Making Music In Slovenia During The COVID19 Crisis: With Enej Mavsar
During this terrible crisis, our lives have been disrupted in ways we didn’t imagine possible. When I write “our lives,” it means all of us, in every nation. Stay at home lockdowns are becoming the norm in the age of COVID19. We are adapting, working remotely from home, schooling our children by internet, only rarely going out for essential activities like shopping for groceries.
I live in California. I messaged Enej Mavsar, a Slovenian musician and asked him what was going in his country. He told me that he is working on new music, despite being worried about the response of the government to the virus, as they are enforcing lockdown orders. “I live in a small town village, no cases of Corona yet in our area, but nevertheless the quarantine is here also.” In his small country town of Krško, Mavsar says there are fears that the new conservative government will use the crisis as a pretense to transition to martial law. Currently there are an estimated 500 COVID19 cases in all of Slovenia, which borders hard-hit Italy on the west.
There is a silver lining. With the stay at home orders, Enej told me that he is working on new music for his four projects. There is the electro-punk band Karmakoma as well as his other three bands that are guitar based. “I’m working on Karmakoma slowly,” he said. “I am working on a ‘very’ pop song, and another 12 I have to continue. With Karmakoma we should have started practice in March, but this $#%& came.”
Before the crisis hit, Enej was busy outside the home. We were doing “some great shows with Yamamai,” he told me. “The new music is promising.” As for his other bands: “Body Says No, the new single is out when the video is done. Then another song coming later.” Mavsar’s other rock band, suzi Soprano, (lower case intentional) is on hold for a bit, though he tells me 8 new studio tracks are already recorded.
As of now, all of Slovenia, like most of the world, is restricted to doing essential activities. This of course, includes time with our families and working on music at home. Stay safe and well, everyone, wherever you are.
