OUR 2020 HARDSHIPS & POSITIVE OUTCOMES:In late 2019, we sold all of our stuff. Our clothes, our shoes, our recording equipment (a Lauten Clarion Mic, a ToneBeast Amp, a Warm Audio WA73 Preamp that imitates the Neve 1073, a Warm Audio WA-14 Condenser Mic, a set of Focal Alpha Studio Monitors), & so much more. We moved to L.A. on January 1st, 2020 with the money we made from all our sales. After purchasing an Epiphone Wildkat with a Bigsby (whammy bar) & a Gibson Les Paul, because we sold our Acoustic guitars: an Epiphone Masterbuild & a Fender Sonoran. Yes, you read that right — we went ELECTRIC after being acoustic the entirety of our collaboration together. “We were feeling so sick...”After almost 2 1/2 months in L.A., we were feeling so sick for almost a month straight after living in a house with renters who arrived recently from Wuhan, China. YES, you also read that right. Our wonderful Chinese roommates invited us to their Chinese New Year Dinner, stayed up talking to us, we helped teach our new friend some English, he taught us some Mandarin, & Oskar even cut & faded our friend’s hair after his girlfriend completely hacked at it, trying to give him a haircut.😂 We became great friends to the point where our new friend called us “brother” & “sister”. We were feeling sicker & sicker, & realized we probably had COVID, but at this time Fauci was saying masks were unnecessary & that they didn’t expect it to come to the US. Little did we all know!!! We were feeling down & out that we were paying so much money in rent to be in California for the opportunities pertaining to the Music Industry, but we were so very sick that we were in bed most days. We decided to plan a tour of The South to offset some of the financial burden living in L.A. was costing us. We then decided to drive home to Salt Lake City, Utah two weeks earlier than our tour to visit family, get some much needed rest, recuperation, & healing, & then we’d set out on our tour from Utah. We even bought 2 identical Gretsch Synchromatic Hollow-Body Guitars & sold our electrics to go on tour. Here’s the original Tour Promo/Announcement. We soon after had planned many shows.Our new, identical Gretsch Synchromatic Guitars!Our family was out of town for almost 2 weeks in Nashville when we came home & we decided we’d surprise them when they got back. Because of this timing, we were naturally quarantined without even knowing it & too sick to get out of the house anyway. It was only a few days into being home that our tour collapsed, businesses started shutting down, & the government issued the “15 days to slow the spread” lockdown. We plummeted into a hard & dark feeling of despair, fear, & depression after this. Feeling financially wiped out, no clear solution in sight, no money coming in through performing, & no plan. We found ourselves feeling completely lost. The depressing Cancellation Post:We decided to take a risk in the spring of 2020 & get into debt with an AEA R44CE Ribbon microphone, a Universal Audio Apollo Twin X, more recording software (Pre-Amps & Mastering). Add that up with the Gretsch guitars. We decided to start recording instead of touring & performing. We hoped this different style of equipment would get us closer to our “sound” or at least as close as we could achieve during that time. We thought that our new sound would also attract our audience to us like a magnet & cause more listeners to come our way, too, as we felt it was new & different. Since the spring of 2020, we’ve recorded 3 singles: “Swim or Die”, “Boom Boom”, & “Keeper Brown”. We are proud of these singles, everything we’ve learned from the difficult sorrows we’ve endured, like so many others during 2020, & are excited for what the rest of 2021 has in store. Last year was harsh, but we’re stronger than 2020 through Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ. Our 3 singles of 2020:
6 Comments
Shanaenae
16/2/2021 05:29:27 pm
Dang, 2020 was rough! This is a crazy story. You had the 'rona at the beginning!!
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Oskar & Julia
16/2/2021 06:00:33 pm
Yes ma’am! We went out to LA Gypsy-Style & kind of caravanned our way around the county, playing shows in Hollywood & staying about a half hour outside of that area in different AirBnBs!
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Shanaenae
16/2/2021 11:03:55 pm
That is cool! The minimalist approach does seem freeing! I definitely would need to trim my possessions, but I like the idea of only keeping what you need and regularly use.
Shanaenae
16/2/2021 11:04:54 pm
Going Gypsy-style to play some Gypsy Jazz 😉
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Alexander Buie
19/2/2021 08:19:16 pm
Fantastic! You guys are absolute legends! Here’s to 2021!!!
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Oskar & Julia
23/2/2021 04:38:13 pm
Woohoo!! Thanks for the love & for commenting!
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