Corona Stories
Tillmann Schürfeld
Tillmann Schürfeld performing with Anahad - 04.10.22 © Ant Palmer
AS part of my continuing project work, funded by the German Ministry for Culture and Science in the state of North-Rhein Westfalia, I have begun a series of works focusing on how the Coronavirus Pandemic affected fellow artists. How they adapted to continue working in their chosen area, what other challenges they faced during the lockdown periods, and if they were forced to change careers to keep money coming in.
In the first edition of my series, I spent time with percussionist Tillmann Schürfeld.
Tillmann is based in Cologne, Germany. Since beginning his professional career in 2018, he has studied under many well-known names in the field.
Tillmann performing with Looking for Ella - 11.06.2019 © Ant Palmer
A series of musical projects took Tillmann on tour, and before 2020 he could usually be found on stage, either performing with bands or as part of his project Anahad.
In the summer of 2019, Tillmann made his debut with stage debut with Anahad. The project unifies the two worlds of Indian classical and Western pop music and offers a unique combination of dance, harmony, melody, and rhythm.
A planned tour with Anahad had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus Pandemic. The tour eventually went ahead in the autumn of 2022.
Anahad, live in Münster - 04.10.22 © Ant Palmer
In the two years where live performances were either banned or extremely difficult to stage due to the unknown factors of whether a show might be able to go ahead, Tillmann made contact with various producers who were themselves confined to their studios and needed drum tracks for songs they were producing. Tillmann was able to record drum-tracks in his own studio remotely from producers and send the tracks electronically. This provided Tillmann with an opportunity to record short drum tracks (known as ‘Loops’), which he could eventually sell online to other musicians around the world for use in their own work.
This niche gave Tillmann a valuable income stream and enabled him to continue working as a musician throughout the Pandemic. Being able to adapt his career and his style of working in this way enabled him to remain a full-time musician when other artists and musicians during this period were not so lucky.
Here is a short video of Tillmann explaining his career, and the work he did through the Pandemic in a little more detail: