Artist of the Day | DEREV
ARTIST OF THE DAY
22.02.2021
DEREV
LOCATION
Toronto, ON, Canada
GENRE
Progressive Rock
CURRENT MEMBERS
Armando Bablanian
Michel Karakach
Liam Horrigan
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?
The shutdown definitely came at a crucial time for us; we had really just started figuring out how to bring this project to life in the Toronto music scene, and watching all of the avenues that most bands use to develop themselves in their early careers close just as we were preparing to explore them was pretty rough.
How has that affected your plans for the coming year? Did you have a tour planned, upcoming album release?
As we were focusing on our first release and finding the right people to work with at the time, we hadn’t actually scheduled a tour. But we were definitely planning and rehearsing for gigs around Ontario in 2020. Instead, we focused more on finishing our songs and videos, and prepared content for our social media accounts.
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?
This extra spare time has actually been a bit of a silver lining for us, in that it allowed us to take a step back from the rush to put ourselves out there in the name of better defining what we were as a band. As such, most of it has gone into writing, re-writing, recording, editing, and mixing tracks for the EP. It also gave us the chance to put together an animation video for our first release, which would have been much more difficult otherwise.
Even prior to Covid, music has been a critical outlet for everyone in the band; as such, pouring our energy into this EP has helped keep us sane in the absence of live shows.
How are dealing with the Covid second wave?
It’s definitely been rough watching things backslide after they were looking so promising in the summer, but the key thing for us has been reminding ourselves that this too shall pass; all the things we used to be able to enjoy freely will come back eventually, and we’ll have a newfound appreciation for them when they do. Until then, we just have to do our best to keep ourselves and others safe.
Do you have a message for everyone at home reading this?
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the music video of our debut single “Futile”. And keep an eye out for our second single “Delayed” coming out on March 5th. Thank you for your support! Can’t wait to see you all when things get better!
If you would like to be our next ARTIST OF THE DAY please email us at:
JEN@CONCERTWORKS.CA
