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Days of Rona: Christian Peters of Samsara Blues Experiment

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. — JJ Koczan

christian peters samsara blues experiment (Photo by Srta Castro)

Days of Rona: Christian Peters of Samsara Blues Experiment (Berlin, Germany)

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?

Well of course everyone has his own way of dealing with this individually. It’s a very unique and weird situation in recent history and there’s a lot one may worry about these days, especially when you’re with kids and may get into job troubles and such. Of course, like most other bands we have to work in other jobs besides, more or less… So as a band we have agreed on not rehearsing anymore, already before it became a rule to not meet more than one person at once here in Germany.

It appears we seem to be more cautious than others there… but it seemed wise to step back a while, and also get informed. Which is still the main problem, I don’t know if everybody really is informed enough. There’s seems to be a lot of panicking… But back to the band, we are in preparation of the fifth album, have studio time booked, tours planned, etc., and all is very uncertain now.

Even tours scheduled for this coming Summer may be affected, because no one can tell anything right now, which is a very unpleasant situation, speaking in plain terms… But the health thing in general, let’s put it like this; just I for myself probably have been in much worse situations throughout the last two years… all this is mostly about protecting elder folks, I get that…

What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?

Well like I mentioned before, it’s not allowed to meet more than one other person when you’re outside. Some people still don’t get it, while others exaggerate in other forms which leads to quite a few bizarre situations in daily life. Since I am kind of a loner naturally for me all that’s not such a big deal, but I see that some people may have a complete new experience there.

Also, most of the stores are closed, which again seems a bit “funny” because just as one example there’s a lot of small groceries or convenience stores here where you hardly see more than two or three customers at once even on a regular day and all these small stores have had to close (and face serious financial trouble) while a lot of anxious peeps crowd that one supermarket in your neighborhood in quest of the holy toilet paper roll (exaggerated, but really… what’s the thing about that?).

Ahm, what can I say, it’s just a bit strange outside… you’re allowed to take walks, alone or with very close family members, and then you see all these “ninjas.” Dude… it’s weird.

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

Of course, it’s inevitable right? Not many people know that besides being a musician, having my own label and working for other labels, occasionally I also work in other parts of the music biz (yeah, the media) where you saw bands cancelling tours very early on, when it still seemed just a bit hyper-cautious,… and then this turned into a kind of snowball… To this day, I still haven’t seen or heard of anyone’s health being that roughly affected by the virus itself, but many are facing severe financial damage!

And that is a bit crazy to me. Well yes, you need to have a back-up, always. That may be something a lot of people may learn from this, and it’s probably easy to say for myself because I’m kinda modest and never had a lot of money to spend nor saw the bigger use in hoarding stuff etc, but… you know, also a lot of the live venues in Berlin seem to face bankruptcy (!!), after only a few weeks of being shut down (!!), and that’s sheer madness somehow…

I don’t know man, I really don’t know what to think. The whole world is freaking out because of this virus… btw, I saw a nice video of that Sadhguru-dude playing a new version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound Of Silence,” maybe you can add that below, just so that some people may have a laugh…

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

First of all, relax. Personally I’m hoping for a few good side effects that may, or may not, evolve from this. Our commonly known types of capitalism have to end sooner or later (yeah peace out bruh eh).

Maybe some peoples are becoming more conscious, more self-centered and balanced, yet prepared for things like that… coming out of the blue and throwing everybody’s lives upside-down. Personally I have just overcome a whole bunch of “situations” and crises that all seemed worse than all that still. So maybe that’s why I can sit here and still be relaxed.

Well, I don’t know if I really am in any position to give advice but… relax, and also try go inside yourselves (it’s really a good time for introspection, I think) and think about what is life, what is important, how important is love, self-love and self-affirmation in the first place, and how small is a fuckin’ virus and how small-minded are those people hoarding toilet paper… laugh a lot, that’s also a good medicine.

Well, I hope you have someone who makes you laugh, but then there’s a lot of good old movies to watch too… ah, I don’t know.

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