* My old friend (AKA Twitter mutual) Mano Sundaresan getting named Head of Editorial Content at Pitchfork. I am trying to get back into professional writing and seeing my friends accomplish their goals is very inspiring to me. If they can do it, why can't I?
* Hearing the crowd react so viscerally to Cave Town — who is only 25! — giving a mid-set speech about how things will get better even when it doesn't feel like it. I want to be someone who can make people ~feel~ things through my work, and I think the projects I have cooking are capable of doing just that.
Related Recs
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got hit with a wave of nostalgia yesterday by going through all the photos and reviews i did for my college radio station. i used to spend hours researching bands and artists i’m interviewing, and in return became friends with some of them over the years, and really fell in love with music.
i love my day job working as a PR agent right now but, it’s really disheartening to see news coverage that is simply a copy+paste, a review done without actual dissection and overly harsh INACCURATE descriptions, interview questions recycled over and over again, it’s just so sad. and hence i listen to less new music now (and i’m also sad about it)
with the news of pitchfork this week i remember how i briefly considered going fully freelance as a journalist last year and sadly, that would not have been sustainable and it really should!! my heart is always with my journo friends, best of luck out there, appreciate your hard work and dedication!!
Jan 19, 2024
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Throughout my whole life, I had awful music teachers. I had a piano teacher that made me sit on my hands because he was frustrated with the way I played scales and a music teacher in primary/middle school that gave me so many anxiety attacks that my doctor finally gave me a note so I didn’t have to go anymore.
I was told so many times throughout my life that I had no music talent, discouraged from going further than scales but all of those people (teachers!!!!) were wrong. They just couldnt fathom that I had a different musical brain than them.
When I was 23, I ended up having to move back home from LA after my job rescinded their promise to sponsor me for a visa. I was depressed and heartbroken and lonely. I went to school for writing but didn’t want to write anymore so I ended up opening GarageBand on my iPad.
I was inspired by all the things I could do on it. I suddenly felt like I was entering a new world. After making a couple beats, I started moving everything over to the laptop version of GarageBand. I bought big headphones, a cheap usb mic and a keyboard off of a guy from Craigslist and continued to tinker. One of my favorite things to do at the time was to download karaoke midi tracks of popular songs I loved, import them into GarageBand and change the instrument until I felt like I was making something new. I would then use my shitty mic to wail on top of it.
I used GarageBand for years after that to make tons of songs that I just uploaded to SoundCloud without thinking about it much. Eventually I got a controller/sampler and access to Ableton and thats when the fun really started.
My love for music making snowballed after that, I amassed more gear and skill and eventually made an album after a couple years. I was obsessed with making it and while I feel really whatever about it now, I don’t feel whatever about the experience.
Music has allowed me space to express parts of me that there are no words for. The best thing I can impart is to take advantage of this. There are some things that you can only explain with a kick drum or a sine wave or a really hard bassline.
Music is still a huge part of me! I made another album after that first and now I’m working on my next project. I recently reincarnated myself (everyone in the ~industry~ advised against this but I’m a different person now) and I’m excited to see what’s in store for me. I don’t expect to make money or become famous but music feeds my soul in a way nothing else can.
Have fun!!
May 4, 2024
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my latest article for my music blog Fourth Best looks into the case of an artist that's putting out AI music and is taking the work very seriously. they prides themself in only using AI for the music making process and doing all of the marketing, graphics, video etc. himself. I don't feel good about it.
my recommendation for the day besides reading my post is to find opportunities to fit into a crew. you don't have to be a musician to have an impact on the music community if you've got writing, design, organising skills - it's true of most creative worlds. I don't think that like, everyone who makes bad genai music is going to transition to music journalism or whatever and feel good about it, but there's joy in being a background character sometimes. share the spotlight.
Feb 25, 2025
Top Recs from @snills
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“Anti rec:” shut up “Not a rec but…” shut da hell up
Apr 26, 2024
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get da fuck outta here
Jun 11, 2024
"In typography, rivers (or rivers of white) are gaps in typesetting which appear to run through a paragraph of text due to a coincidental alignment of spaces."
Jul 8, 2024