The Birdbox

5 Ways You Can Help Music Artists During The Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a drastic impact on many industries, with touring musicians and their crew being heavily impacted. Most musicians rely on touring for the majority of their income so with festivals and gigs being forced to cancel, some will certainly struggle to get by over the next few months. Below are a few ways that you can support your favourite artists.

1. Buy The Things

Things to buy from http://www.creativecrisicollective.com/

The best way to support artists is to buy merch from their webstores. Most will have a diverse range to offer including T-shirts, hoodies, posters and purchasing physical CD’s and vinyl will also help. If you have a digital copy of an album that you love, perhaps consider buying a physical version as well. Bandcamp is a great platform for purchasing things from your favourite artists and this Friday (March 20th) Bandcamp will waive their share of the revenue so 100% of the money will go to the artist. Another place to buy things is new merch selling initiative ‘Creative Crisis Collective’ who will be selling band merch with all money going directly to helping the bands and their touring crew.

2. Patreon

A few artists may be found on Patreon. This is essentially a crowd-funding website where fans can pledge money and usually get some unique rewards in return. This helps the artist out financially and you can get something cool out of it too!

3. See What They Are Up To

It would be a good idea to follow as many artists as you can on social media so you can keep updated with what they may be up to. Some are planning some pretty interesting things like Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell from The Wonder Years who is asking fans to commission him to write custom songs and ‘Nothing, Nowhere’ who has teased the possibility of a livestreamed show.

4. Shout Them Out

If you’re tight for money yourself, you could always help by simply spreading the word about your favourite bands. A new fan is likely to stream, download or purchase their music and will give them a bigger fan base for when they can tour again. So, recommend music to your friends, share what you’re listening to on your Instagram story and you may help artists gain more fans.

5. See Them On Their Next Tour

With no gigs and festivals for the time being, I’m sure there will be plenty of bands touring as soon as they can. If a gig you were going to is being rescheduled, keep hold of your ticket and attend at the rescheduled date. I would expect plenty of gigs around once this finally all blows over so be prepared to get out there and back in the pit!

It’s time for fans to do their bit. Buy merch, talk about your favourite bands and get back in the pit when gigs are back

https://bandcamp.com/

http://www.creativecrisiscollective.com/

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LIVE: Beartooth @ The Roundhouse, Camden 29/02/2020

“When you take all these people, pack ’em in a room, you blast some loud fucking music… all of a sudden we become one giant fucking family and that shit is beautiful”.
Caleb Shomo, Beartooth

Beartooth arrived in Camden with the promise of fire, riffs and rock ‘n’ roll.

By some miracle, we managed to leave ‘spoons in time to join the queue before doors, where security warned us that phone thieves like to operate within the venue and to keep our belongings close and in a safe place. I’m all too aware of the issue regarding phone theft in London venues as my friends and I have been victims of this ourselves so credit where credits due to The Roundhouse for making an effort to make gig goers aware, even offering to keep phones in the cloakroom free of charge.

We managed to make it to the main room (which believe it or not is quite round) in time to catch the last few songs of Higher Power. The hardcore punks from Leeds tried their best to get the crowd moving but got little more than approving head nods in response as most people were either still queuing outside or more interested in the bar. They closed their set with ‘Seamless’, the opening track from their new album ’27 Miles Underwater’, which was the highlight of their set for me. (Because it’s a good song, not because their set had ended).

The Amity Affliction were next with high expectations for their set after the release of stonking new album ‘Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them’ just a week previous. They kicked off the set with ‘Coffin’ and ‘All My Friends Are Dead’, the opening tracks from the new album. The melodic ‘Soak Me in Bleach’ sounded great in the now full Roundhouse before the huge choruses in ‘Drag The Lake’ and ‘Pittsburgh’ acted as a great vocal warm up for the crowd. This was a fantastic set and a perfect support for Beartooth.

Following a quick rendezvous after being separated during The Amity Affliction, we waited excitedly for Beartooth to be unleashed. Some impatient moshers couldn’t hold themselves back as Disturbed’s ‘Down with the Sickness’ played over the soundsystem. They didn’t have to wait much longer as Beartooth “ooh wah ah ah ahed” straight into the riff from ‘The Lines’ with barely anyone stood still by this point. This was followed by an onslaught of fast, heavy ballads in the form of ‘Enemy’, ‘Hated’ and ‘Aggressive’. The intensity of the crazy crowd movement during these songs combined with the searing heat of the on-stage pyro and the density of orange confetti showers was enough to challenge even the most elite of cardio-vascular systems. The respite offered by ‘Afterall’ was shortlived as ‘Bad Listener’ reignited the room before the welcome surprise of ‘I Have a Problem’, rarely played live recently, brought on breakdowns in both musical and mental forms.

Beartooth went on to play a mix of songs from all three albums as the night went on. ‘Manipulation’, ‘Fire’, a fist-pump fuelled ‘Beaten in Lips’ then ‘Sick of Me’ and ‘Body Bag’. This tour marked the end of the ‘Disease’ album cycle and the title track from this album was preceded by a touching speech from front man Caleb Shomo, who ultimately IS Beartooth, as he writes and records the majority of the music himself. He preaches to a captivated crowd about the personal importance of ‘Disease’ as a record and how it has helped him to understand how his brain works as well as how to embrace and live with his mental health, urging others to do the same. After Caleb explaining how much Beartooth means to himself, the fans showed how much it means to them also with a cathartic release of energy during ‘Disease’ and a glorious sing along to the anthemic ‘In Between’.

After one last confetti shower, ‘You’ve got a friend in me’ serenaded us as friends lost to the pit were reunited while others cleared the confetti from their lungs. If one thing was clear tonight then it’s that Caleb’s passion for his own band is more than matched by thousands of fans; fans who also have a new Beartooth album to look forward to in the very near future.

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Neck Deep – Sonderland

For weeks Neck Deep have been teasing the mysterious ‘Sonderland’ on social media and their newly launched app. After speculation on what it could all mean, it was finally time to see what it was all about.

On Friday 28th and Saturday 29th of February, Neck Deep welcomed fans to Sonderland: an “immersive fan experience” hosted at Camden stables in London. On the Friday, the band announced their fourth album, ‘All Distortions Are Intentional’ will be released on July 24th via Hopless Records. The video for ‘Lowlife’, the first single from the album, was premiered in front of a live audience.

All Distortions Are Intentional out July 24th

We visited on a soaked Saturday. The slippery stairway to Sonderland lead us to a room decorated with trees, posters, banners and cardboard cutouts all consistent with the purple and orange aesthetic of the new album with a coffee cup on a trampoline (a nod to one of the lyrics in ‘lowlife’) being the centrepiece. Band members were hanging about happily taking time to chat to fans and take photos. Exclusive merchandise was displayed on the room’s perimeter as well as touch screens allowing fans to create their own custom Sonderland T-shirts and tote bags.

After launching the new era of Neck Deep in unique fashion, there was still one more thing to tease. Neck Deep will be touring the UK in September, shortly after the release of the new album. The dates will be fully announced later today (March 4th).

So, after a relatively quiet second half of 2019, it seems 2020 will be a busy one for Neck Deep and an exciting one for their fans. A new album, a UK tour and I’m sure much more still yet to be revealed.