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The Onstage Magazine Music Community Forum: Making Career Decisions and Emotional Overload with Davey K from Turning Virtue

By Kath Galasso on June 10, 2020

Welcome to the Onstage Music Community Forum

This past week has seen the #BlackLivesMatter movement rise to a new height, and for the first time it seems, there may be constructive reform and accountability in the justice system. Worldwide, people have taken to the streets because the death of George Floyd was a tragedy that could no longer be accepted as the status quo.

Covid-19 did not take a pass on the protests though, and we wait to see what the effect of hundreds and thousands of people so close together, will have on the pandemic numbers going forward. States continue to relax their stay-at-home orders, but the music industry reports daily about venues closing for good, and musicians are feeling no relief pertaining to their futures, which remain uncertain.

So what can we do? Well, we can listen and share. Share your fears, your hopes, your ideas, your soul. This is a forum to voice all of it. From the artists to the roadies to the lighting and catering crews, to the promoters and managers, venue owners, poster designers and music stores…tell us what’s happening.

You never know where the next great idea may come from, so let’s have a conversation about it all. If you know of organizations that might assist, let us know. If you’re terrified you won’t make it through the day, week, or month…reach out. We are a big community, we can do this.

Send your story, thoughts, ideas to kathg@onstagemagazine.com and include your social sites if you have any, current project links, photos, etc. We can promote as well as listen.

Today’s post comes from David Karczewski, a Buffalo NY singer-songwriter from the band Turning Virtue. Though the band had a new album ready to go, Davey looked at the big picture and realized his heart wasn’t ready to celebrate a new release in the midst of a global crisis.

Hi I’m Davey K, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter from Turning Virtue and The Tao of Davey K.

We recently completed our new album titled ’Beautiful.’ It was finished in the middle of February 2020.

It was a pretty exciting time, we got it done after a whole year’s worth of work from writing to demo-ing to recording to mixing and finally mastering all within a year, while still working a full-time job.

You would think it would be pure exuberance, and to a point it was.
I took a vacation to Florida right after I got done, kind of a celebration, but when I returned Covid-19 was upon us and everything seemed to change.

At first it wasn’t so bad because we didn’t know what was coming and life hadn’t been altered all that much. Also it wasn’t really touching anyone close to us yet. But then before you knew it, we were losing people by the thousands and I still had a album sitting here that I had to promote, but my impetus just wasn’t there.

I thought to myself, I’ll get through this and I’ll start promoting it tomorrow and then tomorrow and then tomorrow. Then one day I saw them burying people in New York City in mass graves and they said these people were unclaimed.
Unclaimed!
Can you imagine that?
You live a whole life, you give it everything you’ve got, from the ups and downs and the shared humanity, and you just hope to leave some sort of legacy. Then all of sudden you are just unclaimed and dumped in a hole.

I cried a number of times that day…

That scene, that reality, moved me more than anything has in recent memory and I said to myself, “No, I’m not going to do this right now, I’m gonna wait until I feel the time is right.“

With Love, Davey K