Like the majority of you, all of us in the Philadelphia area are staying at home, learning to adapt to our “new normal.” MAGNET is checking in with local musicians to see how and what they’re doing during this unprecedented time. Photos by Chris Sikich.
SEISMIC: Back in February, we began wrapping up the mix of our debut release. At the time, we were excitedly talking about planning our release show—bands we wanted to include, venue options, etc.
We only had a couple Kung Fu Necktie shows under our belt and were looking forward to jumping into the Philly doom scene full throttle. That all changed in the following few weeks as everything was starting to shut down.
Things were in limbo for the next few months as we were trying to get our bearings straight. During that time, we started renting a monthly rehearsal space and moved our equipment in, but didn’t use the space until later in the spring after the three of us felt safe practicing together again. Also during this time, our bassist Ken finalized the cover artwork and we shared a lot of music recommendations with each other.
All of us take the pandemic seriously, for both ourselves and our loved ones. We’ll now get together an average of two or three times a month to work on new material, wearing masks and face shields and being respectful of each other’s needs to take time off when needed in order to keep everyone safe.
Since finishing the album, we recognized that conditions for live music weren’t changing anytime soon and ultimately decided to release what we spent so much time working on. In lieu of our once-planned show, we decided to put together a music video to coincide with the release. We’ve recently been discussing virtual shows as a possibility in the near future.
Our album was officially released on November 13 and is available in both digital and physical formats. We’re very much looking forward to the return of live-music performances, but until then we’re continuing to pursue the various ideas we’ve been exploring.
The one fortunate part of the pandemic is that the challenges have forced us to think outside the box and may have heightened our creativity in other ways.
