Working in Live Music and the Pandemic

2020 was a vicious year full of heart break and in more honest terms depressive episodes for all those in the world. More over the live music industry.

As a young individual just making bounding strides within their six years of work in this industry to watch it all crumble at my feet, was a heartbreak I had never felt. Maybe that's my mid twenties naivete of not fully realizing the concept of prepare for the worst, hope for the best. But when everything falls apart in your lap within a day, it causes damage.

It's not like we weren't warned. I remember being on my first tour, focused on the job at hand and loving the stench of bus bunks and stage dust. My phone would alert me as I crossed Western Canada that Coronavirus was becoming a more prominent issue, that we had gotten our first case and that more were starting to be reported. Suddenly, a tour that was full of excitement to finish and get back home to our loved ones before we took on Eastern Canada, became something uncertain. You could feel how ominous it was in the theatre on the last show booked in Vancouver. Some of the local crew were laughing it off, but some of the more seasoned individuals nodded their heads and said, "This is going to be a rough season."

No one knew how rough. No one fully understood how hard we would be hit. We were on the plane flying back home, Vancouver airport quiet and cold. Toronto Pearson was an entire ghost town as we met with fellow workers in the industry also coming back home to the East Coast. Their stories of tour managers and venues closing their doors and rescheduling for safety came at us with a strange numbness. Was this going to be our last gig for a while? Was the world on fire? What was I going to tell my partner of five years?

The next day I had arrived back home, lockdown was implemented, and I was on an official fourteen day quarantine. Yikes and goddamnit, were some of the many colourful words I could use to describe those moments. Two weeks led to eight months. During that duration, I watched entire audio visual production companies fall to mergers, bankruptcies, layoffs, etc. Our own local crew of stage workers, technicians, stage managers, and event coordinators, spread to the outer reaches of any contact or job they could get their hands on. All I can say is thank god for CERB and CRB. Without that, myself and my fellow colleagues would not have made it through the pandemic.

That same local crew company did their best to find work for the contractors and employees, even turning the business into a moving company, promising that we could clean out entire offices that had become remote, within four hours or less. We did our best to make ends meet and the more entrepreneurial of us went on to adapt to the change by becoming stream techs. Those were the smart ones. Many others, like me who were just at the cusp of starting out and gaining some actual footing, returned to school and training, or found other professions and means of income streams. Even though gigs were starting to crawl back at a snails pace, many including myself could not stay in our small city music industry.

It was a shame really. A lot of us had been doing this line of work for nearly a decade, trudging through the mud trenches of newbies and greenhorns, only to be left in an uncertain, unstable and unsustainable career path. I remember being twelve years old, my dad in one of those Celtic pub cover bands (a side gig he loved to do), taking me backstage and showing me how to use the sound board. I had been hooked, went to two different schools to gain a diploma in Audio Engineering and a diploma in Music Business, graduating with honours in both programs. I worked festivals as a volunteer (going so much as throwing in over sixty hours within a three-day period), to get a taste and to make waves. Every job I was contracted or hired to do, I took with passion and gave love, sweat and blood into. I loved the rush of being a stage manager, of being quick on my feet to solve problems. I loved mixing shows. I loved being brought into lighting and learning as the gig went on to become even better.

But when the gigs started rolling back in, as safety precautions became lifted, I had to make a decision. Like many others in this industry. Would I move forward with the new job I had? Grow new dreams and ambitions to strive farther? Or would I go back to an industry I loved so much and poured so much passion into?

I did not make this decision lightly. It felt like a divorce of a couple who had loved each other so much, but just couldn't make it. My heart broke and my life flipped upside down when I tried so hard to fight the realization that I wouldn't continue in the industry. I held on and used so much denial to get me through. I had broken up with my partner of five years, met someone new who changed my life for the better. I wanted to grow a family with them, to be stable and make a wholesome and happy life.

Does this mean I won't ever return? I'm not sure to be honest. Music was my first love. I will always be tied to it. And maybe, like my father, I could do a side gig where I could be happy doing the small cover band mixes and lighting designs every now and again.

But my experience isn't the same as everyone else. Some are continuing their way, making strides in leaps and bounds. Those are the people that know exactly what they want, and who are willing to keep putting in their love and passion. I'm not going to lie, I'm envious. I miss the life style and the rush of it all. But I know this is the right choice for me. I know that I will always love music and that what I'm doing is the best choice for myself. I wish the best for my colleagues and the people who are continuing on in these trying times.

I hope that whoever is reading this really takes the time to appreciate the people who not only are front and center during concerts and live events, but the ones behind them. I hope they see the hard work, dedication and passion that those people give the live music industry its life. We've been through a lot the last two years and with things finally starting to right itself, be sure to let them know that they are appreciated.