As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rock the music industry, GRAMMY.com reached out to a few musicians to see how they were spending their days indoors. Today, Australian producer Ukiyo shares his Quarantine Diary. His self-titled debut album is out now.
[9 a.m.] Hitting the road early, for me at least. Got a busy day of video shoots this afternoon and a sporadic trip to IKEA in the morning. My Movember mo' is beginning to make its first appearance.
[9:30 a.m.] Arrived at IKEA! All I wanted was to look at couches and get a new smart light, but I've ended up buying a cutting board, glasses, a fancy shelf thing, and a TV unit. Whoops.
[11 a.m.] Lunch break at Sushi Wawa just over the road. Honestly, it's half the reason I come to IKEA, an amazing sushi train.
[11:45 a.m.] Grabbing the generator I booked for the night, we'll come back to that later.
[12 p.m.] Back home and I'm getting set up to film a couple of little bits of a skit to promote "Make it Better." Who knows if this one will see the light of day. It's meant to be like an infomercial and the song is some miracle drug inspired by how it helped me with my anxiety and its relation to mental health. Quickly mocked up a fake box in Photoshop as well.
[1 p.m.] I'm in a very last-minute costume now, and ready to film. I wanted to be a scientist-kinda character but nothing I have looks like that so this'll have to do.
[1:15 p.m.] Filming. I ain't no actor so 50 takes later and I've got something usable. If you never see this video anywhere it's probably because I've realised since that it really wasn't.
[1:30 p.m.] Shower time. Hair gel is gross, the stickiness is awful. Why do I do this to myself?
[1:45 p.m.] Back in the studio. I've got exactly one hour and 15 minutes to run through a 45-minute set and make sure everything's working as it should be.
[2 p.m.] Phew, everything appears to have loaded up in Ableton fine. Let's just hope I can remember how to play my parts.
[3 p.m.] The "crew" arrives. My friends Jayden, Jarred, Jacob, and my girlfriend Clare are all here to help shoot a live set in front of the sunset. It should be fairly straightforward except I've chosen a spot on top of a hill which is only accessible by walking, so there's going to be a lot of effort required to get all the gear up.
[6 p.m.] Three hours of sweating later and everything is up the hill and where it needs to be. We timed that well as it's sunset in pretty much exactly 45 minutes.
[6:45 p.m.] Finito. There were a couple of little mistakes and one power issue with the generator later, but I think that went really well. I had never shot with a drone before but I'm imagining it'll look beaut'. Now just a lot of packing away, at least we don't have to drag stuff up any more hills.
[8 p.m.] Back at home base and taking a much-needed sit down, chatting with everyone about how it went. It's a "throw a frozen pizza in the air-fryer" kind of night for sure. I've got to reply to a couple of emails and messages after a busy day and then I'm ready to call it a day.
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