Page 19 - BiTS_03_MARCH_2021_Neat

CL: Yeah, I like having a spare.

BiTS: Have you been badly affected by COVID, I mean in the sense of being able to perform?

CL: Oh yeah, that is really a rot in my world
the whole COVID era. Last year around this

time we were just starting to pick up in 2020.
We were doing Mardi Gras and usually for us
around here that’s kind of where it starts. It
starts Mardi Gras beginning of the year and
going into the spring, festivals starting to
open up and then keep going and then more
festivals, festival season and then a lot of

people give parties, they get crawfish bars.
People get married, they want bands,
corporations do conventions. They come to
town for tourism, they want bands. I mean
the whole nine yards and not to mention that

we travel the world, so we do all that and
then we go overseas. We’ll go over there
where you are. We’ll go wherever, all over
the world and when the whole COVID thing
happened, I mean it just completely shut. It was like a domino stick like this gig cancelled, then the
next one, then the next one, then the next one. Until the point where you knew everything was
gonna get cancelled. You weren’t even trying to hope that we can go do this gig, you just knew that

was out.

BiTS: Anything starting to creep back yet?

CL: No, not really. We tried to stream live feeds, but it’s not the same and then, of course, we had

the problem last week, sometimes technology just doesn’t wanna work that day.

BiTS: Tell me about it.

CL: A lot of live feeds didn’t even happen because if the technology don’t feel like working, it’s not
gonna work that day. With that being my main source of income, that has really put me in a major
bind. Luckily I did save for all the years I’ve been playing, so I’ve been okay, but I haven’t been able

to put back into the savings, so at some point, I have to come up with a decision if everything does
not come back to how it was, I might have to end up getting a job and if that happens, I don’t know
how I’ll be able to play music because once you get a full-time job, that’s it. They don’t hear that
I’ve gotta go play, they don’t wanna hear that.

BiTS: It’s been a dreadful time for almost everybody, but musicians are particularly badly hit, I
think in the context.