Pentagon Tales * Trasmissioni dal lockdown

Nathan Means (Trans Am)
Waiheke Island, New Zealand

1. Where are u right now?

Waiheke Island, New Zealand

2. What’s happening in your country/city at the moment? Are there any restrictions?Are venues/shops/bars opened?

Complete lockdown. The police aren’t shooting anyone, but swimming is now banned, along with leaving your neighborhood or driving your car for anything other than food or medical reasons.

3. Did u have any tour/gig planned before this thing started?

Well, I think we have a show booked in Germany in January of 2021. So that’s not been affected by this, yet.

4. How this situation is reflecting on your everyday life?

It’s making it more boring. Also, I have no idea when things happened, because everything happened in one of four rooms in my house on a day with no school.

5. How the Music Community in your country/city is reacting?

Cancelling shows. I guess that’s pretty obvious?

I have a friend who was just about to start a two-week tour when things got serious here. He ended up cancelling everything the day of the first show. Like a million other artists and booking agents, it was a real shit sandwich, financially speaking. Another friend flew up to Auckland from Wellington the same week, did sound check and then was told everything was cancelled. Fortunately, that was a city-run festival, so they still got some money.

6. Do u usually have any help from the Government if u’re a musician or a u work in the music world in your country?Do musicians / people working in the music world get some money or help for the tour they cancelled?

I don’t know how much, but there is money for self-employed people if they can prove income loss, which is most musicians.

7. How the Government reacted?Did they think about the economical loss and disaster the musicans are facing?

I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere near the top of their list but, yeah, I think they realise how bad it is.

8) What’s the social situation where u live?How people in general are living these days?What’s the percentage of your friends that right now is not working for this reason?

I know some people who are out of work, but a lot more people are just working from home and working less. I have a job editing a book, so I could do that from a closet as long as I’ve got internet. That’s lucky, but I think some other projects are going to fall through.

9. How’s reacting the Society and do u think after this will be over something will change in the everyday life? Do u think people will change anything in their life?

It’s a huge social experiment: what if people didn’t go to work, didn’t go to school, didn’t drive cars, didn’t fly on planes, didn’t eat at restaurants or go to bars, cafes, movies, shows? How could you get that to happen in one city for one day? Now it’s been going on for weeks all around the world. But I have no idea what it means. Do we realize that we don’t actually have to do everything we’re told we have to? Or will we just go back to normalcy in a month or two? Kinda hoping for number 1 while expecting number 2.

What’s amazed me so far is how things haven’t fallen apart more. I’m fucking sick of being inside, but I’ve still got food and can pay rent.

The other thing is that any one day might not seem that weird. Obviously a huge part of that is internet. Can you imagine if we had this situation with no internet? For better or worse, things would spin out of control a lot faster. Instead, the internet is becoming even more important to our lives. You can never distrust tech companies enough. But, you know, I’m writing to you in Italy right now. So that’s cool.

10. Is there anything u would recommend to the people of the music world during these hard times?

Enjoy the silence?

11. Is there any book/lp/movie u read/listened/watched recently that u would recommend ?

I expect my thriller to be available in all those formats soon. I’ll let you know.

Sebastian Thomson (Trans Am, Publicist, Weird War, Baroness)
Brooklyn NY, USA