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 this period, DJ Times will continue presenting the questionnaire responses from talented music-makers from all over the world. Here’s our latest entry, this time from Indonesia, the Jakarta-based electronic talent Bleu Clair (aka Kurniawan Wicaksono).
/iframe>
How did you spend most of your pandemic time? I play a lot of PS4 games and watch Netflix. I also make tons of music and tried to cook, because I’m a huge foodie guy.
Have things changed over time? It seems like more and more people got to know about my music over the pandemic. I released tons of records in 2020, and I’m quite happy with how the people around the world reacted to them.
Did you lose important gigs, or income-producing work? To be honest, gigs have never really been my main source of income so far. My main income is from music production and thank God I can survive and live from that. I’m starting to earn bigger numbers from royalties of the tracks I released before.
What are you doing now that’s ultimately constructive to your music life/career? For example, any releases during this period? I had my biggest release so far, “Make You Mine,” a collab with Martin Garrix’s side project, Ytram, and it happened during the pandemic. It was a huge honor doing a collab with a legend like him and he’s such a super-down-to-earth and talented person. That record really helped my music and my name to be heard by a lot more by people around the globe. And my latest two releases are “Gold” featuring Rhiannon Roze and my remix for Habstrakt’s “Gotta Be.”
What’s in your studio? I don’t have a proper studio. I live in a flat in Jakarta, Indonesia, and it’s kind of like a “bedroom-studio” setup. I use a PC, Genelec monitors, Sennheiser HD25 headphones, and a Focusrite soundcard. It’s not fancy, but it does the job – at least for me.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve realized during this period of social distancing? I realized that I have so many people around me who support me a lot. Early pandemic was stressing me a lot, because I can’t see my family, I can’t hang out with friends. But my family, my friends and my team always support me and I could never thank them enough for that.
Have you done anything online recently? I was one of the supports for Matroda & Friends Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 live-streams on Insomniac, and I also supported AC Slater’s Night Bass seven-year-anniversary live-stream. It was really fun doing those streams and I have been a huge fan of their music – so it was a superb feeling.
Any advice on staying sane & relatively positive through this situation? I would say developing new hobbies – like, cooking – and doing exercise every day helped me be sane and it inspired me a lot. I always try to stay connected with loved ones, as well.
To check out more Life in Lockdown interviews, click here.
DJ Times Magazine is copyright © 2021 by DJ Publishing, Inc. www.djtimes.com
