What’s your opinion on live-streams? You see any alternative ways to support the music community?

Live streams radiated a really motivating energy when they first started out, supplementing the need for what clubs normally offer. Now they became a bit stale because everybody does them and you can’t really blame ‚em – if you’re a DJ it’s better to play in front of a virtual audience than to play just for yourself. But for me a live stream has to offer something unique and as with all things it’s hard to create that uniqueness if the main thing has been done so often already.

Unfortunately I don’t think it will be possible for musicians to generate income just by giving virtual treats. People are only willing to pay money for real-life experiences (at least enough for musicians to make ends meet), especially because everything became so virtual in the last decade anyway. Lots of people lost lots of money because of Coronavirus too, so supporting someone else you don’t really have an intimate connection to is something most people will think twice about. All we can do is wait it out and come back full force once this crisis is over.

 What are you missing most? What are you afraid of?

Clubs, obviously, and everything that comes with it. Spontaneously inviting friends over. Socializing over music, not just online. It’s tough times when your life is centered around music and even though the music itself is still there, everything social that’s associated with it is stripped down to a bare minimum.

 I’m not really afraid, but we as a society have to be very careful to make sure that all those restrictions remain temporary and won’t be the cornerstone for a full-on conservative political revolution. As we saw in Hungary and other countries such situations are the perfect opportunity for politicians to position themselves as saviors and make people believe that there is no alternative to them and their authoritarian methods of ruling a country.

 What will change you think?

I think the alienation of people to one another has become even stronger since the Coronavirus outbreak and will remain like that for quite a while. People are more suspicious of each other and the ongoing nationalization of European countries is fueled by this crisis. On the other hand, if individuals move closer to each other once the liberty to do so is regained it will be mainly in exclusive circles, which can be a good thing (think safe spaces) or a bad thing (as exclusion mostly tends to be).

On the bright side there might be some overthinking of our current economic situation – people realizing that hired labor is not the most important thing in life, that a lot of work is really expendable and the connections between humans is a cherished factor in life that shouldn’t be taken for granted. At least that’s what I wish for.

 What is the gig or occasion you were most looking for, that was cancelled in this period?

Playing B2B with my friend Reka Zalan at About Blank for Elements… would have been my first time playing there after I made lots of good memories as a visitor, so definitely a highlight of my now non-existent gig schedule.

 Are you still able to pay your rent?

 Yes, I’m fortunate enough to work part time in a photo lab that already opened up again and it strengthened my decision not to rely on music-related income 100%.