Live music is returning to North America, even as a delta-driven fourth wave of COVID-19 begins. In a series of tweets, the Weather Station's Tamara Lindeman has weighed in on the financial perils of touring during the pandemic.
In a series of tweets addressed to fellow band leaders who employ backing musicians, Lindeman wrote, "The financial implications of a single positive covid test and quarantining and paying a whole band for 14 days are utterly crushing…" She added, "If one person has a positive test, we go unpaid, and 14 days is a very long time."
The situation is particularly precarious because, Lindeman writes, "insurance companies right now are excluding covid." She wrote that she would be willing to pay high insurance premiums, but that no such insurance currently exists.
The Weather Station's tour schedule includes some festivals this summer followed by a cross-Canada run in November and US and European legs in 2022. In spite of the financial risks — to say nothing of the health risks — Lindeman said that she remains "very determined to play my shows." The Weather Station released Ignorance earlier this year, but Lindeman hasn't been able to tour in support of it until now.
Lindeman wrapped up the thread by sharing a rather grim recent article in The Atlantic, which argues that coronavirus is now so widespread that it will never be eliminated. Rather, the pandemic will become endemic — something that humanity will have to live with an adapt to.
Read Lindeman's tweets below. Check out the Weather Station's tour schedule here, and read our recent interview with Lindeman about Ignorance.
In a series of tweets addressed to fellow band leaders who employ backing musicians, Lindeman wrote, "The financial implications of a single positive covid test and quarantining and paying a whole band for 14 days are utterly crushing…" She added, "If one person has a positive test, we go unpaid, and 14 days is a very long time."
The situation is particularly precarious because, Lindeman writes, "insurance companies right now are excluding covid." She wrote that she would be willing to pay high insurance premiums, but that no such insurance currently exists.
The Weather Station's tour schedule includes some festivals this summer followed by a cross-Canada run in November and US and European legs in 2022. In spite of the financial risks — to say nothing of the health risks — Lindeman said that she remains "very determined to play my shows." The Weather Station released Ignorance earlier this year, but Lindeman hasn't been able to tour in support of it until now.
Lindeman wrapped up the thread by sharing a rather grim recent article in The Atlantic, which argues that coronavirus is now so widespread that it will never be eliminated. Rather, the pandemic will become endemic — something that humanity will have to live with an adapt to.
Read Lindeman's tweets below. Check out the Weather Station's tour schedule here, and read our recent interview with Lindeman about Ignorance.