https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Days of Rona: Nikola Runjavec of Them Moose Rush

Posted in Features on June 1st, 2020 by JJ Koczan

The ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the varied responses of publics and governments worldwide, and the disruption to lives and livelihoods has reached a scale that is unprecedented. Whatever the month or the month after or the future itself brings, more than one generation will bear the mark of having lived through this time, and art, artists, and those who provide the support system to help uphold them have all been affected.

In continuing the Days of Rona feature, it remains pivotal to give a varied human perspective on these events and these responses. It is important to remind ourselves that whether someone is devastated or untouched, sick or well, we are all thinking, feeling people with lives we want to live again, whatever renewed shape they might take from this point onward. We all have to embrace a new normal. What will that be and how will we get there?

Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan

them moose rush

Days of Rona: Nikola Runjavec of Them Moose Rush (Bjelovar, Croatia)

How have you been you dealing with this crisis as a band? As an individual? What effect has it had on your plans or creative processes?

Initially, we were quite sad as this is our release year, and we have realized that crucial component of promoting our release – live gigs, will not be possible. We needed to cancel all our shows and postpone the EU tour. As time went by, and we were allowed to meet again to rehearse, we experienced this childish excitement and feeling of being re-united again and allowed to do what we do best. We transferred all our energy as a band into writing new stuff, and now we are quite excited as this situation gave us more time than ever to invest into songwriting and jamming, so we are really generating a lot of new songs and preparing to record new stuff. We realized that making new songs is what makes us happiest as artists.

How do you feel about the public response to the outbreak where you are? From the government response to the people around you, what have you seen and heard from others?

We are quite happy how this was dealt with in Croatia. Our authorities have commanded total lockdown quite early, so we are already few days with 0 or only few new cases. This collective awareness contributed to faster recovery and is now allowing us to come back to normal. I think some open air concerts with limited number of people are already allowed in Croatia.

What do you think of how the music community specifically has responded? How do you feel during this time? Are you inspired? Discouraged? Bored? Any and all of it?

The worst thing you can do is being bored. In general. If a person is healthy, I think this is highly disrespectful in context of a life that’s been given to us all and endless opportunities to grow as a person and musician. We used this time to learn new stuff about music, gear, production, songwriting etc. Things for which we now have a bit more time and we feel happy about it.

What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything? What is your new normal? What have you learned from this experience, about yourself, your band, or anything?

Besides the obvious horrible impact of COVID-19, I think the world learned an important lesson – that life is possible without daily rush for profit and that nothing bad will really happen if things get paused for a little while. I personally finally got some extra time to take care about myself and think about my lifestyle and make some concrete positive actions as learning to cook more different recipes for example. It’s kind of back to the basics – you just need closest companions, air and food to survive, and everything else is up to you and your little universe which you create to make you happy. Thank god there is so many things which can keep yourself busy with all technology available in our times, especially if you are into music/songwriting/music production.

http://www.facebook.com/themmooserush
https://themmooserush.bandcamp.com/
http://www.themmooserush.com/

Tags: , , , , ,