Being an independent musician is difficult- but it is even more difficult when all of your known resources and plans to expand your reach as an artist are essentially shut off- forcing you to re-navigate the digital music landscape and find new ways to gain a listener base without the option to meet fans at live events.

This exact situation is what countless up-and-coming artists are experiencing as the COVID-19 pandemic has put a hold on career furthering activities, such as touring and in some locations- studio sessions. And though rising hardcore band Mindwake are one such group, they haven’t let the pandemic stop them from giving music their all.

After releasing their debut full length album, B-52 in September, the band have been steadily hard at work writing and recording their upcoming EP. And though they are not able to play live shows and are relying solely on word of mouth and social media to get their music out there- the band are staying hopeful and optimistic that 2021 will be a better year.

You can read our full interview with Mindwake below, and be sure to stream their new album B-52 out now.

Second Society Report: How are you holding up during this insane year that is 2020? Hopefully your friends and families are staying safe and healthy! 

Mindwake: Yup, thanks they’re all good. For the band this year was pretty hard, we released an album but can’t tour as it was planned. So we didn’t get the feedback that we hoped for. 

Second Society Report: Did you have any big releases or tours that were put on hold because of the pandemic? How has that affected the band? (could be personally, financially, morale wise, etc.) 

Mindwake: As I said we couldn’t tour so it’s been a huge bummer for everyone in the band, we could not get the impact that we wanted to. Financially we had to deal with it but everyone got impacted by this pandemic, for us it has been the point to get focus on what’s coming next and it’ll be much heavier than the album B-52. 

Second Society Report: How have you been spending your newfound “downtime” while the world has been essentially shut down? 

Mindwake: Personally I had to work a lot to pay the rent/bills cause music does not pay anything. Everyone in the band was pretty much in this situation, by the way. Beside that, we worked a lot on the next EP. 

Second Society Report: Have you picked up any new hobbies while quarantining that you’d like to share? 

Mindwake: I hate being inactive, so in my freetime I work a lot on my cars, play music or video games etc.

Second Society Report: Have you worked on any new releases during this time? Any that are already out or that we can get a sneak peak of? 

Mindwake: Yes we’ve worked a lot on a new EP that is way heavier and modern than the album, you can’t hear it at the moment but stay tuned. 

Second Society Report: If already out- what was the inspiration for the release? Have you written any songs specifically about the state of the world right now? 

Mindwake: In fact we write a few ones about the state of the world but as it’s not released I can’t really tell more about that. They’re not about the pandemic itself but it’s kinda metaphoric about the toxicity of this world we have to live in. 

Second Society Report: How has it been being an artist in a time when you cannot tour? How have you been working to promote your music and expand your reach? 

Mindwake: To be honest it’s not the perfect time in the history to be a musician, even before the pandemic, if you’re an European band, you can’t tour the US, no one pays you to play etc… but right now you can’t even play so we had to learn how to expand ourselves without touring but only with social medias and it’s kinda hard since every band does that.

Second Society Report: Do you have any words of advice for fans that are feeling particularly bummed out about the live music world coming to a halt? 

Mindwake: We’re like the fans at the moment, we have only one wish, it’s to play live. 

Second Society Report: When the world returns to a safer spot and we are able to (hopefully) attend live shows again- say in 2021- what do you hope to achieve? 

Mindwake: Touring, a lot, anywhere, during the entire year. Everyone in this band wants to do that in life, that’s our goal, and we’ll put all the efforts to make this possible, we can’t imagine our lives in other ways. 

Second Society Report: Is there anything you wish your fans would know about you or about the current state of the music world? 

Mindwake: Mindwake is currently working on some things that have never been heard at the moment, if you wanna hear news things, stay tuned, you won’t be disappointed, the artistic part is done at 70%, all the rest is that we need to figure out how to release that in these tough times, we did not have any labels or anything to help us and we want to make this right.

You can stream Mindwake’s new album B-52 out now, and be sure to follow along on social media to stay up to date on all things upcoming.

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