In March I had the idea to make an EP of music in response to the covid-19 pandemic. With the stay-at-home order and social distancing guidelines causing feelings of isolation, I wanted to celebrate what we still have. The idea was to collaborate with artists remotely from the safety of our homes.
When the stay-at-home order was announced, I moved back to Faribault with my family, and it’s there I started writing. I had a workspace, my laptop, headphones, and a MIDI keyboard. In one week I completed six demos, five of which would eventually make it on the EP. From there I announced my plan on Facebook and asked for collaborators. I got a great response!
Starting on April 18th, I released a song a week on Soundcloud. I also made a video to document the making of each song.
Since my instrumentals were done, I mostly needed vocalists, so I wasn’t able to work with everyone, but I’m very grateful for the people I did get to work with. Here’s everyone that helped on the project: Ocho (melody and lyrics for Life on Pause), Jacob Ross (bass for Life on Pause), Luke McGreavey (alto sax for Life on Pause), Anssi Tenhunen (voiceover for Infection Control), SMILEBRO (final drop for Infection Control), Matthew Ruff (melody and lyrics for House Arrest), and Mary Clare Stroh (melody and lyrics for Quarantine). My awesome collaborators made these songs much better than I could have on my own!
The final EP will be released on May 30th with the final song: the long-awaited Covid-19 Rap. For some reason, I got a lot of requests to rap about the virus. If I didn’t do it on this EP, it probably would have never happened. I guess we’ll find out if that’s good or bad.