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: Kamille Sharapodinov of The Grand Astoria, The Legendary Flower Punk & Slovo Mira (St. Petersburg, Russia)

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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?

All my bands had to change plans to some degree. The one that suffered the most is The Legendary Flower Punk, we had to cancel the whole 16-shows european tour in support of the new record. Slovo Mira got problems of different character – LPs and CDs with the new album are now stuck in Estonia at our friend’s house and there’s no way we can get them until the crisis ends. Release date is 24th of April so there’s almost no chance we will pick them by that time unfortunately. With The Grand Astoria we were going to finish vocal overdubs for our new EP, planned for release during autumn 2020. Luckily, we still can do that at home. Hello neighbors! All my guys are feeling fine, I personally don’t know anyone who got the virus but we are taking the situation seriously anyway.

What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?

April 7 the so called “quarantine holidays” were prolonged until 1st of May by the president of Russia. I am leaving home once in three-four days to get the fresh bread and vegetables, trying to keep distance from the other people on the street and grocery

How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?

Mostly it’s a huge financial breakdown for all the artistic folks out there. So, I’d like to encourage people who are still getting paid to support their favorite musicians, bookshops, record stores or any other nice small local business ventures in the hour of need. There are tons of ways to do that so go ahead please!

What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?

I’d like to share some positive news concerning all my current music projects.

Three weeks ago it became clear that our voyage with The Legendary Flower Punk is not going to happen so I came up with this idea to make a virtual tour. We recorded 16 sets of music (each set as the complete show that we planned to play in the respective city, from Vilnius to Hamburg) live in our rehearsal room and we plan to publish them every day since 9th of April up to 26th. So next week everybody is more than welcome to our special live series bandcamp page for a daily dose of psychedelic jam rock:
https://theflowerpot.bandcamp.com/

We also just released a digital version of our side of the forthcoming split LP (Tonzonen Records, autumn 2020) with American band Magic Beans. Check here:
https://thelegendaryflowerpunk.bandcamp.com/album/astra-vidya-2

Nice studio video was shot for one of the split tracks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEHi50yg5Ps

The Grand Astoria is busy with the new album called From the Great Beyond due to release also during October-November 2020. It’s 35 mins of genre-bending music again, ranging from psychedelic art rock to obscure heavy metal.
Track listing is as follows:

1. From the Great Beyond
2. Wasteland
3. Njanatiloka
4. Anyhow
5. Us Against the World
6. Ten Years Anniversary Riff

You can check the live performance of “Us Against the World” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8guZ4ZbPudw

And finally Slovo Mira, my most avant-garde group is about to release the new music via Tonzonen Records in the end of April. Here is the pre-order link with first single:
https://slovomira.bandcamp.com/album/what-happened-to-you-in-all-the-confusion

That’s pretty much it. Looks like a lot of things are happening for me and I really hope that these turbulent times will pass quickly cos I miss the road very much! All the best for everyone in the world! Support each other with kind words and don’t panic.

https://www.facebook.com/TheGrandAstoria/
https://thegrandastoria.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/thelegendaryflowerpunk
https://thelegendaryflowerpunk.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Tonzonen/
https://www.instagram.com/tonzonenrecords/
https://www.tonzonen.de
http://facebook.com/RobustfellowProds/
http://robustfellow.bandcamp.com
http://instagram.com/robustfellow_prods