Artist of the Day | THE QUICKSAND CABARET
ARTIST OF THE DAY
17.12.2021
THE QUICKSAND CABARET
LOCATION
Niagara, ON, Canada
GENRE
alt rock / pop rock/ indie rock
CURRENT MEMBERS
Craig Rewbury
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?
My wife and I had just moved into a house in the country in December of 2019 when we initially heard the word COVID 19. We were kind of preoccupied with the new house and didn’t give much thought to it. I had some gigs in January/Feb 2020 and also released my first single of the new material. By the time March rolled around the talk about COVID 19 and a potential global pandemic was serious. My wife was cast as one of the main characters in Mama Mia in a regional theatre production that finished around the second week in March and the world shut down soon after.
How has that affected your plans for the coming year? Did you have a tour planned, upcoming album release?
The shutdown delays in 2020 and 2021 caused a huge pause in the recording sessions for this project and I personally lost out on a bunch of gigs. One of them was with another band at the end of April in St. Barts. That was a bummer. The positive was that I was able to squeeze out 4 or 5 singles out until this point. I originally wanted to release a full album in 2021. That’s not going to happen now.
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?
We purchased a country property that had been neglected on the outside so I certainly had more time to spend on that. Alternatively, I had more free time to write and record demos in my basement and focus on learning another aspect of the guitar. Typically, I’m fairly upbeat most of the time but definitely found myself in some dark places for some of the stretch of this pandemic. I stopped watching the news altogether. I found that MSM was the conduit to toxicity and negativity with narratives that supported one side. With all of this bad energy circulating, I knew that many others were going through the same thing albeit at different levels of severity. This is what really gave me the idea to write the new single The Light Returns to Shine. It’s a positive message to not give in to all of this life sucking energy and focus on living your best life.
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?
I started to play gigs in other bands at the end of August until present and it is slowly coming back. I don’t have any gigs with The Cabaret Quicksand coming up in the near future. If and when that comes, I’ll have to put a full band back together. I’m just focusing on writing and recording.
Do you have a message for everyone at home reading this?
Stay positive during these tumultuous times and focus on trying to be simpler and better. Go back to the basics. Put down your smart phone and read a lot, listen to music and try to learn something new about yourself. Challenge the information available circulating out there and ask why a lot.
The Cabaret Quicksand
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