The COVID-19 crisis has inspired local record producer/songwriter/musician Scott Young to pen a little tune about love.
“With COVID being what it is, my work with musicians from Canadian bands like Prism, Trooper, Idle Eyes, Barney Bentall, has ground to a halt,” Young said in email to the Record. “The side-effect of not be able to currently produce records and perform has opened up time to work on my own music, which never seemed to get done.”
Young was thinking about a longtime friend who works at Royal Columbian Hospital and had recently entered a promising new relationship.
“Then COVID swoops in, and because he is frontline in the pandemic, he can’t see his new love close up,” Young said. “My wife and I chatted about how that must be really tough. It inspired me to write this cheeky little pop-rock song, called Lock Down Love Affair. I hope it can put a smile on some faces.”
To date, Lock Down Love Affair has been viewed more than 11,000 times on YouTube.
Young, the in-house producer and engineer at Alchemy Sound Studios in New West, said COVID-19 is the latest blow to his industry.
“The recording studio business has gone from being ambushed by the MP3, which turned the music industry upside down, to Vancouver’s crazy real estate, which has forced most professional recording facilities out of business,” he said. “The responsibility of recording young, local, indie artists and Canadian legacy artists has fallen to the smaller, agile studios like myself at Alchemy Sound Studios. COVID is another blow that is hitting an industry already on its knees.”
Just as COVID was warming up, Young said he was finishing up work on a record project involving Al Harlow (Prism) and Kevin Stuart Swain (Idle Eyes/Barney Bentall.) He was also producing a record by fellow New West resident/artist Clayton Hill from Trooper.
Musicians, said Young, are in a bit of a pickle because of COVID-19 and restrictions on large gatherings.
“Playing music live has been an important part of my life and income,” he said. “On a local level, I regularly played music at the Union Jack Public House, whose owner Darell Myers has actively supported live music from the moment he took over the pub.”
Along with playing at the Union Jack on weekends, Young hosted a jam night every Wednesday evening. He said the jam night was a hub where music lovers and amateur and pro musicians could get together to hit the stage and socialize.
“This evening is greatly missed in the community,” he said.
Young said the “silver lining” in the COVID situation is that it’s given him time to finally work on personal projects that always seemed to get put on the back burner. You can check out Young’s new tune on YouTube – search for Lockdown Love Affair.
