When the coronavirus shut us down, clubs and festivals ceased, and everyone was essentially forced inside with no definitive end in sight, DJ Times wondered: How is our tribe coping? How are DJs getting by? So, we sent out our “Coronavirus Questionnaire” to DJ/producers from all musical genres to find out.
During the crisis, DJ Times will be presenting the questionnaire responses from talented music-makers from all over the world. Here’s our latest installment, this time from the Left Coast, Envision Festival co-founder/psy-wave artist Traveler (aka Zander Argyropoulos).
What’s it like where you are? I live in Venice Beach, but am originally from Santa Barbara, which is where I’ve been hunkering down since all this began. I moved my studio up here, so I have been spending the majority of my time working on music projects.
Have you lost important gigs? I had some local gigs around Southern California get cancelled, but nothing catastrophic. We got super lucky with Envision Festival [which ran this past Feb. 17-24 in Costa Rica] – I think one or two weeks later and we would have had problems. My heart goes out to all of my friends who work in the West Coast festival scene and have lost work from this.
Are you doing anything now that can or will produce music-related income? I have been finishing a lot of music, which hopefully will monetize down the line, either via licensing, streaming or leading to booking opportunities. I’ve also been focused on developing some events for my artist collective/record label, Outside In Movement.
What are you doing now that’s ultimately constructive to your music life/career? Luckily, I’ve stockpiled enough unreleased music that I’m not feeling any pressure to write new songs. Instead, I’ve been focusing on improving my music theory and fine-tuning piano skills. I’ve also been going deep into organizing my libraries and dialing in my workflow.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve realized during this period of social distancing? I’m actually shocked to see how many people are completely oblivious to what’s going on. Either they aren’t taking this seriously or they just don’t care. We need to take care of ourselves, so that we can take care of each other, and it all starts with respecting what we’re up against.
Are you doing anything online? Have you seen anything that you like? Personally, I don’t enjoy watching people DJing by themselves – I’d rather just listen to a mixtape. That being said, there are some really cool live streams. There’s a company called Cercle that live streams amazing artists in world-class venues. I would consider DJing for a live stream if it were going to something special.
Any theme tunes recommended for the moment? 2Pac’s “Changes.”
Any advice on staying sane & relatively positive through this situation? Absolutely, we all need to stay connected and look out for one another. It’s going to get rough and there will be a long road to recovery, but we’ll get through this together and be stronger because of it.
To check out more Life in Lockdown interviews, click here.
