Ten years ago on this very day I launched You Sing I Write. A few months out of college, I was struggling with a day job that didn’t involve writing and knew I needed a creative outlet. After weeks of brainstorming blog ideas with friends and family, my cousin’s husband suggested You Sing, I Write and I immediately loved the idea.
I launched my music blog in 2007 in hopes that it’d help keep up my writing skills and I often dreamed of interviewing bands and attending concerts along the way. While I haven’t written here as frequently over the past years since paid assignments have taken priority, I’ll forever be grateful for the urging from past colleagues to keep writing with a music blog for myself. The opportunities and experiences I’ve received over the years all come back to this blog and thankfully my love for music and writing has only increased with each passing year.
Each year, on Oct. 21, I love to look back on my very first post for You Sing I Write. It’s a reminder of where I came from but also a look at how much I’ve accomplished. Thanks for being such a huge support over the years and for the endless comments, messages, tweets and the sharing of my work. It truly means the world. Here’s to another 10 years!
I’m not a groupie…a music lover’s tale of getting that interview.
Despite popular belief, I am not a groupie. I’m a journalist. Sure, I hang around tour buses to get an interview with a band. But, that’s my job. Music has always been a passion of mine. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college that I thought I could make a career out of it — music reporting that is. I still remember the concert. I was a correspondent at my college paper at the time, The Daily Targum at Rutgers University, when I covered the Gavin DeGraw concert on campus. Tickets sold out in record number, being that his song, “I Don’t Want To Be” was the theme song to a new hit TV show on the WB, “One Tree Hill.” His single began getting radio air time and popularity ensued.
I was standing in the front row, notebook in one hand, camera in the other when it hit me — I could do this for the rest of my life! I’ve always loved going to concerts and trying to meet the band. I did it for fun, but I could actually make a living out of it. Soon afterwards I began writing for my college paper’s entertainment section and while I’ve always enjoyed writing, music writing became my passion. I’d cover concerts on campus, in NYC, at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ, a short drive from campus. You name the concert, I was there.
I was lucky enough to intern at Jane magazine as well as MTV News Online during my last year of college and learned more about the magazine/music industry and am confident that this is the field I want to go into. Since my current job isn’t a writing job I’ve decided to blog a bit on what I love — music. I’ll be going to some concerts and hopefully getting interviews as well as doing album reviews. In the meantime, I figure I’ll post past interviews with some bands I’ve covered and will hopefully get those up on the blog soon. If anyone knows of any good concerts or suggestions for this blog please let me know!
-Annie