LONDONDERRY – For nationally touring metal band Astronoid, the coronavirus stymied their gig schedule, but not their creativity.

Made up of Casey Aylward, Daniel Schwartz, Brett Boland, and Matt St. Jean, the metal band was booked solidly for 2020, but had to cut short their tour due to the pandemic shutdown of venues and theaters.

The band has been active since 2014, and began touring across all 48 continental United States in 2017.

St. Jean said that touring wasn’t a major component in terms of earnings- the band members have flexible jobs that either allow them to work on the road or take time off from work.

“We’ve been taking our income from playing live music and putting that money back into the band in order to get things to grow,” he said. “We actually had just gotten to the point where the band was becoming profitable, and that’s where everything hit the fan earlier this year.”

Astronoid wasn’t physically on tour when the pandemic emerged, but did have two tours that had to be cancelled for the year because of it. At this stage, the band is uncertain if those dates can be recouped next year.

St. Jean said the landscape for playing live was rich with opportunities for a band like Astonoid.

“We had plenty of places to play, everywhere we went on tour,” he said. “There was a really large pool. We had some repeats, but there was really a lot of places for us to play, either associated with another tour or completely on our own. We had no shortage of places to go.”

Astronoid has shared the stage or the bill with bands such as Guns ‘n Roses, Def Leppard, Cheap Trick, Ghost, Between the Buried and Me and ZZ Top.

“A lot of what we’ve done in the last couple of years was either to open for or support a larger artist,” St. Jean said. “We had been doing tours completely independently on our own throughout North America or where we were the headliner of the package.”

Right now, St. Jean said it’s impossible to forecast what 2021 will bring.

“It’s a waiting game,” he said. “There are a lot of people who are being very optimistic in terms of booking for the middle of next year.

That might be a little hasty, because there are multiple factors.”

The band recognizes that while they may be healthy, they have to take into account that playing live where audience members are not.

“When you consider the hypothetical vaccine, you have to ask yourself, ‘What is the adoption rate on that?'” he said. “Is it still safe? We have already talked about that. Just because we’re safe, we don’t want to be associated with a spread. We know people are itching to get back to normal life but if you give people an opportunity, they may take it.”

So for now, playing with bands like Slayer will have to wait. In the interim, Astronoid has kept busy writing and recording.

“We’re lucky, because we all have our own set-ups at our houses,” St. Jean said. “We have done some charity sets, playing live from all of our own houses.”

The idea of playing virtual shows hasn’t really piqued interest, because it isn’t necessarily lucrative. St. Jean said that in general, the response to shows like that has been positive.

Astronoid has a booking agent and a manager, who take care of a lot of the back-end of the business but the band remains actively involved.

Unlike many musicians, they don’t have a national tour impacting their livelihood. But in general terms, every musician is feeling the pinch.

“Between what we’re doing relative to what’s local is still going to hurt as we go into the winter months,” St. Jean said. “It’s going to be a little tougher, but fortunately, some of those independent musicians have had some outlets during the summer. But the cold months are harder.”

St. Jean added that some of the regional venues that Astronoid has played as part of national tours are venues that the band has played as a local band.

“There are venues in Boston, that if we had the time, we would play a show there,” he said. “But whether that exists right now remains to be seen. We’re still a smaller fish in a bigger pond. If it’s just us, we’re not playing a venue like House of Blues in Boston. We’re not at that level, and part of the issue is that there are bands that are in our position, so when it comes to local and regional, we’re in the same boat as bands that operate locally and independently.”

Finding viable venues during COVID-19 is the crux of the problem.

“We can independently fill a place in Boston like ‘Great Scott,'” St. Jean said. “But if ‘Great Scott’ is not open, which as of right now, it is not, then if they’re not open, and they’re one of the few viable options, their closure means playing out is becoming increasingly few and far between for everybody.”

St. Jean questions whether or not some of these venues who have been forced to close will have the legs and funding to reopen.

“That’s a constant concern,” he said. “The other problem with it is that while we’ve been able to get to a certain point, we got there by being able to play local shows. So, even if we don’t have to personally worry about whether or not a venue is in existence, what about all the other people who we could potentially tour with? It all has to start somewhere.”

St. Jean said it’s about the industry in general.

“In the long run, these shutdowns are having negative, rippling effects for the music industry as a whole,” he said. “To use the band ‘Ghost’ as an example, they played the venue ‘Middle East’ in Cambridge. And then a couple of years later, they were playing arena shows.”

All in the matter of a couple of years.

“If it weren’t for 300-600 capacity rooms, then bands like ‘Ghost’ don’t get the opportunity to grow,” St. Jean said.

So can the music industry sustain hitting the reset button?

“That’s the million dollar question,” St. Jean said. “At the end of the day, it comes down to does it really exist and who owns it. And whoever owns it, are they willing to play ball? Because it has to be able to work for everybody.”

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