Due to lockdown restrictions, the music industry has largely shifted from live festivals to online platforms. For local musicians, the shift has attracted a wide variety of audiences across the world, and inspired them to create music for a broader audience. For many musicians, this has been their saving grace during the pandemic.
Singer-songwriter Matthew Carstens is sitting in Hangklip Hotel’s bar in Pringle Bay. He is taking a quick tequila shot before his mini-show at the bar. All the Covid-19 protocols are in place. The bar is half empty, and he is uncomfortable in the uncanny atmosphere of a space that used to be packed on show nights.
For many South African musicians, the lockdown restrictions on live performances, which have been in place since March 2020, have resulted in a complete shutdown of their sources of income.
Matthew Carstens, a South African singer-songwriter, prepares for a small show at a bar in Hangklip Hotel, Pringle Bay on 28 August. PHOTO: Heléne Leonard
The future of the music industry
With Covid-19 lockdown restrictions bringing live music shows to a halt, alternative forms of producing and sharing music have emerged.
Owald van Schalkwyk, a music producer, is excited about the future of the music industry. Music production has become easier and more accessible during lockdown, he says.
Owald van Schalkwyk, a South African music producer, explains the positive impact that Covid-19 has had on his career and new studio developments. AUDIO: Heléne Leonard
“Home studios, instead of professional studios, are a new thing since recording studios were closed during the initial lockdown. And because of lockdown, producers had to shift their studios into their homes. Now, these home studios are just as great as the big shots,” says Van Schalkwyk. “Many South Africans are producing really good music on Spotify, and they are doing it from their homes.”
Van Schalkwyk believes that the music production industry will be “booming” soon because of all the time and effort that has gone into producing online music during the past year.
“Since live shows stopped during the lockdown period in March, musicians started creating music at home. This enabled them to create an amazing home studio with equipment that is at home,” says Van Schalkwyk.
When shows got cancelled
“Well, we were fully booked for the entire of 2020. 150 shows, just down the drain with no refund. Every single show…just cancelled,” says Carstens, referring to the effect that the initial hard lockdown had on his career.
The impact of the initial lockdown period was not as heavily felt by part-time musicians as it was by full-time musicians, says Max Koenig, lead singer of Red Sheep.
“We are some of the lucky few who all have day jobs,” says Koenig. “All Red Sheep’s band members have jobs, so only until much later did we realize that the usual gigs were not going to happen anymore.”
Even before Covid-19, musicians were struggling due to the poor profits they made from live shows, explains Carstens, who is a full-time musician.
“Before Covid-19, it was also bad. People would just expect you to be shoved into a corner of a bar and put up an amazing show…only to be paid peanuts for it,” claims Carstens.
Theo Mulder, the lead singer of Kloudink, agrees that live shows before Covid-19 were seldom profitable. “The effort was not worth it,” says Mulder.
Live performances used to be a “thrill” for musicians, rather than a source of income, according to Mulder.
“I do not know, man,” says Koenig. “Live festivals will not be back for a while, I think. And what is the use? We do not get paid what we deserve to be paid.”
Koenig also feels that shows done before Covid-19 “did not pay us what we deserved”.
When musicians lost their income, the whole business sector suffered. Many other types of professionals are involved in the music industry, and Covid-19 impacted their livelihoods as well. Cara Smit, Matthew Carstens’ booking agent, lost her income as well. “It is terrible to see every booking you have made just being cancelled. One after the other,” says Smit.
“I am tired of baking banana bread and crocheting for a living. Any gig I can find for Matt, I take. Getting out of the house to go to gigs, however small, is the best feeling in the world,” says Smit.
A year of silence
“Live shows used to be such a hype. Now everyone needs to sanitize and refrain from coming close to one another. It’s just not the same,” says Carstens.
Matthew Carstens, a South African singer-songwriter, claims that the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown is not all bad. “Not only bad things will come from these strange times, man,” says Carstens. PHOTO: Heléne Leonard
Carstens has been stuck in Pringle Bay since the start of 2020. After losing out on bookings for the entirety of 2020, Carstens had to make big changes to his lifestyle in order to put food on the table.
“I got a job at a hardware store, and now I know a f*ck-ton about screws,” says Carstens.
The lockdown of 2020 was a blessing in disguise for Carstens. “It forced me to pull myself together,” he says.
Ordering another tequila shot, Carstens explains that living from one live show to the next, and solely having that as an income, is stressful, and tends to be a breeding ground for bad habits.
“So, I was stuck in Pringle Bay and it is quite difficult to find gigs here. Believe me, I tried my best,” says Carstens.
Carstens sees the lockdown as a sabbatical. It gave him an opportunity to straighten up his life, and he can now focus his time on developing and writing new music.
“Covid-19 made us have a lot of time on our hands, and it is so good. Now we can write like hell,” he says.
The singer and songwriter, Matt Carstens, sees the lockdown as a second chance at life. He had the opportunity to straighten up his life. “Covid-19, on a personal level, helped a lot,” says Carstens. PHOTO: Heléne Leonard