Checking In: D-Madness Calls Getting Cut-off ‘Pure Hell’

Imagine supporting yourself as a performing musician and watching your industry cease wholesale. Now imagine that same scenario only you’re blind. “We don’t have to be sentimental about it,” D-Madness told Kahron Spearman in a 2017 Chronicle piece. “It’s fine. I take no offense. I am blind. That’s pure and simple.” Nothing’s pure and simple anymore.

Photo by Todd V. Wolfson

Austin Chronicle: Where are you sheltering and under what circumstances? Who else is there and how’s that going?

Dwayne Jackson: In South Austin, by myself, in a ground floor apartment. It’s going as well as one would expect. Especially considering I can’t play anywhere.

AC: At what point did C-19 shut down operations for you, and what went down with the ship, so to speak, both personally & professionally?

DJ: I lost all my income and jobs when everything got canceled and that messed with me professionally and personally. It has affected my life ever since.

AC: As a global culture, people employ music for every purpose imaginable, obviously spanning religion to entertainment and everything in between. What happens to communities like ours when people can no longer access it in person?

DJ: Everybody loses. I wouldn’t know what to do if I didn’t have any instruments in my house to get my hands on. To play for 30 years and [realize] “I’m cut off" is pure hell!

AC: Everyone’s had to shift or drastically alter their work situation. What does that look like for you?

DJ: I don’t know if I will ever get used to livestreams and the no audience thing. I miss everyone’s energy. And I don’t know how long this will go on. I hope to God I come to realize an answer.

A lot of my time spent in my apartment is with my instruments, creating new music and watching movies. Yes, I watch movies with my ears. Now, I work with other musicians by getting music dropped off at my doorstep.

I don’t own a computer and anytime I am invited to livestream the financial responsibility to get the equipment and personnel to help is just as bad, if not worse, than life before COVID trying to get to my gigs and rely on other people to come through on their word.

I was pretty much squeezing in my own writing when I was out working in town every day of the week. Since quarantine has started, I would say I have upwards of 2,000 new songs. You do the math.

AC: What’s your soundtrack for the apocalypse and what role does music play for you as a fan and scholar of it in times of hardship?

DJ: I don’t have any certain type of external musical thing I depend on, necessarily, except myself and being able to grab an instrument. Just getting my hands on something and creating music is all I need. I miss the social aspect a lot, though. Never knew how much it meant to have it until – ta-da! – it’s gone.

I always looked forward to it even when it was hard to get to gigs and set up. Man, I miss my friends and people throwing awesome parties. Especially Soul Muzik Sunday featuring Terell Shahid at Half Step.

That was like church to me.

BIG thanks to Lacey Wiseman for bridging all communication gaps herein. Check out the entire Checking In series.