An Interview with Yours Truly

Record of the Day, a music industry publication from the UK, has an interview this week with your humble webmaster. Here are some highlights:

Where are you based?
Chicago. For now.

What made you start an mp3 blog?
I used to have a more traditional music blog (Glamorama). But then I realized it was pointless to spend two or three paragraphs talking about how great a song was when you could just post the mp3 or YouTube.

Who are your favourite three artists?
Radiohead. Rolling Stones. The Libertines.

Pick just one artist as a tip to break through in 2008
Ida Maria

Is there a band or track that you were first to feature in the blogosphere that you are particularly proud of?
I think this happened more often with my first blog, Glamorama. The blogosphere was a smaller, friendlier place then, and you didn’t have the same swift synchronization of opinion. With Interpol, a friend of mine played me an EP of theirs way back in 2000. I saw them in early 2002 before they were signed. So while there might have been some New Yorkers talking about them, I was probably the first to bring them to a wider audience. Same goes with The Libertines. Of course, they had a boat load of NME hype, but I was an early champion of them outside of the UK, much to the consternation of some other bloggers. More recently, I was probably the first blogger outside of LA to feature Foreign Born.

What would be your dream job in music?
I’m a drummer. I was out in LA for a while trying to ‘make it’. But the more I saw of the industry, the less I wanted to be a part of it. For me it always goes back to the Andre Kertesz quote: “I am an amateur and I intend to stay that way for the rest of my life.” I’ll always be involved in music. It just won’t be a paying gig.

Read the whole interview in the latest issue (8/7/08) of Record of the Day (subscription required).

Listen/Download:
"Radio America" by The Libertines