Quarantours And Conference Calls: How Artists Are Collaborating In Isolation

Immediately after recording their fifth album since 2009, indie metal band Real Estate tried a novel experiment: They aimed to be everywhere at once. Moreover to a proposed summer tour across the United States and Europe, the five-piece filmed a short set of new songs from The Main Thing, their latest release, in December 2019. Following some post-production touch-ups, their fans could have the ability to watch it remotely from anywhere — like South America, where Real Estate had no immediate plans to play, however where fans had clamored online for a concert.


"They're like, 'Why don't you ever come to São Paulo, Brazil?' We're like, 'We did once and we'd love to come back. It's just complex mentioned bassist Alex Bleeker, who helped noticed the musical group with vocalist/guitarist Martin Courtney in suburban New Jersey. With help from creative firm Callen, they lined up virtual arrangements alternatively by way of the an augmented reality concert experience you can stream on your phone. "We're going to go on tour everywhere at the same time," Bleeker recalled of the first prospect, something Courtney was eager, though skeptical, to try. "I was like, 'This whole idea is so ambitious that I'll be shocked if it actually works out.'"


Right now with the coronavirus pandemic halting the live-music industry, that experiment has become their sole touring alternative, though they're not earning a cent through it at the moment. Monetizing it "was never something that we really thought of," Bleeker mentioned. "It was just like, 'No, this is a cool thing that we've done and right now, in this time, we can roll it out for this reason and foster some earnest connection.'" They've named it the "Quarantour," complete with dubbed-in topical stage banter that would've seemed unbelievable just five months prior. ("Sadly we're all stuck inside now Bleeker says to open the show, "and it felt to us like we may all use a number of songs.")


With tours and festivals on hold for the past month, cozy performances relegated to the glow of a digital screen have become the new normal. Even top-tier acts like Taylor Swift, Post Malone, and Lady Gaga have embraced homemade piano and guitar setups out of necessity. The stage lights, show-poster decor, and countless angles make the Quarantour a number of steps up from these diaristic webcam riggings; what really sets it apart is the now-unorthodox visual of a group. In this case, five people, standing much less than 6 feet from each other, creating with each other in real time.


It's a sight Glaswegian synth-pop trio Chvrches attempted to replicate in a recent video of their own, thanks to some clever editing. Since forming in 2011, the musical group — Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, and Martin Doherty — have stayed tight through three Billboard 200-charting albums plus a handful of globe-trotting tours. Nevertheless the coronavirus pandemic has kept them self-isolating separately across time zones for over a month right now at a key juncture once they're laying out plans for their fourth LP.


"This is the longest time I've ever gone, I think, without seeing Iain and Martin since we met," vocalist Lauren Mayberry told MTV News. However they're still writing, even if their process has been upended, replaced with sending files in a "round-robin" sort of way. "A lot gets lost in the event you can't tell someone's body language or tone of voice or you can't get that immediate response," she mentioned. "I feel like it just takes longer to communicate things."


That's why, as soon as they do communicate, Chvrches opt for virtual catch-ups and quick calls alternatively opposed to texting: some days we've been playing each other things over the phone. Martin called me several times to be like, 'What about this?' Just before he records it." However even as they're looking ahead, Chvrches recently noticed a possibility to revisit the past.


In March, a track from their 2018 album, Love Is Dead took off right after its placement in Netflix's Spanish teen thriller series Elite. The song, "Forever," hit over 1 million streams in a single week, finding the musical group in a unique moment. They attempted to record it live while still remote. It didn't quite work. "It just sounds like we can't play in time together Mayberry recalled thinking. "We had to figure that out the hard way."


So they pivoted. They set up a video call among categorize members, including touring bassist Jonny Scott, each giving "Forever" several run-throughs. Although only one member's audio was enabled at a time while the others mimed on mute. Subsequently, every layer was mixed with each other for a final unified song. This allowed them to bang out a new, remotely produced "Forever" they recorded with each other, capturing the group's energy without the choppy chaos of a conference call.


"Everything is played live, just not 100 percent at the same time," Mayberry mentioned. They polished this technique for a remote efficiency, stylistically filmed like a genuine music video, on The Tonight Show last week as well.


Likewise, Twenty One Pilots filmed their latest video for "Level of Concern," a song the duo created in quarantine, while isolating in separate locations. "It's how we did it once we began, also. We grabbed a camera and just began filming ourselves playing music," Tyler Joseph said on SiriusXM last week. As Joseph tweeted, the writing process itself was as simple as "sending some files."


the world wide web long ago made in-person connection an obsolete prerequisite to creating music collaboratively. Yet even as songwriters and artists freely email raw takes — as modern pop production goes — the recording studio still exists as a place for all parties to get on the same frequency. In the time of the pandemic, that area is currently gone, nevertheless the vibing spirit remains.


It's inescapable on "Cheesin'," a joyful new mini R&B posse cut masterminded by Cautious Clay and producer Hxns (who styles his name in all caps). The duo assembled the song's bedrock — a gliding guitar loop, a minimal beat, a patented silky hook from Clay — well before social distancing took hold. It didn't feel right for his upcoming album, so Clay set it aside. He picked it back up recently, at a time whenever quarantined creatives might've felt "at a standstill."


"It felt like a really cool time to just sort of highlight and bring light to a situation that's not very excellent, almost smiling about it," Clay mentioned. Hence, "Cheesin'," a sunny two-minute skateboard ride that still breezes through five different vocalists, including Clay, Remi Wolf, Still Woozy, Sophie Meiers, and Claud. Guitar virtuoso Melanie Faye rips a fast solo at the end, also. It was an audience teamwork assembled remotely piece by piece, something Clay mentioned he feels captures the spirit of the moment. It's also why all proceeds from the song go to benefit MusiCares's COVID-19 Relief Fund; for now, "Cheesin'" has raised over $40,000.


"It reinforces the very nature of the song because we weren't with each other any time we made it," Clay mentioned. "We all just sort of created it and then it slowly just morphed into what it became."


Hxns, who has only been making music for a number of years, first baked up its foundation immediately after hearing that "fucking sick" guitar loop. Sending a new file to Clay wasn't anything out of the ordinary. "This is the main way for me that I've made music with plenty of people. So it feels pretty natural still," he said.


Charli XCX, a generous collaborator herself, has spent the past three weeks creating as organically as she can. As she's crafting her new album, How I'm Feeling Now, in real time on social media, the future-pop visionary has kept busy sharing lyrics as she writes them and posting sound snippets as she tweaks them remotely with producer A.G. Cook and fellow digital creators 100 gecs.


"I didn't just do the album to fill up my time. I did it because, for me to feel positive, I need to be creative," she told Stereogum last week. While album cycles are generally cautiously curated and suggested out months in advance, Charli revealing her collaborative approach with both fans and her own musical team feels revolutionary.


For Mayberry and Chvrches, the act of creating in quarantine can still feel like working uphill. "Some moments are really productive, and I can get loads done and I'm efficient, and then I stare into space and have a sense of doom forever," she mentioned. Yet she also put stock in how the unexpected challenge of creating remotely galvanized her musical group, and what it can mean for the future of creatives in this environment: "I do think if we haven't had pushed to prepare that separate, put-together version, it would have taken us longer to calculate how we were going to make in this new, alternate universe."


The guys in Real Estate, meanwhile, are guessing what comes next as this period of self-isolation stretches into another month and in back of. "The livestream thing is the opening easy idea, and the Quarantour thing was something we were lucky enough have the ability to roll out. However it's like, what else do we have?" Bleeker mentioned. "As artists and as musicians, I think we're going to have to think of creative interesting ways to prepare it a little more dynamic as we go on."