Goodbye 2015; my year in music journalism

Daisy Ridley as Rey, Serena Williams, Ellie Roswell of Wolf Alice

As I sit here with an hour ago to 2016, I reflect back on my year in writing. Somehow I balanced discovering tons of great new bands (Wolf Alice, Bandit, Bully, Cayetana, All Dogs, Ratboys, etc.) while writing primarily about bands celebrating the 20th anniversaries of landmark albums. In summary: I love nostalgia. I am obsessed with it. I love the music I listened to in the 90's, and I love modern music that is inspired by it and reminiscent of it. I love Star Wars Episode VII and I don't care that it is too much like Episode IV. In fact I think I love it more because of that nostalgia; I love that I was able to take my 7-year-old son to see it 32 years after I saw Episode VI in the theater as a 7-year-old.

From a music journalism perspective, I spent the bulk of my time writing on Medium, a format new to me. I created my own publication and took part in the massive 'Chrindie 95 publication. I was able to interview all of the members of the band that created my favorite album of all time, and wrote 8,500 words about it. I wrote a bizarre piece comparing Kerith Ravine to Lovedrug and how nostalgia once again informs my opinion and creates affinity.

As far as Chrindie '95 goes, I wrote five essays on six albums, and I co-authored a sixth essay that includes short blurbs on 20 albums that didn't get their own stand-alone treatment:

Chrindie ’95: The Rest

Today I revised and updated my Best of 1995 post to include links to around 25 different pieces written on albums celebrating 20 years. The last essay I published was actually written by Chris Colbert, and I had the privilege of interviewing him and editing together his words:

Morella’s Forest’s Super Deluxe

2015 was by far my most prolific year as a writer and as a blogger, with 70 posts across two locations. Looking forward to seeing what 2016 holds.