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How to watch Asterhouse’s new documentary about being a musician during COVID

The film is an accurate portrayal of 2020: a year of deep dives into hobbies and newfound passions followed by even deeper dives into infinite scroll.

Dan Ray November 14, 2021
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How to watch Asterhouse’s new documentary about being a musician during COVID November 14, 2021

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).

John Thornburg (center), Russ Thornburg (left), and Julio Posada perform on Dan’s Tunes podcast Talking Tracks in June 2020. Photo by Chris Butcher

On November 19, the Seattle Channel will premiere “Stay Well Stay Awake,” a documentary created by Seattle rock band Asterhouse about what it was like to be a musician during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The documentary, which runs just under 51 minutes, follows Asterhouse members John (vocals, drums, guitar), Russ Thornburg (keys, guitar), and Julio Posada (bass) as they learn to cope with the changing musical landscape throughout 2020 and early 2021. Formatted partly in internet memes and partly in Zoom or outdoor interviews, the film features a large swath of the Seattle music community, from big names like Art Zone’s Nancy Guppy and KEXP’s Troy Nelson to lesser known artists like Fat Starfish’s Penny Fischer and Cashing in Karma’s Jonny Barrett. Brothers Thornburg appear throughout the film, talking with their musical counterparts about the importance of concerts and how they’ve coped with the loss of live music. 

Other, non-music interviews include Ajahn Brahm, an Australian Buddhist monk, and Sheila Liljenquist, the granddaughter of Gramma of Gramma and Ginga, a feisty sister duo made famous on Facebook and YouTube during the pandemic. Dropped between music segments, Brahm and Gramma and Ginga add an air of lightness and escape to the doc while also making the film an accurate portrayal of 2020: a year of deep dives into hobbies and newfound passions followed by even deeper dives into infinite scroll.

The film was recorded between September 2019 and July 2021 and edited by Russ Thornburg (multiple times — the middle of the film shows John and Russ performing a sort of séance as they try to resurrect edited footage from their broken computer). It started as a project focused on capturing a snapshot of the Seattle music scene in honor of Asterhouse’s 10 year anniversary. Once the pandemic hit, the Thornburgs shifted the focus to be on how musicians navigated the new musical economy.

“Before the virus hit, many musicians had been caught up in the numbers game, judging their worth based on the successes of their product,” said John. “Now, they’ve had a chance to get in touch with a deeper love of their craft, without worrying about receptions from the outside world. There has been a power and resilience, and it has been amazing to capture on film.”

You can catch “Stay Well Stay Awake” on the Seattle Channel (channel 21) on November 19 at 9 p.m. Don’t have TV? Check it out on Asterhouse’s YouTube channel the same day.

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*Dan’s Tunes Editor-in-Chief Dan Ray submitted a 60-second video interview that is featured in “Stay Well Stay Awake.”

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Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).