since there is so much to learn, but I found I am excited to want to learn again.

http://www.outlawdrums.com/emily-gould.html

Home recording gave me a new goal to work towards during this weird interim time, despite all of the ups and downs that is life right now. Besides teaching and working on new projects that have sprung up, recording has helped me navigate having my entire career and trajectory stopped abruptly. I know many other musicians are in the same boat wondering, “What’s next?” and it still is a huge question mark for most of us. However, finding a new focus within our chosen art might make all the difference. There is no end in sight for things going back to how they were, but perhaps this is just another way the industry changes to keep up like it always has, and we are along for the ride.