By Scarlett Hurst
With COVID19 continuing to sweep through Australia, it is no surprise to anyone that there are many artists struggling throughout our country. The pandemic has taken away not only their ability to perform music for others but also their livelihoods. Artists such as Quinton Trembath, is one of those people who is struggling, now going months without playing live music or being able to see his bandmates.
Quinton is the lead singer and guitarist of his band called Quinton Trembath, a folk-punk band. He and his band are located in Melbourne, arguably the biggest COVID hotspot in Australia right now.
“We can no longer perform live as our gigs were cancelled and there are no future gigs being booked currently. We can’t get together to rehearse new material and we can’t get together to record,” states Trembath.
With restrictions continuing to tighten in Victoria, uncertainty is increasing, with Trembath unsure of when he and his band will be able to create or play music again.
“We can write new music separately and share demos but we are unable to rehearse them together. Studios aren’t operating and we wouldn’t be allowed to get a producer to work with us or get together to do it ourselves,” said Trembath.
However, some States in Australia have already started to ease their restrictions, allowing the rest of the country to be able to observe what the future of music and live gigs might look like. Trembath says that by seeing other local music scenes find a way forward, it has given him and his band hope.
“As we’ve seen already in other states, future gigs will likely be seated to ensure that people are keeping distanced. Bands will have to somehow adapt their stage shows to seem appropriate in this new context of all shows being seated shows,” says Quinton.
Although when this pandemic will end is unclear, musicians like Quinton are likely to adapt so that local artists can still produce and showcase their music for the whole of Australia to enjoy.