Writing about Music for Freebies and Occasional Checks

I met Nick DeMarino at the University of Oregon last year.  He was a student in the Professional Master’s Program at the School of Journalism and Communication, and he immediately intrigued me with his offbeat sense of humor and his affinity for death metal and cats.  He writes about music for Metal Maniacs, Skyscraper, and Cleveland Scene.

MH:  How did you get into writing about music?

ND:  A lot of people were telling me to write about what I know, so writing about music seemed like a natural fit.   I’ve been fanatical about music since my first hand-me-down eight-track player and in love with playing and performing since my first secondhand drum pad.   I never really read music magazines up until 2008—I was more of a book nerd—so it took me some time to get a feel for what was relevant to the readership of various publications.   The editorial tone of music news and criticism is highly stylized, and poorly targeted correspondence with an editor can bar you from its pages without explanation.   I’m loath to call it journalism—for me it’s been more of a glorified PR podium with much, much lower pay.   You get a lot of cool freebies though and get to shoot the shit with some fairly interesting people.

As for my experience, a friend leaked me Earth’s The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull a few months early, so I wrote a review and shopped it to every appropriate magazine I could find in a rad little coffee shop.   I was shocked when High Times picked it up; my pitch to them was a whim.   It was one of the last ones I emailed and I didn’t expect to hear back.   Well, actually, I didn’t hear back and almost got into some legal trouble for selling it to someone else when High Times was already in the process of publishing it, but that’s another story.   Anyhow, that initial success gave me momentum to keep writing and pitching reviews as well as full features and interviews.

There are two really fucked up things about the intersection of music and writing.   The first is that everyone is concerned about the next thing, partially because of editorial calendars and over-ambitious PR companies.   As such you need to get on mailing lists and get your hands on albums as soon as possible.   Often times this requires corresponding directly with bands and labels to get the wheels in motion.   Don’t let your editors do that (a lot of them want to)—you need to build these relationships yourself.   MySpace is good for that, but once you get to know some PR people, it’s not really necessary.   Plus, by going through these companies, you help support the business aspect of the music industry, which is important if you want to get paid.   Some people are happy to post free content on blogs and social networking sites, so that’s an option too.

The second thing is that music means different things to different people and is an intensely personal experience.   I might listen to something that moves me on an emotional level, and someone else may hear the same thing and bicker over key or, as is often the case, the relative lack thereof.   There’re times I look back at what I’ve written and totally disagree with myself, and I haven’t been doing this all that long!   My response to this has largely been absurdly hyperbolic reviews and a light touch in narrative pieces with a heavy reliance on quotations.   In this regard, I write as a reader—I write the kind of thing I’d like to read—from the hips on reviews, and measured in narrative form.   That works for me, but there are myriad approaches.

MH: What do you enjoy about this type of writing?

ND: It’s fun!   Who doesn’t like to force their opinion on other people?   In addition to being a hack music writer, I’m also a hack musician, and so far I’ve been doing better with the former, so this seems to be the best way for me to contribute to art forms in which I believe.   Because I cover obscure, often up-and-coming artists, there’s some joy in seeing musicians I come to know achieve some level of success.   Queen Beast, a killer progressive rock band from Fayetteville, Arkansas actually thanked me in their liner notes.   That was touching.   Experimental music, in particular, is criminally underappreciated, so I like to help people find out about things that may interest them.   In researching this kind of music, I often stumble across bands I wouldn’t otherwise hear, so that’s nice too.   As I mentioned before, the freebies are nice too.   I have boxes of promo CDs, stickers, a few t-shirts, and some records as well.   It’s hard to argue with that.   Hell, I’m wearing one of the shirts right now!

MH: Will you describe your writing process?

ND: Well right now I’m guzzling coffee at midnight and chain-smoking cigarillos.   I do quite a few goofy things.   I was fortunate enough to have a six month period where I didn’t have to work and could fully devote myself to reading.   During this time, I’d often take walks between drafts to clear my head and pull the Gay Talese trick—entering the house from a different door.   I’ve also experimented with polyphasic sleep, meditation, lucid dreaming, and lots of other silly new age stuff—anything to prolong the actual writing process and give my subconscious time to work on things.  My cat used to help a lot; she’s very vocal and would often stop me if the piece I was reading aloud bored her.  My rats used to try to help by typing, but they had pretty much the same take on every album. It’s rare I have writers’ block anymore (I’m flaky enough I never run out of half-baked ideas), but I’ve come up with something that works well for me:   a writers’ block dress.

This is kind of a convoluted story, but here goes.   In high school I played bass in a horrible punk band in which we dressed in drag.   It was often ill-fitting and very uncomfortable, which probably has a lot to do with the fact we waited ‘till the morning before shows to raid Good Will.   In any case, years later, I was having trouble coming up with a good lead for a piece on acupuncture for Eugene Magazine , and I totally blanked.   It was the first time that really happened to me.   I was also having sleeping problems at the time (the result of a combination of stress, anxiety attacks, and caffeine abuse) and I’d taken some advice about not lying in bed for more than 20 minutes at a time without falling asleep (this, of course, only applies to sleep).   So I’d get up in the middle of the night, go for walks, lift weights, or take a bike ride and power through a day or two without much sleep.   Then I not only wanted to sleep, but needed to sleep.   I learned that by pushing a problem to a higher degree, I was able to resolve it.   So when I found myself uncomfortable, staring at that cursed cursor, I figured ‘why not make myself as uncomfortable as possible?’   So I put on a dress and refused to take it off until I put some words on the page.   It’s amazing how quickly I came up with not only a lead, but about 500 words of decent narrative.

I like to write late at night or early in the morning, and as such usually have to listen to music on headphones because I have housemates.   I’ll   typically listen to a new record as background music for a walk or during work to take it in as a causal listener, then I’ll take notes whilst listening attentively, and finally revisit it when I’m writing a full draft.   Ideally, I write in silence or listening whilst listening to music that’s completely unrelated.   I figure that if I can’t recall the general sound of a record, I’m not ready to review it.       Because I use so much hyperbole, I’ve found it’s best to sit on things for a day or two before editing a piece a final time and sending it off to an editor.   As such, I need pseudo-deadlines, which, as an over-planner, I excel at generating.

MH: What are the downsides to being a music writer?

ND: “This guy needs my flying V shoved up his pretentious ass.”   That’s just one of the lovely things that’s been said about me and my writing.   The Internet is great for this kind of stuff.   You’ll get plenty of feedback for anything you write if you just search forums.   Don’t do that—those people are nothing but pretentious prigs who need flying vs shoved up their asses.

As a younger, less established writer, I find the biggest problem is getting paid.   There’re are endless outlets for writing about music, but even some of those glossy, full color mags don’t pay.   Alternative weeklies don’t pay that well but are fairly prompt with payment and usually don’t edit out swearing.   Editors are busy people and often need gentle, tactful reminders that it’s been over 90 days and you still haven’t been paid.   I spend almost as much time trying to get paid for pieces I’ve already written as I do actually writing.

Music magazines have always had short runs.   They close suddenly or change formats all of the time, and it’s only getting worse with the economy.   My personal horror story involves the loss of $1,000 to one magazine that went under.   They didn’t have individual contracts for individual pieces and had three months of bag-logged writing from me that never saw print.   Because so many of them were time sensitive, I ended up giving the pieces away in order to preserve the relationships I’d forged with labels, PR companies, and bands.

Another problem is that a lot of magazines aren’t interested in creativity—they want something to fit a tried and true form—so things can get monotonous.   Then there’s what you can cover.   I’ve been told by a few editors that I can’t cover such-and-such a band because their label doesn’t advertise in the magazine.   That sucks and is why self-published ‘zines and blogs are so popular.

MH: What advice can you give to people who would like to become music writers?

Here’s a smattering of ideas that have worked for me:   email record labels, PR companies, and bands often; write for yourself first and edit to conform to the style of a magazine later; everyone has an agenda and will try to exploit you; pretty much everything in music has already been done; don’t parse genres or infinitives; read the publication before you pitch to it; don’t be afraid to bring up money; make spread sheets and keep track of everything; record every formal interview; interview people in person and barring that on the computer using a Web cam; ask the same questions multiple times in different ways to elicit more nuanced answers; that adage about not talking to drummers, that has a basis in reality; and finally, some dresses are dry-clean only.