First - can you tell
me about Decibel? I remember your first issue, you're on fire right now!
Currently, we're working on our 27th issue, which means it's probably about
time we settle down into a serious relationship, start putting some money
away for a house and decide if we wanna have any little Decibels running around
within a couple of years.
Let's talk about 'How you got that damn cool job'?
Briefly - What are
you responsible for?
As Editor-in-Chief I oversee the content and general direction of the magazine.
What that means is I commission and assign all the features, news stories,
special pieces and artist profiles we run each month. And I get to decide
who is on Decibel's cover every month. Our Managing Editor Andrew Bonazelli
oversees all the assigning and editing on the reviews section, which greatly
frees me up, enabling me to sell the advertising for the magazine as well.
I don't recommend being the ad sales guy AND the editor, but when you work
at a small company, these are the kinds of things you have to do to keep everything
running. That said, we're finally at the point where we can bring in a full
time sales person and plan on doing so in early 2007.
How many hours do
you usually work a week?
I work 40 hours at the office and then another five to 10 a week from home.
Maybe a few more if we're on a production deadline during a particular week.
How did you get started
in journalism?
I accidentally feel into it. About 200 years ago, back in 1996, I was a regular
reader of the metal reviews in a publication then called the Gallery of Sound
Gazette. The writer responsible for them had a good sense of humor, but knew
very little about the actual music (especially the more extreme death, black
and doom metal bands) he was writing about. For whatever reason, I thought
I could do a better job and fired off a couple sample reviews (of Cannibal
Corpse and Dissection, if I recall correctly) to the editor/publisher. Well,
he dug them and I starting writing metal reviews for the Gazette on a monthly
basis. About six months later he hired me to be the publication's Associate
Editor. The publication then developed into Stereo-Type. The company evolved
into Red Flag Media. And RFM went on to publish Decibel several years later.
What classes did you
take that have helped you get where you are today?
I was an English Major in college, which helped me develop my writing skills
to a point. I didn't take any journalism classes in school, so there was a
good deal of on-the-job training that guided my early (and bad) writings.
How did you prepare
for your first job interview?
I haven't gone to a job interview since 1995 (which was for a manual labor
job at a record store warehouse), so I might not be qualified to properly
answer this.
Are internships good
training?
It depends on how much attention the intern gets. Interns aren't usually provided
a lot of direction. On their first day they're often instructed to do something
like "go file this paperwork for the next four weeks." But no matter
what kind of grunt work you end up doing as an intern-and, trust me, there's
plenty of it-just about every internship can provide someone with valuable
insight into how a music magazine is run on a daily basis.
What has changed since
the magazine has grown?
More people get to read how fucking brilliant we are.
What is the hardest
part of your job?
Selling ads. It's very stressful and if you're not careful you can get covered
in music industry ick.
If someone 'wanted to get their band noticed':
How many demos and
press kits do you get in a week?
We receive about three or four demos from unsigned bands each week. They reside
in a box clearly marked "demos" right outside my office. When we're
feeling adventurous, we dip into it.
What is one thing
NEVER to send you?
Unsolicited MP3 files via email. They're a huge strain on an Internet connection
and they only tax editors' already burdened inboxes.
What is the best thing
to send you to get your attention?
Good music. Local press clippings, finished cover art, and promo photos of
your band members strategically wearing Darkthrone AND Guns N' Roses shirts
are endearing, if not slightly amusing, but, at the end of the day, it's all
about the tunes.
Is it important to
you if you're considering writing about a young band that they have a lot
of friends on MySpace?
Not to me. But there are bands, like Job for a Cowboy in particular, who managed
to start a bidding war for their services based on their number of MySpace
friends, so it apparently does matter to a lot of labels. But music magazines
are more concerned with a young band's Top 8. That was a joke.
And for the fun stuff:
How many concerts do you usually go to in a week?
I've dramatically cut back on attending shows. I'd say I only end up at three
or four a month these days. I've been to enough overloaded, stinky basement
shows to last a couple lifetimes, but the right band can still drag me out
from the comfort of my apartment.
What is the most memorable
interview you've ever done?
I interviewed all five members of Radiohead in New York back in 1997 right
before OK Computer was released. It's not very metal, but it was still pretty
cool that I had the opportunity to do it. Interviewing the late, great BBC1
DJ John Peel back in 2002 was also a pretty big thrill.
I'm sure you get a
lot of free stuff, what's the best thing you've gotten lately?
It's over a year old now, but the A Life Once Lost promotion machete our pals
at Ferret Music sent us is my favorite freebie. It's very handy to have around
the office when you're enforcing deadlines.
If you had to give
your best words of advice in 2 sentences or less, what would they be?
Train, say your prayers, eat your vitamins! Be true to yourself, true to your
country, be a real American!
What's in your CD
player right now?
At the start of this interview it was Prong's Beg to Differ. Now it's Ulver's
Bergtatt
You recently wrote
a book. Tell us about it.
It's called Choosing
Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore. I guess
the title pretty much speaks for itself. If, like me, you grew up a fan in
the late '80s and early '90s of bands such as Carcass, Morbid Angel, Entombed,
Obituary and Napalm Death, then this book will be a walk down memory lane's
left hand path for you. It was published by Feral House and you can find it
any place that sells books about death metal. And if your looking to learn
a second, third or fourth language, it was translated into French, German
and Finnish earlier this year.