MUSIC IN ISOLATION DIARIES: CRISTIANA FRUNZA
In our first isolation diaries, Cristiana shares how music is getting her though the day-to-day in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic.
My alarm rings once again, 8am sharp. I move hastily to the other side of the bed with the thought ‘don’t oversleep again’ but then I’m quick to realise- what am I really rushing for? I check my phone and then manage to close my eyes for another 20 minutes although my brain is already alert and the overthinking starts again.
Original Illustration: Saulė Pribušauskaitė | @saulepri
I tune in to BBC Radio 6 while the half-full kettle starts boiling loudly. Since quarantine started, I’ve developed an affinity for 6Music, having never listened to this station before. Is it more me than I thought it would be? Maybe. Is it more of a ‘stay indoors’ kind of station? Potentially. Have I ruined it for myself and will it always remind of the time we were all in lockdown for 3 months? Sounds like it. But until then, it’s been making my days better.
I’ve become accustomed to stepping outside in the morning. My garden is not very big, but it’s rather cosy and we sometimes have feline visitors who jump from one fence to another, gracefully, like trained circus performers. Cats have always had a ‘quarantine’ lifestyle and they seem to be doing just fine, so what are we so worried about?
Original Illustration: Saulė Pribušauskaitė | @saulepri
Isolation makes you eternally grateful for your internet connection, except for when wi-fi is temperamental and abrupt and somehow programmed to always interrupt my favourite song. By 11am I’ve switched off Radio 6 and moved onto my beloved Spotify. My thumb struggles to decide what to pick so I just go to ‘Liked Songs’ and ‘Shuffle’. If before I knew what song should start my commute, those rules don’t apply anymore. Also, what commute? What rules? It’s all a gamble.
Childish Gambino. Mura Masa. Sade. Alt-J. Her. The 1975. Russ. James Blake. Kaytranada. Caribou. Jungle. SZA. Tame Impala. Skip. Fleetwood Mac. Bombay Bicycle Club. Al Green. Maribou State. The Rolling Stones. Lorde. HAIM. Thievery Corporation. Bicep. Shuffle. Tove Lo. Jarvis Cocker. Arctic Monkeys. Frank Ocean. Mark Ronson. The Smiths.
Original Illustration: Saulė Pribušauskaitė | @saulepri
By 2pm I feel tired but am struggling to find a reason why; less physically, more mentally and spiritually. I discover that I’m not the only one feeling like this when my friend decides to check in. We talk about small things, she sends me two pictures of her dog and I make a silly joke. Right now, it’s the small things that keep us going, isn’t it?
Instagram gives me my daily rundown - aka everyone’s run screenshot of the day. Reminded, I pick myself off the sofa and head out. It’s sunny and quiet now, so I really have no excuse. I disconnect my speaker and plug in my earphones. Naturally, it would have to be the ‘RUN’ playlist - probably the shortest playlist created. I like to think of it as quality over quantity because there just aren’t many songs that go well with a run. It’s all about reaching that crescendo as you get to the top of the hill and ready to run back.
I come back and have my third (healthy) snack of the day and chat to my housemate, my comrade. This time we both tune in to BBC Radio 1 and step onto more of a sombre scene: the news. We both exchange looks as something pulls us back into reality. We keep quiet and the silence is followed by a telepathic decision to turn it off.
By this point I’m bored. I open Instagram again and thanks to all the music connoisseurs I’m lucky to call friends, I quickly find a new album to listen to. What I am finally able to do now, during isolation, is really listen to a playlist and not just have it play in the background. I hear every beat, every word, every beginning and every end. When was the last time you did that? I ask myself (and you).
Music feels like therapy and this is the kind of therapy we all need right now. After dinner I indulge in indie-rock’s newest albums and indie R&B. I pour myself a glass of wine, (because hey Tuesday Wine Day, right?) and watch a red sky that is fading by the minute. This day feels the longest one yet, but also not long enough to go through all the musical catharsis my mind, soul and body needs right now.
And while it feels like this story is personal to me, it’s really about all of us. About all the songs stuck in our heads, all the shares on social media, all the music challenges we all want to do, all the thoughts about the newest albums. It’s about the tune that makes you shout ‘Tune!’ whilst you’re in your kitchen planning your next conference call, about the film soundtrack you’re still listening to 3 months after you’ve seen the film, about that cool video for that cool song you like, about the artist who reminds you of summer, of holidays, of simpler times.
It’s all about music, it’s been about music all along.