Bands in Lockdown: Two Day Coma

Our Bands in Lockdown series continues with Mark Glenister speaking with Tom and Jake from Two Day Coma, at a social safe distance of course!

Firstly, how are you? How are the rest of the band as well?
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T: Doing pretty well all things considered. We have all been furloughed from our day jobs so have found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands!

J: Me and Tom are living together in Bristol, Ollie’s a stone’s throw away with his girlfriend and Zac is back with his family in Cornwall.

Do you have a daily routine, are you learning anything new as everyone else seems to be?

T: Seem to have slipped into a bit of a routine of waking up late, maybe working on some music but mainly spending the large majority of the day eating. I have been trying to use this time to get my culinary skills up to scratch.

J: I haven’t been learning a new skill per say but I am currently working on a new facial hair project.

Are you seeing this lockdown as a time to be creative? And has it changed the way you view the industry?

J: For sure, with gigging out of the question it’s given us a chance to focus on recording without the usual distractions of everyday life. We usually do most of our recording at home anyway so we are pretty well set up to keep being creative. Ollie has a home set-up as well so we have been exchanging ideas online with him and building songs remotely.

T: It’s been great to see that despite this obviously being a very hard time for the music industry, it hasn’t ground to a complete halt. Artists are still releasing music and finding ways to connect with their audiences. It’s also amazing to see initiatives supporting independent venues popping up, this is a time when these places really need our support!

As a band are you doing anything for the fans? A lot of online gigs and Q&As seem to be the norm for a lot of bands, how easy or difficult is that for you as a group? How has this impacted your side projects?

J: We have been trying to come up with a way of capturing the energy of our live show with an online gig but so far we haven’t found anything that works with the full band.

T: I did play an online gig solo a couple weeks ago and it’s definitely something I would consider doing again. It’s a lot easier to make a guy with a guitar sound good on a livestream than a full rock band.

Photo by Luce + Harry

With the lockdown being extended, does that effect plans for tours, singles, albums?

T: We actually have an EP finished that we have decided to hold back until after the lockdown. We want to be able to celebrate the release with a string of shows and obviously that’s not possible at the moment.

J: We have got a few acoustic tunes that we have been working on lately that we are looking to get released in the meantime.

As a fan I know how much I miss going to gigs, for the music and for the social aspect, is this something that you miss as well?
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T: So much! We’re lucky to have such an amazing music scene in Bristol and our social lives revolve around live music. Honestly can’t wait to get back to it.

J: What I wouldn’t give to be in a noisy, sweaty room clutching a can of Red Stripe.

How important are your fans at this time, I know and I speak from experience, a lot of merch is being purchased to help bands, and I know you have a great connection with fans generally so are they an important aspect of getting through this?

J: For starters it encouraged us to finally put some merch online! Got to give it up for Bandcamp, they have made it easier for fans to support artists by waiving their fees on a number of occasions.

T: It’s been lovely to see how supportive our fans are. Whether it’s been buying a t-shirt, shooting us a message online or just continuing to listen to our music, it all means the world.

Despite horrors of this pandemic, the lockdown seems to have a created a lot of really positive community action, and for once social media is being used mainly I a positive manner – Do you want life to return to normal once this is over, or would you like people to be using this time to evaluate their lives and start be part of communities and positive social change?

J: There are aspects of the normality of pre-Covid life that I miss and look forward to getting back to and I think we’ll all be surprised at how quickly we slip back into old routines. I hope people recognise all the things we take for granted in this country, be that the music scene, the hospitality industry or the invaluable resource we have in the NHS.
T: The sense of community that has arisen in this turbulent time has been really amazing and I think this is a good opportunity for us all to reflect on how we want our lives to look once this is all over.

Next up, Mark speaks with USA Nails, which you can read from Wednesday.