It seems prudent to preface this piece with a pair of public service announcements: particularly, please polish your palms and pointers, and posit your person permanently on your property, preferably independently to prevent the perpetuation of this pandemic. That being said, feel free to let your freak flag fly. COVID-19 might he redirected the courses of many artists, but its failed to stop them entirely. Tom Rich, like many other musicians, is using his spare quarantine time to get creative. He’s new COVID-19-themed band, The Social Distants, just released an apropos video titled, “Can’t Quarantine My Love.”
Tom Rich says the new project will involve a revolving door of members who will, naturally enough, be working from their own individual socially distanced abodes. Aside from Tom Rich, Matthew Pickup has written a song for the project, and there are even more on their way.
“[We’re] making the best of the situation. I was driving and saw a sign that said ‘Social Distance’ and I was like, ‘Hmmm…. Good band name’,” laughs Tom. “So then I reached out to some musician friends who have recording gear and got this idea going. I wrote the song in about 25 minutes.”
“I recorded a demo track and emailed it to the other musicians, then they load that into their recording software, record their parts and email them back to me and I mix it.”
“Can’t Quarantine My Love” was written and performed entirely by Tom Rich, with Josh Hicks (Feist) performing on drums from somewhere outside of Toronto.
With COVID-19 cancelling tours and festivals left and right, it’s not entirely surprising that musicians are finding new ways to perform. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that.
“Aside from all my booked gigs being cancelled, the biggest bummer was that I had just spoken to an agent about booking an Eastern Canada tour for the Tom Rich Band from here to Toronto, with plans to stick around the GTA circuit for a month or so. Then this happened. That’s the negative affect,” says Tom.
Tom says the future still looks very uncertain for him, but he remains cautiously optimistic about what this could mean for the music industry in the long run.
“On the bright side, all of this live streaming of performances that’s been going on has been very well supported by fans. It feels like people care more about music now than they have in a long time. I see a lot of potential for this situation to bring people back to their roots.”
The Social Distants: FACEBOOK