Metal Anarchy

Time for the next edition of Metal Anarchy’s “Music In The Age Of COVID-19” series, the feature where I discuss the ongoing pandemic with various musicians. This time I have an interview with Ophelia’s Eye.

METAL ANARCHY: How have you been holding up during the coronavirus pandemic?

OPHELIA’S EYE: The pandemic probably was hard on every industry concerned and for us it was quite a dampener in the beginning since we just got the first taste of playing in front of people and would have been completely ready to start out right before the Corona measures were introduced.

But nevertheless, this time offered great chances and maybe was a bit of fate as well: Corinne got mononucleosis for over half a year and wasn’t able to do anything anyway and after the partial recovery we used the time to go to the studio and record our first EP, which we may have done later, when we would have played more concerts.

Furthermore, we setup 2 live streams during this time: One in a rehearsal room with a great friend of ours who has his bandroom in the same building and one out of a concert location which was quite fun to try as well.

Of course, it was very important to keep the spirit high, which wasn’t always easy.

As anyone, each one of us was faced with our own difficulties the crisis brought or amplified and some of us had quite a hard time on a psychological level.

But in the end, we just tried to see chances and used them as much as we could and it brought as closer together since we had a lot of deep conversations and bonded like in a family.

METAL ANARCHY: Have you been using your downtime to work on new music?

OPHELIA’S EYE: Indeed. For one thing we’ve refined our existing songs to go to the studio and also refined the live versions of some of those songs. For another thing we’ve written new songs – one of them will be part of the upcoming album as well.

METAL ANARCHY: What was the last show you played or attended before the shutdown?

OPHELIA’S EYE: We played our very first show on February 29th in 2020 and just a week after, the shutdown came.

We had the luck that in Switzerland there were some months in which smaller shows were allowed to we played in September and October 2020 again. But then, until September 4th, 2021 we had a long break and we are extremely happy to be able to play live shows again now.

METAL ANARCHY: Are you planning to play any livestream concerts during this time?

OPHELIA’S EYE: We have done 2 livestreams and another one will take place on 14th of November 2021 since we wanted to try a live stream with a bit a different setup.

METAL ANARCHY: Do you think the live entertainment industry will ever recover?

OPHELIA’S EYE: Yes, maybe not immediately but over some time.

Live music has always been such an important part for people – not only regarding concerts but making and listening to live music is something that is rooted in all of us, for example the ritual of singing together.

Therefore, we believe that we all will find a way of bringing this back again.

And we also believe that live events will win over streaming events especially in music – you just cannot replace this immersive feeling of standing in front of a stage with other people and feel the music through a stream.

METAL ANARCHY: Lastly, is there anything fans can do to help your band or others that may be struggling during this time?

OPHELIA’S EYE: Since most bands don’t really make a revenue out of streaming, the part of selling merchandise and music – be it physical or digital – is really important.

Most smaller bands sell those things at live gigs, which was not possible for a long time.

Therefore, if you like a band, check out if they have merchandise or music to sell for example on Bandcamp.

If you want to support us directly you can get the digital download of our EP and also merch from our Bandcamp site but also make a donation via PayPal via our Spotify account.

But what would make us most happy if we could see you in front of us when we play a live show – this is just a heart opener for us and gives us so much energy.