The Harmed Brothers — Navigating the New Normal
There are probably worse times to release an album than in the middle of a pandemic. I just can’t think of any at the moment.
Neither can Alex Salcido of The Harmed Brothers, whose band put out their fifth LP Across the Waves on June 5th, smack dab in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis.
“That was all us — we were the ones who came up with that plan,” laughs Salcido. “Every band needs a good gimmick, you know.”
Humor can be the best medicine at a time like this, when the world is still largely on hold, with the music industry getting more than its share of hard knocks. As far as Salcido and his bandmates (Ray Vietti, Matthew McClure, Ben Knight, Andrew Aragon) were concerned, the ball was already rolling for the late-spring release when the coronavirus hit, and they figured it wasn’t going to be what it became.
“I think, at first, we were in that mode of oh, okay, it’s just another wave of panic and misinformation,” Salcido said. “We were just kind of like, okay, this will blow over in a week. Eventually, everything starts slowly shutting down and we start wilting like little posies. (Laughs) And then we’re on the phone with each other like, well, our year’s canceled.”
Well, not yet. While we won’t likely see shows with large crowds anytime soon, artists have…
