Down With The Sickness

Down With The Sickness is a 5 episode podcast produced by Erin Yanke, Celina Flores and Mic Crenshaw. This podcast focuses on the effect of the Covid 19 global pandemic on the music industry in Portland, Oregon. Numerous musicians from various genres, from Hip Hop, to Pop and Jazz, as well as sound technicians and studio engineers were interviewed in the first three months of 2022.

Music is where many of us got a glimpse of a different world, where we could belong or express ourselves, or just make friends. We have learned values through music, it’s been a great teacher for a great many of us. We also wanted to document the pandemic as it was happening, to get on record the stories and feelings, fears, desires and grief.

This podcast wants to help open up the space to connect with each other. We’re trying to find our own meaning in this continuing global and personal experience.

We chose 13 artists to represent the Portland music community because we wanted to look behind the veil of their public personas and find out how the pandemic impacted them creatively and personally. Listeners will hear from DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid, jazz pianist and teacher Darrell Grant, drummer and percussionist Papi Fimbres, singer and composer Marisa Anderson, comedian, rapper & entertainer Shrista, teen rapper extraordinaire J Prodigy, audio engineer Jason Powers, Portland MC Mic Capes, singer songwriter and author Storm Large, hip-hop producer Lisa Vasquez, and John Gourley and Zach Carothers of Portugal The Man. They share with us stories of the first two years of the Covid pandemic and the effect it had on their lives, their ability to make a living, and the effects on their communities.

The loss and grief, the fear, challenges, gifts and revelations all come together in this podcast that thoughtfully documents the artists reflections on a brief period that changed the world as we know it.

My Role