Cover by Zeke Barbaro / Getty Images. Photos courtesy of the artists. In late March, mere weeks into the pandemic that we've carried into another year, Music Editor Raoul Hernandez launched a Q&A series with local musicians. He called it Checking In, a name that carried special resonance for him. It was directly inspired by the language we were all using in those disorienting first days of COVID-19, when the days were full of worried calls and texts and emails: I just wanted to check in. "I've always viewed journalism as social work," he told me on Monday, as we hung around after a meeting in the Zoom room where we all live now. He said the checking-in process was sometimes overwhelming, as artists laid bare the tolls of isolation and lost income and "my life is melting" stress. But for musicians and music fans alike, these regular posts provided a way to stay connected to a scattered community.