Earlier this year, Canadian alternative outfit Dammit Goldie shared their new song, “Medusa.” While the pandemic may feel over, there’s still been many changes in the recording process. We caught up with the group to discuss five things they learned not only recording new music during these times but also starting a new band as well.
5 Ways Starting A Band Was Affected By The Pandemic
The difficulty of finding new players. Evan and I had just moved to Hamilton in 2020 and we were looking for roommates, so we were asking around. We connected with Tommy but he was just a roommate at first. Tommy was focused on other things at the time so we tried to audition different drummers and bass players. The pandemic made this difficult. After a few months Tommy showed interest in playing with us and that’s when he reached out to a bass player he went to music school with. Once Cam joined we finally had a solid and complete lineup. Not many bands can say they had that experience the last couple of years. When live shows came back, not only did we have new material, we had figured out how to play together as a cohesive unit. So much of moving forward in this industry is just networking and connecting with people in the community. Those connections are what ultimately serve you when you’re looking for new members. But a global pandemic can make that tough. We were lucky enough that the random dude Evan and I moved in with happened to fit the band perfectly. And then everything fell in place. But prior to that it felt impossible. – Josh
Not having shows to play. The pulse of DG is in its performance. It’s an outlet and how the band expresses themselves outside the actual writing of the music. Especially as a newly formed band. When we were forced to lock our doors we were left with that performance void. Rather than buckle under the notion that live music was gone and we wouldn’t have the opportunity to perform this product that we had put together, we put that energy into other aspects of the band. We put into planning our next moves and constructing the machine that became Dammit Goldie. In the end we saw it as an opportunity, and seeing that no other life distractions hindered us, we made use of it. We didn’t wait around and twiddle our thumbs. We made things happen. It wasn’t completely fulfilling since we didn’t have the stage anymore, but we made it work..and when it was time, we hit the stage hard. – Evan
Extra time to develop our sound. For the first several months I was in the band we had no gigs to book because of the pandemic. It was bittersweet but I think we made the most of it. We used that time to choose exactly which songs we wanted to record and iron out all the fine details, and we had ample time to hit the studio and get them all done. With all the free time we were also able to come up with a few good set lists and prepare for future gigs. The pandemic opened up so much time for us to get together and push ourselves further than we could have otherwise, and as a band spawned from covid, it allowed us to come out of the gates a lot stronger than we would have if we were contending with regular scheduled life. – Cam
Patience was crucial during the pandemic. Before and during our studio time we weren’t able to play shows, but we were working on our product, practicing and becoming a tighter unit. All we wanted to do was begin bringing awareness to our band. The issue we were facing was that we didn’t have any real content related to our brand yet. Funny band videos, behind the scenes footage, random situations caught on camera all make great content for socials but only if you have an anchor to your brand. We are a band and we make music. Funny videos are great for showcasing the personalities in a band but it’s all material to slot in between more substantial posts and music releases. You could feel how antsy everyone in the group was to get in front of people. We wanted to show our new music, we wanted to be building our brand. It was important to be patient. Patience led to a more well rounded and complete product. Once the world began to open back up and shows started happening again, we now had a plan and plenty of material to work with. – Tommy
It truly was a bonding experience. Bonds are naturally formed within a lot of bands. But there are things that can get in the way of just how fast that happens. Day jobs, plans, schedules in general. It can sometimes lead to band members only really seeing each other when it has to do with the band. Through the pandemic most places were locked down and many were stuck at home all day. During this time we could really only rehearse, write, and record. But the benefit was that we were able to spend so much time together and really take our time with the creation process, gel as people, and become close. 3 out of 4 of us live together and at one point all 4 of us lived together. It feels like we were able to squeeze 5 years of bonding experience in a 2 year span. – Tommy
