INDIANAPOLIS — The coronavirus pandemic keeps hitting the music industry incredibly hard. Concerts were some of the first events to get canceled, and they'll likely be the last to resume.
One local singer, who made a majority of his income from live performances, is now seeing success in unexpected places. His name is Brett Wiscons.
"I remember my last gig was March 13," Wiscons said. "Friday the 13th, if that gives you any sign of what was to come."
Wiscons said he lost a lot of gigs and a lot of income, but he did find ways to continue performing on Facebook Live, in backyards and on boat docks.
"[It] wasn't a total loss, and you just have to turn it into a positive somehow, so I just started writing," Wiscons said.
Over the last several months, he's written between 80 and 100 songs. His newest single, "Late Bloomer," came out at the beginning of July.
"It's all about Indiana," Wiscons said. "It's nice to showcase Indiana. And my buddy let me use his vintage Ford Bronco. I'm driving around in it, Indiana sunset — it was perfect."
"Late Bloomer" is also in the recently released video game, "NASCAR Heat 5."
"It's cool. I grew up playing video games in the 90s. I remember some of those songs that were on some of those video games burned in your brain, so I'm hoping that happens with this song too," Wiscons said.
The song is on its way. The video game came out July 7 and by July 10, numbers for the song jumped nearly 1600%, averaging about 100 streams per day.
"It's just exploded as far as Spotify plays and YouTube views," Wiscons said. "So I'm pretty excited about stuff like that."
Wiscons said he's gotten more optimistic when it comes to the messaging of his music.
"I want to be more of an optimistic voice for people, powerful in a way, to make people grab a hold of their own futures because I just think life is too short to kind of be stuck doing something you don't love to do," Wiscons said. "You can control what you can control. And for me, it's writing, paying my bills, taking care of the family, getting some exercise and some sunshine."
Wiscons is currently working on another album. He originally planned to have it done by September and still might try to get a single out this fall. One of the songs on the upcoming album is called "When You Can't Breathe," which he wrote a couple of days after George Floyd's death.
Wiscons also started doing live performances again and will be playing at the Rathskeller on Sunday, July 26.
