Artist of the Day | BUSM (Big Up Sour Mash)
ARTIST OF THE DAY
23.01.2022
BUSM
LOCATION
Oshawa, ON, Canada
GENRE
Rock, Pop Punk, Funk
CURRENT MEMBERS
Shawn Cormier
Dustin Cormier
Mike Loyal
With the current pandemic, the state of the music and touring industry has dramatically changed. Where were you when everything was brought to a halt?
We were just about to release our Music Video at the time called "Kyle's song," as well as playing at two important venues: The Biltmore Theatre in Oshawa (which was the Music Hall at the time), followed by The Bovine Sex Club on the Saturday. Neither of those happened, haha.
How has that affected your plans for the coming year? Did you have a tour planned, upcoming album release?
Well, each one of us had alot going on in our own personal creative lives already. Dustin became obsessed with his work on astrology and youtube, Shawn got deeper into Tae-Kwon do, and all three of us hung out with our respective girlfriends alot, at least, once it was okay to do so.
Eventually as time went on and we could at least get together in basements, we kept the torch alive by jamming and eventually recording music at our own house with a friend's equipment.
What have you been doing to fill/make the most of your new-found free time at home? How are you supporting your mental health through all of this?
Dustin does yoga and meditates to keep centered. Shawn is into his own martial arts techniques to stay mentally healthy, and Mike... Well, Mike the drummer is naturally uber chill. Shawn and Mike both love golf. We all enjoy Cannabis recreationally, we all like hanging out and having beers together.
In fact we were very important in each others lives for a bit there, because of the "trimming of social circles" that went on at that time - we chose eachother as important parts of our inner circle, because we are all friends as well as musical "business partners."
As things are reopening & restrictions are lifting have you booked any new gigs? Tours? Etc? If your region is still under restriction, how are dealing with the Covid third wave?
We are playing within the limits we are given. The most legroom any artist has right now is focusing on producing Digital content, and finding clear routes for people to absorb it within and around the mainstream streaming avenues.
At this point the venues are shaking it off and allowing folks to play again. As well, there are digital livestreams available - we did one at the Biltmore theatre early this year - although, we all know that once the gates open, rock concerts are going to be the biggest breath of fresh air ever.
We have plans to play at Parkdale Hall, The Bovine Sex Club, and the Horse Shoe again - but many of these venues currently have insane waiting lists, so we can't put anything forth positively at the moment.
Do you have a message for everyone at home reading this?
Stay safe and loving, stay greasy and groovy, stay human and animal and plant and earth and Sun.
Thanks so much to Eric Alper for all of the promotional work he's done to get BUSM's name and faces out into the world.
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JEN@CONCERTWORKS.CA