As cities became more expensive, young creatives had to get ahead with less space and usually rent in outer neighborhoods. Arnaud Vecrin left Marseille for Paris and the live music scene; he was rehearsing for shows when Covid-19 hit. He improvised a digital music studio in a former hallway in his 40-square-meter (430-square-foot) apartment to produce his work.

When he first arrived in the city he worked as an “intermittent du spectacle”, an employment status for those working in entertainment, but after doing sound for projects that often didn’t match his interests he decided to cut back to working half-time as a guitar teacher and half-time on his own passion projects.

In the apartment he shares with his girlfriend in the Ménilmontant neighborhood (20th arrondissement), he transformed a hallway occupied by a coat closet into a home recording studio. Here he has recorded tracks for his solo work as guitarist/vocalist, as well as for his Latin jazz band “Lazcar Volcano”.