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ISOLATION DRILLS

Isolation Drills: Lovelorn

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.

Anna Troxell: Lovelorn was in the middle of a month-long tour when the reality of the pandemic really came down on us. Essentially, the tour was built around SXSW, so when we heard that the official showcases were cancelled, we were super bummed. However, we were immediately approached by several promoters and venues in Austin about unofficial shows, so we decided to continue with the tour. This was the first tour that Lovelorn had any official music released, and it was awesome seeing people respond to it. We did keep up with the news of Corona, and we could see that it was escalating and changing, so our plan was “take it day by day.” Eventually, though, we decided it was time to go home. This was at the tail end of the drive between New Orleans and Houston. Truthfully, we were pretty freaked out. So, we turned around and embarked on a 30-hour drive straight back to Philadelphia. It was just Patrick and I on the tour, so we took turns driving in shifts. Sleep. Drive. Sleep. Drive.

Once back in Philly we were relieved to be home safe, but struck suddenly with the reality of the new situation. Patrick and I both work in venues, so we were both out of work for the foreseeable future. We were lucky enough to receive some financial assistance from our amazing label, 6131 Records, Philly Music Fest and the MusiCares Organization. With all this free time on our hands, we both channelled our frustrations/fears/anxiety into writing. Another fortunate outcome of being a two-piece that lives together and has the ability to record at home is that suddenly we were working on music every day. We always come back from tour extra inspired and wanting to write, but the atmosphere of the current climate really gave us a lot to dig from. And we have a new EP and video we are super excited to share with y’all.

It was heartbreaking to learn that our upcoming tour with Soft Kill and Tamaryn was—understandably and responsibly—cancelled. At one point, it felt like it was just more bad news every day. But, we began looking into livestreaming options as a way to cure that “itch” of performing live. We are a band that truly loves performing, and it’s been hard to not have the excitement of that even being a real possibility any time soon. On 4/20, we had our first livestream set, performed via Twitch and Instagram, and it was so awesome to have the ability to even remotely connect to an audience. It’s far from the experience of being together in person, but it felt good to share our music with people and have them share their energy back. We will definitely be continuing to do these, so stay tuned. 

Right now, our next scheduled “real” show will be at The Fest in Gainesville, Fla., on Halloween night. We can’t wait to party with y’all again soon, but for now we hope all of you are out there being safe, being responsible and considering where you are spending your money in the future. Remember, it truly does have an impact. Some people were taken care of by their employers during this, and some were not. Stay punk, y’all