As The Loons prepare for their Feb. 19 appearance at The Casbah San Diego for A Che Underground Midwinter Masque, lead singer Mike Stax reflects on how he and the rest of the band — Chris Cancelliere, Chris Marsteller, Marc Schroeder and Anja Stax — have kept their collaboration fresh despite pandemic pressures.
Navigating the lockdown as a band was strange.
I know some other bands were anxious to stay “relevant” and felt the need to release new music or new videos to remind people of their existence. We never felt compelled to do that.
We figured that everybody was preoccupied with a potentially life-threatening global pandemic — that raised uncertainty about their income, their health, their families, their futures — and the last thing on their minds would be whether or not the Loons had any new music to share. So we went about our lives, and took care of our families and didn’t fret about staying “relevant.”
Friday was always the Loons’ practice night, so during the lockdown Fridays nights were Loons Zoom meetings. We’d spend two, three, four hours hanging out on camera, having some laughs, catching up on the previous week’s news and of course talking about music. So even though we weren’t playing music, we still felt bonded as a band.
