Days of Rona: Eric Crespo of Abronia
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Eric Crespo of Abronia (Portland, Oregon)
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How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
Yeah, we’ve had to rework plans for sure. We had shows booked in April–including a festival in California we were going to drive down to play. All canceled of course. Just today we decided to postpone our upcoming European tour until summer of 2021. It was slated to start July 24th and go until August 9th.
Things aren’t really officially canceling that far out yet, but the writing is on the wall. Only about half of the tour was booked when the shit started to hit the fan and our booking agent was finding it impossible to get anyone to agree to confirm shows for the summer months, with so much uncertainty about. We kind of came to the conclusion to cancel jointly with our booking agent–it’s nice to not be waiting around for news about it anymore. It’s kind of relieving in a way–just to not be in limbo about it anymore. Of course we’re heartbroken that we have to wait over a year to go on the tour, but it coulda been worse. Luckily, we hadn’t bought tickets yet. We were just about to buy our tickets in January when things started going south, but decided to hold off to see how things played out.
I guess the new plan is to try to get another album out before our European tour in the summer of 2021. We’ve got some local-ish shows and festival planned for summer, but who knows if those things will happen. Doesn’t seem likely that shows will be for sure happening again like they used to until there’s a vaccine widely available.
Everyone’s health is tip-top. It’s frustrating to not be able to meet up for practice. We’ve been emailing ideas for new stuff back and forth and we’ve been doing weekly zoom meetings where we talk about all the new music and everything else. Better than nothing, but it’s a far cry from the productivity we can achieve by being in the same room together.
What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?
Here in Portland, Oregon, it’s shelter in place. Meeting up in groups is prohibited. Parks are closed. Schools are closed until at least May but everyone thinks they’ll be closed for the rest of the school year. Basically you’re only supposed to go out for necessary supplies and exercise, unless you’re going to work and your job is deemed essential.
How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?
It seems pretty brutal. I do live sound as well as studio recording and mixing and of course there’s no opportunities for live sound engineers. And of course a lot of musicians work in bars or restaurants when they’re not on tour and all the bars and restaurants are shutting down and laying everyone off so the damage to the music community is pretty massive
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
Well we’re gonna keep being a band. This thing is really exposing all the shortcomings of our country and hopefully it will lead to better things in the future.
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