Earthset
SPB: You released a live soundtrack to L’Uomo Meccanico at the start of the year. As a project so focused on live performance, how have this year’s COVID-19 restrictions impacted your creative process?
Earthset: The Covid-19 crisis had a huge impact on our project. Here in Italy things were really bad at the beginning, so places such as cinemas, theatres and concert halls were the first ones to be closed by our government. Our tour was cancelled and many opportunities we had to perform also abroad (Germany and France) were postponed until the situation is under control.
We’re trying to do the best we can to play some gigs respecting all the restrictions. We think music lives in the relationship between people, and that is something you can’t “stream,” so we don’t like online shows. We don’t criticise whoever does them, we just don’t feel they fit with our musical approach.
Besides, a cine-concert is a hybrid show that can be adapted to the Covid-19 security protocols, since there’s a film and people are usually sitting down. The real issue is that to keep interpersonal distance you must reduce the audience to one-third of the regular capacity, which means less tickets and less people. So in order to cooperate with promoters, we are doing gigs where we play two shows in the same evening. It’s a hard time for everyone and we think that also us, as artists and performers, must do our part to keep live music going, even if it means giving up on something or making a bigger effort.
There is more to be gained than lost.
