Music in Lockdown: Recent Episodes
Paula Bialski
Music in Lockdown is a 10-part documentary series created in the Sound & Society class at the University of St. Gallen in the spring of 2021, and archives the changing lives, struggles and achievements of the music industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Each episode was written and produced by students - who interviewed a variety of characters making up our musical worlds including samba musicians in Brazil, club owners in Zurich, and indie musicians in Berlin. The project is led and hosted by Paula Bialski and engineered by Heights Beats. A new episode will be released every Monday, starting on July 19th.
What happened to music streaming during the coronavirus pandemic, and the accompanying lockdown? How was the business side of the music industry impacted? Lino Kienast and Davide Simoni talk to Primephonic’s CEO Thomas Steffens, Berlin-based music consultant Sebastian Hoffman, and IDAGIO’s CEO Till Janczukowicz to discuss the way in which Covid impacted the music industry, and streaming services in particular.
Classical musicians, in particular those playing with an orchestra, have experienced many difficulties throughout the pandemic, both on a logistical and financial level. This episode, read and produced by Arseny Khovansky, explores how musicians in Russia and Germany coped with such difficulties.
While the pandemic continues, many dance floors of night-clubs remain empty, and their doors may continue to be closed this fall. Christian Kaelin and Yann Perinic speak to the people that work behind the Swiss club scene in particular, and investigate how they deal with the nightlife-specific issues that arose during these unprecedented times. We will hear about the financial issues that plagued night-clubs as well as the support they received from the government and their communities and possible opportunities that emerged from the pandemic. We will further find out about the changes in club owners’ and employees’ personal lives as well as what the future holds for nightclubs in Switzerland.
As we are in the midst of festival season and the pandemic continues, we ask the question: how are festivals and festival organisers coping with Covid-19? Many festivals have not been able to take place for more than a year, with large events still prohibited in many areas. Sponsors, suppliers, and musicians who normally work with festivals are out of business. Tune in to hear Francisco Broccard and Aurélien Queloz ask: how are festivals surviving without any income? How can festival organisers, who normally work so far in advance, plan their futures?
As the pandemic continues, touring bands continue struggling to live up to their fans’ expectations regarding the organization of concerts, producing music, and life on tour. This episode, written and produced by Arthur Levisalles and Eduard zu Putlitz, stumbles across famous producer and founder of ERA, Eric Levi, and his guitarist Rob Harris (who also worked with Jamiroquai, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Robbie Williams among others) in order to focus on the experiences of two members of the same popular touring band.
Music production can be largely a solo venture, but this week, Silas Gabriel and Rony Frauenfelder show us that producers nevertheless experienced some tough challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. This episode features the Swiss-based producer Mondetto, and Berlin-based producer Jonathan, who tell Silas and Rony about their different experiences working under pandemic conditions.
The cultural industry had already been facing many challenges in the face of a turbulent political scene in Brazil, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it even greater problems, especially for such a traditional cultural expression as samba. In this episode, João Motta spoke with João and Pedro from the band Grupo Querosene from Brazil to understand a little more about what samba has been going through in the midst of the pandemic.
Indie musicians have been hit particularly hard during the pandemic: live concerts have disappeared, leaving indie musicians with barely any income from streaming services or online gigs. In this episode, Lydia Klotz and Patrick Sauer interview three indie musicians: Christoph from the band Strand Child (based in Berlin, Germany) and Beri and Jonas from the band What Rules (based in Baden, Switzerland) in order to explore how the pandemic has impacted the careers of these musicians, their ways of interacting with fans, and their prospects for the future.