Recording music remotely has helped keep the music industry afloat during this otherwise crippling pandemic, but it has also helped some artists stay sane during the isolation. Making music in the times of COVID-19 is much different than it was 6 months ago, but no less important.
Videos by American Songwriter
The David Mayfield Parade were determined to stay connected with each other and with their fans. Check out their new video for “Holding On,” which features the band performing remotely spliced with home videos sent in by fans. “Holding On” was written by David Mayfield after a failed suicide attempt.
“About a year ago, I had been spiraling out of control,” Mayfield says via email. “Sinking deeper and deeper into a hell of my own design, deep depression exacerbated by drugs, alcohol, dishonest and risky behavior, as well as a general lack of motivation.”
Mayfield credits his relationship with bandmates Christine King and Andrew Bonnis with pulling him out of his downward spiral. Bonnis co-wrote the song and Mayfield describes his contributions as “”a yang to my yin if you will.”
“His lyrics,
simultaneously validating my pain while being a plea for my own worth and
lovableness had a huge impact on me and my mental health,” Mayfield says. “I’m
very blessed to have some amazing friends, Andrew, Christine, and my best
friend Abby Rose with whom I have a quirky folk duo called ‘Cave Twins’.
Whether the three of them know it or not, they saved my life and for that I’m
eternally grateful.”
The band invited fans to send in videos of themselves at home during quarantine
as a way to stay connected.
“It’s rare to have such a profoundly scary, and unsettling experience affect all of mankind at once,” Mayfield says. “I realized that what I was going through, was what everyone was going through to some extent. To reach out and ask for collaboration from fans was also very therapeutic.”
“To be reminded of the small but loyal fanbase that I have shared the last 10 years of my life with was a wonderful motivator to stay the course, do the work, and fulfill my self prescribed purpose in life: to keep creating,” he says.
Mayfield is one of the latest guests on Ben Arthur’s SongWriter podcast, part of the American Songwriter Podcast Network. SongWriter features musicians and literary writers collaborating. That episode is out now.
Mayfield says collaborating with his bandmates remotely was important for his creativity and mental health. He says the band aims to provide “positive and uplifting entertainment to a world that needs to laugh and smile more than ever.”
“It’s my hope that this song and video might touch someone who is in a similar place that I was in, and they might find a sliver of hope in these words and images and know they aren’t alone,” he says.
