The emotional dimensions of creative work during the COVID-19 pandemic have received scant attention yet are deeply entwined with unfolding socio-spatial reconfigurations. Drawing upon ARC-funded research mapping pandemic urban creative geographies, we highlight ‘islanding’ (Wakefield 2021) as an example of work’s co-constituted affective and spatial dimensions: an emotional geographic disentanglement among creative workers consolidating activities to cope with upheaval. Recounting the experiences of a Sydney rock band who participated in the research, we discuss how clandestine lockdown rehearsals and online performance provided much-needed ‘islanded’ spaces for visceral expression and connection. In response to forced lockdowns, and in a context of precarious livelihoods and working venues, musicians shifted to contained rehearsal and performance spaces, severing networks while shifting priorities. Haunted by absence and loss, music-making in islanded spaces also proved cathartic. We conclude that emotional and spatial dimensions must figure more prominently within ensuing post-pandemic policy discussions focused on creative work.