The following article was submitted to PrinceGeorgeMatters from Alex Ovien, an essential service worker in Prince George and aspiring musician under the stage name, Alex Dainty.
Bored? Yes, I was and still am.
This COVID-19 thing is real!
The idea of this song was from watching the news during the earlier part of the lockdown, and the panic that proceeded.
I was driving around downtown Prince George on a Monday morning (May 4), doing my normal routine as an essential worker, but it obviously it seemed like 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.
I started humming the words 'stay home, stay home,' and by the time I realized it, those words were stuck in my head.
I know been asked to stay home is not our norm or reality, and also not a cure for COVID-19, but I believe it helps mitigate the spread.
I expressed my plans about writing a song on COVID-19 to a few friends and the obstacles of not having any recording studio in Prince George that would be open for me to make this a reality.
I called a few people I know who own studios, but, of course, they would not let anyone into their space due to social distancing.
The drive to make this a reality fostered the idea of turning the den in my basement into a studio.
I watched YouTube videos on how to set up a home studio, then went on Kijiji and purchased a microphone, proceeded to Long and McQuade to purchase some other equipment for my studio.
I reached out to my homeboy Nnamdi (Namz) and we watched YouTube videos on how to produce beats and make recordings.
After many evenings of trials and errors, knowing this message was like a time bomb, the earlier I get the song out the more effective it will be.
I purchased a beat from Flo2 productions, then my buddy and I vibed to a point where we poured hearts out.
We shared our experiences on how we were both affected by the pandemic, although we both badly wanted things to get back to normal, we understood that rushing into it was only going to make things harder.
So there it was! It was a 'eureka' moment!
The short, yet insightful conversation inspired the song Stay Home to encourage people despite all the things we miss.
