On Mar 26 at 11:59pm, a week before Circuit Breaker measures were announced, nightclubs and other entertainment venues were already closing their doors.

In an industry where working from home simply isn't feasible, this has left a number of Singaporeans with a big hole in their regular income.

One of these is professional disc jockey (DJ) Mohammad Rizal Bin Kamal.

"It has been very tough," said the 43-year-old, who is also known by this stage name DJ Raw.

Rizal's entire livelihood depends on the nightlife industry in Singapore; his other endeavours include running a DJ studio, managing DJs, and renting DJ equipment.

"I can also do equipment repairs and services... I'm known for customising and servicing DJ headphones. Basically this is keeping me alive now."

The DJ, who is a full-time employee of Baliza, told Mothership that the club was working to find a solution for him.

But until he hears from them, Rizal says he expects to earn less than a fifth of his usual monthly income with the repair work that he was getting.

Part-timers struggling

It's not just full-timers like Rizal who have been affected by closures of bars and clubs, though. Singapore's nightlife industry also pays the income of many part-timers and freelancers.

Enter any given club on a Friday night and you'll find a staff team that includes some combination of security, bartenders, waitstaff, dancers, and promoters — many are employed part-time or on a casual basis.

And that's just the people who are employed directly by the club.

Also part of this network of part-timers and freelancers who depend on the nightlife industry are those engaged by companies that work with the nightclubs to put on events.

Vaenu A Satish runs one such business, Paperstreetsoapcompany, organising several monthly themed club events across different venues in Singapore such as This Is The 90s.

For each event, the 25-year-old engages the freelance services of DJs, photographers, designers, admissions staff, and movers.

Regular income for emcees

For someone like Muhammad Raihan Shah, working part-time at nightspots was a consistent and dependable supplement to his regular income.

Raihan's day job sees him don the stage name Lefttool as a music producer and rapper, but a few nights a month the 32-year-old also plays the role of an emcee at nightclubs.

"My role is to enhance the music experience for the crowd and with the DJ," he said.

"The shutting down of clubs definitely hit me. Maybe not huge, but significant enough."

At the time the closures were announced, Raihan was emceeing at Yang Club once a week. He said those gigs earned him about S$1,000 a month.

"It definitely helps out in the bills and miscellaneous expenses," he explained.

Raihan describes S$1,000 as his "confirmed monthly income" while earnings from his day job fluctuate from month to month based on whether he lands projects such as producing corporate jingles.

"The (music producer and rapper work), I gotta hustle and go out to get it," he said.

Bouncer in a tough spot

Unfortunately, another part-timer, nightclub bouncer Muhammad Ridzuan Bin Senin, has found himself in even harder circumstances.

Before the pandemic, the 36-year-old split his time between bouncing and working in his family's pasar malam business, which sells food at bazaars.

Now both sources of income have been cut off.

Ridzuan told Mothership that his solution has been to try and pick up odd jobs and take the family business online.

Yet, he is not optimistic about his chances of making enough money to tide him through this trying period.

"Now I'm totally struggling. Even with the government giving us money, it doesn't mean it's enough for me."

Supporting their families

Both Raihan and Ridzuan use their income from working at nightspots to support their families.

Ridzuan said his income would normally go towards paying child support for his daughter and helping his parents.

"Currently, my father has cancer — stage four," he said.

Raihan told Mothership that his income went towards paying the bills for the house he shares with his mother and younger brother.

In recent days, he hasn't been able to contribute as he's waiting on royalties from music he previously produced to come in.

For now, he's surviving on his savings and using his extra free time to work on his own music.

Others like Vaenu are using the downtime for internal planning and organisation while also participating in charitable causes.

"I think it's the most important thing in this time to look out for those we can help," said Vaenu, whose company is currently trying to help Singaporeans struggling in this period, including those left unemployed by the pandemic.

He is encouraging party-goers to donate to a variety of charities under the #SGUnited banner.

In return, Paperstreetsoapcompany will grant them free entry into one of their parties once nightclubs open again.

Period of uncertainty

However, when that will be is anyone's guess.

When entertainment venues were ordered to close in March, authorities had initially penciled in May 1 as the day of reopening. Now with the Circuit Breaker in place, that has been pushed back to May 4 at the earliest.

Yet, it's quite clear that the rate of local Covid-19 infections has yet to stabilise or slow down.

On the contrary, the daily number of confirmed cases has been reaching unprecedented highs, while cases within the community — unlinked ones included — persist.

It would not be surprising or a stretch, therefore, to expect that Singapore's nightspots could remain closed for unpredictably longer.

"It's the right thing to do," opined Raihan on the initial shutdown of clubs.

"It's just bad luck for nightlife that the impact is so significant cause we can't really do the work-from-home thing so we don't even get a pay cut. We got no pay at all."

Some of the quotes have been edited for clarity

Stories of Us is a series about ordinary people in Singapore and the unique ways they’re living their lives. Be it breaking away from conventions, pursuing an atypical passion, or the struggles they are facing, these stories remind us both of our individual uniqueness and our collective humanity.

Top image from Zouk Singapore's Facebook page