Categories
ISOLATION DRILLS

Isolation Drills: Joe Reinhart (Hop Along, Algernon Cadwallader, Dogs On Acid, Headroom Studios)

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.