SINGAPORE COVID-19

“I was very nervous,” the guitarist of local acoustic band Anchorblanc recalled of his first night back at live performing. Advertisement.

“The peculiar thing about the live gig industry is that the rates for musicians have not gone up in about 20 years. Being the first to be shut and the last in line to reopen has made the industry feel like it would be “the first to go again” if COVID-19 cases spike. Timbre also lost two venues – one of which was its very first outlet opened at The Substation 17 years ago – although it said there were “factors beyond COVID-19” that contributed to the closures. “All these things coupled together have helped to get people out of their homes,” said Mr Aaron Ang, a senior executive officer of the CEO’s office at Tipsy Collective, which has live bands performing at six of its bars and restaurants. “At some point, audiences need to realise that a live music venue has its costs. “It was very tragic to see people who've been in this industry for such a long time selling their gear on Carousell or Facebook marketplace,” Ms Lim, the voiceover artist, said. Once you’ve been hit hard enough, you’re going to go in again very cautiously,” said Ms Allie Soh, a keyboardist and vocalist with local band Too Much Drama. The live music scene first came to a standstill in end-March 2020 when entertainment venues had to be shut as part of pandemic control measures. The setting was not unfamiliar and Mr Wong knew exactly what to do, having put up countless of gigs at bars and restaurants for almost a decade. So he focused on ramping up his other lines of work, such as teaching, video production and also became a producer for virtual meetings and seminars. One obvious choice was to go online so bands, such as Anchorblanc and Roseville, experimented with livestreaming by setting up cameras at home and learning how to interact with audiences in a different way. “What I think a lot of people don’t realise is that performers aren’t hobbyists by and large.