HOW COVID-19 HAS AFFECTED
LOCAL BAND, YASHIRA

By Rebecca Olson

With the Jacksonville creative scene being so strong across multiple mediums, the coronavirus has undoubtingly impacted many local artists and businesses. One of those artists is the band, Yashira.

Starting in 2015, Yashira consisted of Dylan Mikos, Luke Barber, Connor Anderson, and Seth Howard. After signing to Good Fight Music, their first album Shrine debuted in 2018. They toured the east coast the same year, and were naturally ascending in their genre. On December 29th, 2018, the band endured an unforeseen loss that shattered their world. Their drummer and friend, Seth Howard, passed away in a car accident. Yashira had plans to tour the west coast starting in February 2019, which would be cancelled, and Yashira was put on a hold while the band grieved the loss of Seth and Yashira as they knew it.

Yashira decided to move forward mid-2019 and recruited their new drummer, Ryan. Right when everything started looking up for the band, COVID-19 started as well. “Ryan lives in Memphis, Tennessee so we had been flying him back and forth over the remainder of that year to learn/finish the new record. We went to record said record in late January 2020 up in Burlington, Connecticut at Silver Bullet Studios. We were there until mid-February and when we got back, the shit had hit the fan,” says Mikos.

“2020 was supposed to be the year we released our new record and toured in support of it. This record is such an important milestone for us in so many ways. For us, it symbolizes us making it out on the other side of losing Seth, but we were robbed of doing that for the foreseeable future due to the virus bringing the music industry to a screeching halt.”

The coronavirus has not only severely impacted musicians and their industry, it has affected all creative individuals who rely on their community and its people. Jacksonville artists will recover from the hit of the virus, although the timing of it is unknown.

Check out Yashira on Spotify and Instagram @yashiraband, and keep an ear out for their new album coming soon.