Like the majority of you, all of us in the Philadelphia area had been staying at home over the past year, learning to adapt to a “new normal.” MAGNET is checking in with local musicians to see how and what they’d been doing during this unprecedented time. Photos by Chris Sikich.
Reinhart: In the early days of the pandemic, the guitar collected dust, the liver returned to a normal color, the mixes improved, the body and soul surfed twice a week, and the mind read more books than the past four years combined. Not too bad.
I’m not delusional in thinking I have an important job. However, I do have a cool and extremely privileged one. Mix work kept pouring in as everyone was making records at home. Since I mix from home, I was able to spend my days sending delays to reverbs to distortions, etc.
Time passed like it does, and eventually between the relentless social injustice and all day ProTools screen, I was losing it. And, with Hop Along on pause and most in-studio collaboration out of the question, acquiring my normal creativity-released serotonin was like drinking from a broken hose on a hot day.
I’m sure this isn’t a fresh take on the pandemic, but it was time to dust off the right side of my brain. At the behest of an old friend, I started doing just that. So while I’m a little behind on mix work, it’s because I’m writing music three hours a day. Also, now there might be a Hop Along tour in September?
It’s gonna be OK. I think.
