The Music Bloggers Guide to SXSW 2017

Morgan Davis sells bootleg queso on the streets of Austin in order to fund Loser City, the multimedia collective he co-runs. When he isn’t doing that, he gets complimented and/or threatened by Austin’s musical community for stuff he writes at Ovrld, which he is the Managing Editor of.

Joshua Chiang’s music appreciation runs the gamut. The uniqueness of any and all sounds finds a place within his ears. He is, however, more inclined to the gloomier, moodier, and darker corners of music. As a writer, photographer, and underground promoter, he spends much of his time keeping his eyes and ears on the next big thing as well as what has been under everyone’s noses the whole time.

Marty Sartini Garner is editor in chief of FLOOD Magazine. He lives in Los Angeles, where he pretends like he’s not impressed by celebrity culture and is doing his best to become a Dodgers fan. He’s also contributed to Aquarium Drunkard, Pitchfork, Grantland, and FILTER. He’s interviewed Thom Yorke, Randy Newman, and Jonathan Lethem, but he’s certain that the only subject who would leave him starstruck would be Verne Lundquist. He is an ardent follower of LSU football and the Montreal Canadiens, as anyone who has ever sat next to him at a party knows all too well.

Derek Robertson is a freelance music writer and digital journalist with over eight years’ experience contributing to a variety of publications, both in print and online. Having written for the likes of the Quietus, Dummy, Loud & Quiet, The 405, and Le Cool, as well as a three-year stint as the English Editor of PERDIZ magazine, he is now Senior Associate Editor at Drowned In Sound, where he oversees editorial direction and is involved in digital strategy. Currently based in Amsterdam, he also contributes to Subbacultcha, an independent music and art platform devoted to emerging artists, Europavox.com, and provides content for several internationally renowned Dutch festivals.

Nathan Lankford is a rare breed. A native Austinite with a dedication to covering local music, as well as that of the acts coming into town. He’s the editor-in-chief for Austintownhall.com, as well as the owner of ATH Records; his work with both will always have an Austin-centric focus. His tastes focus on jangle pop, indie rock, folk and obscure reggae, but he’ll listen to anything and everything that comes his way. When he’s not covering music, he spends his days teaching middle school English and coaching soccer, but only when it doesn’t interfere with his music passions.

Tamim Alnuweiri is a New York City based music, film and culture writer. She loves poutine, (the idea of) CBGB and Richard Hell.

Colin is a writer, editor and photographer in Calgary, AB. As the Music Editor of BeatRoute Magazine, he stays abreast of international and Western Canadian music for dissemination to both a print and online readership. Colin is also on a number of programming committees in Calgary and organizes a monthly party series for each BeatRoute issue release.

Tamim Alnuweiri is a New York City based music, film and culture writer. She loves poutine, (the idea of) CBGB and Richard Hell.

Marcos Hassan is a staff writer at Remezcla, a noise maker/lover, and a writer since 2005. His work has also appeared in Noisey MX, Tiny Mixtapes, and more.

Will Collins spends his time thinking about food but writes about music and movies. He’s a firm believer that North Carolina pulled pork is the reigning king of BBQ.

Hailing from Wisconsin, Brendan came to LA to attend the University of Southern California. It was here that he discovered his knack for music and the business that surrounds it. He currently heads the Public Relations of The Nations and Lowly Palace. Additionally, he manages an up-and-coming artist, HVNNIBVL who is poised for a breakout 2017.

Fell in love with music as a freshman back in high school and never looked back once since that day. Pursued an arts degree for four years at the University of Virginia before graduating and pursuing a life as a starving artist. Avid music listener, journalist and teacher who performs and composes his own work under the moniker of Sundaug. Currently serving as Managing Editor and Experimental Reviewer with mxdwn.com.

Nathan Headden is a freelance photographer and music writer; having written for a number of online and print publications over the past decade. In 2010, he and Kevin McStravick started Operation Every Band, a Tumblr-based music blog that focuses on reviewing music festival lineups, most notably every artist that officially plays SXSW each year. During SXSW 2015, using a borrowed camera in the photo pit at Chance the Rapper’s “Free the People” Showcase, he caught the music photography bug, and has been photographing musicians at shows and festivals in his hometown of Dallas ever since.

Nate Rogers is an associate editor at FLOOD Magazine. He lives in Los Angeles, where he was born and raised—and will truthfully likely die. He is the magazine’s foremost expert on Nicolas Cage and Guided by Voices, as well as the frequent, understated intersection of the two. He is skeptical of any celebrity Twitter account that is actually funny. He still hasn’t seen Joan Didion in person but he looks for her everyday.

Chris DeVille is Senior News Editor at Stereogum, where he writes a weekly column called The Week In Pop and has penned cover stories on Run The Jewels, Tame Impala, DIIV, Future, Spoon, and the emo revival. He has written for a number of other publications including The Ringer, Deadspin, The Verge, Spin, The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, and Columbus Monthly. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and daughter.

Chris Park started writing about Korean and Japanese music in 2009 covering all genres of music. Co-founded KoreanIndie.com as a joint project in 2011 until 2013 when Chris became the sole owner. Focusing on introducing independent music from South Korea across all genres. With the help of volunteer writers and Korean musicians, new artists are presented for international audiences to listen and buy the music. KoreanIndie.com supplies news, reviews, editorials, and interviews for the English language international audience.

Lisa Wright is a London-based music journalist and gig promoter. Having written for NME between the years of 2009-2015, she now works as a staff writer for UK indie magazine DIY with additional bylines in the likes of Time Out, Noisey, The Guardian, The Independent and more. She also works for UK live promoter Rockfeedback who look after the London shows for artists including Father John Misty, Flume and Foxygen, and runs independent club night Antidotes – which has put on early shows from the likes of Wolf Alice, Slaves and more. She could do with a nap, tbh.

Nathan Lankford is a rare breed. A native Austinite with a dedication to covering local music, as well as that of the acts coming into town. He’s the editor-in-chief for Austintownhall.com, as well as the owner of ATH Records; his work with both will always have an Austin-centric focus. His tastes focus on jangle pop, indie rock, folk and obscure reggae, but he’ll listen to anything and everything that comes his way. When he’s not covering music, he spends his days teaching middle school English and coaching soccer, but only when it doesn’t interfere with his music passions.

Nathan Lankford is a rare breed. A native Austinite with a dedication to covering local music, as well as that of the acts coming into town. He’s the editor-in-chief for Austintownhall.com, as well as the owner of ATH Records; his work with both will always have an Austin-centric focus. His tastes focus on jangle pop, indie rock, folk and obscure reggae, but he’ll listen to anything and everything that comes his way. When he’s not covering music, he spends his days teaching middle school English and coaching soccer, but only when it doesn’t interfere with his music passions.

Will Oliver started We All Want Someone To Shout For​ in the summer of 2008 as a way to keep showing his friends what new music he was listening to before leaving for college. It turned into something much more than he could ever imagine. What started as a mp3 blog whose job it was to find the freshest new sounds, it’s now turned its eye to the live music scene. Will has since found a passion for concert photography, photographing acts at the smallest DIY rooms in Brooklyn, to the big time stages such as MSG. He keeps hoping to find new ways to keep his passion going.

Austin-based journalist Cassie Morien has been covering music since 2002. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of Central Florida, Morien served as an editor for Boca Raton magazine until she couldn’t stand one more second of Florida’s swamps and sunburns. She finally escaped to Texas in 2013. Morien is a staff writer for Indie Shuffle and contributes to Teeth magazine. She also serves as the official blogger for SunFest Music Festival. When she’s not damaging her eardrums, Morien can be found tweeting for tech giants at INK Public Relations. She is madly in love with hashtags, music festivals, milkshakes, synth-pop, and the human race.

Morgan Enos is a songwriter, publicist, and music journalist. He makes many records as part of Medium Mystic, Other Houses, and Hollow Sunshine, has written for Talkhouse Music  Nine Bullets and Glide Magazine, and is one half of Five Roses Press. His Sun Kil Moon parody EP went viral in 2016, and was featured on NPR – All Songs Considered, The A.V. Club, Stereogum and more. He resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Nastassia Baroni is a Sydney-based music journalist and the Managing Editor of Australian music website Music Feeds. She’s passionate about homegrown Australian music, The West Wing and defending the merits of the Eurovision Song Contest. She finds writing in the third person deeply uncomfortable.

Lisa Wright is a London-based music journalist and gig promoter. Having written for NME between the years of 2009-2015, she now works as a staff writer for UK indie magazine DIY with additional bylines in the likes of Time Out, Noisey, The Guardian, The Independent and more. She also works for UK live promoter Rockfeedback who look after the London shows for artists including Father John Misty, Flume and Foxygen, and runs independent club night Antidotes – which has put on early shows from the likes of Wolf Alice, Slaves and more. She could do with a nap, tbh.

James Rettig is a staff writer at Stereogum, and has been contributing there in some capacity or another since 2013. Before that, he interned at Billboard and worked at WTSR, the radio station at The College Of New Jersey. Since he doesn’t know what else to write for this 100 word count bio, he’s encouraging you to donate to Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Sacred Stone Legal Defense Fund, or any local organizations that need help in our fight against fascism. Resist!

Justin is a photographer and music journalist from Rancho Cucamonga, CA. As a photographer, he splits his time between Guatemala and the U.S., documenting music scenes in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Antigua. As an editor at All Things Go, he curates innovative and unexpected new music. He loves travel, music and documenting that untold local history.

Nathan Lankford is a rare breed. A native Austinite with a dedication to covering local music, as well as that of the acts coming into town. He’s the editor-in-chief for Austintownhall.com, as well as the owner of ATH Records; his work with both will always have an Austin-centric focus. His tastes focus on jangle pop, indie rock, folk and obscure reggae, but he’ll listen to anything and everything that comes his way. When he’s not covering music, he spends his days teaching middle school English and coaching soccer, but only when it doesn’t interfere with his music passions.

Austin-based journalist Cassie Morien has been covering music since 2002. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of Central Florida, Morien served as an editor for Boca Raton magazine until she couldn’t stand one more second of Florida’s swamps and sunburns. She finally escaped to Texas in 2013. Morien is a staff writer for Indie Shuffle and contributes to Teeth magazine. She also serves as the official blogger for SunFest Music Festival. When she’s not damaging her eardrums, Morien can be found tweeting for tech giants at INK Public Relations. She is madly in love with hashtags, music festivals, milkshakes, synth-pop, and the human race.

Rachel Brodsky is a music and culture writer and editor. Her writing has been featured in SPIN, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Paste, CLRVYNT, MTV, the New York Observer, LA Weekly and others. She’s been on staff as a Staff Music Writer with Paste Magazine since October 2016. Prior to that, she was an editor at SPIN.com for two years. She lives in Queens with her fiancee and two cats, one of whom is named Jones for Sigourney Weaver’s tabby in Alien. Despite writing about music for a living, she generally prefers to be in bed before 11 p.m. with her laptop and a bowl of snacks.

James Rettig is a staff writer at Stereogum, and has been contributing there in some capacity or another since 2013. Before that, he interned at Billboard and worked at WTSR, the radio station at The College Of New Jersey. Since he doesn’t know what else to write for this 100 word count bio, he’s encouraging you to donate to Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Sacred Stone Legal Defense Fund, or any local organizations that need help in our fight against fascism. Resist!

Kevin McStravick started Operation Every Band in 2010 with a blank spreadsheet and a mission: to listen to, rate and review every band playing the 2,000+ artists on the SXSW lineup.The opportunity allows discovery in all genres and to share recommendations for attendees, both in Austin and in spirit, every March. Kevin has participated in SXSW as a panelist, writer and lover of music every year and hopes to continue to do so until his legs finally give out from shimmying and shaking for a week straight. Kevin lives outside of Denton, Texas with his wife, two dogs and a new baby ready to take on her first SXSW in 2017.

Nastassia Baroni is a Sydney-based music journalist and the Managing Editor of Australian music website Music Feeds. She’s passionate about homegrown Australian music, The West Wing and defending the merits of the Eurovision Song Contest. She finds writing in the third person deeply uncomfortable.

Chris DeVille is Senior News Editor at Stereogum, where he writes a weekly column called The Week In Pop and has penned cover stories on Run The Jewels, Tame Impala, DIIV, Future, Spoon, and the emo revival. He has written for a number of other publications including The Ringer, Deadspin, The Verge, Spin, The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, and Columbus Monthly. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and daughter.

Disco Naïveté rides the buzz with its knees pulled in. Established in 2009, the music blog was first to cover some of today’s stars like Lana Del Rey, Hozier and Haim. It branched out with a management and consultancy leg early 2016 to put its passive expertise to work.

Chris Park started writing about Korean and Japanese music in 2009 covering all genres of music. Co-founded KoreanIndie.com as a joint project in 2011 until 2013 when Chris became the sole owner. Focusing on introducing independent music from South Korea across all genres. With the help of volunteer writers and Korean musicians, new artists are presented for international audiences to listen and buy the music. KoreanIndie.com supplies news, reviews, editorials, and interviews for the English language international audience.

Marty Sartini Garner is editor in chief of FLOOD Magazine. He lives in Los Angeles, where he pretends like he’s not impressed by celebrity culture and is doing his best to become a Dodgers fan. He’s also contributed to Aquarium Drunkard, Pitchfork, Grantland, and FILTER. He’s interviewed Thom Yorke, Randy Newman, and Jonathan Lethem, but he’s certain that the only subject who would leave him starstruck would be Verne Lundquist. He is an ardent follower of LSU football and the Montreal Canadiens, as anyone who has ever sat next to him at a party knows all too well.

Hailing from Wisconsin, Brendan came to LA to attend the University of Southern California. It was here that he discovered his knack for music and the business that surrounds it. He currently heads the Public Relations of The Nations and Lowly Palace. Additionally, he manages an up-and-coming artist, HVNNIBVL who is poised for a breakout 2017.

Paul Bridgewater has been the editor of award-winning music website The Line of Best Fit for the last five years, helping to grow it from a small bedroom blog to one of the biggest wholly independent voices on new music anywhere on the web. As an advocate for emerging talent from across the globe, he’s worked to keep the site true to its original ethos – “celebrate or ignore” – throughout its first ten years of life.

We are Almendra Hernández, Aaron Cortés and Abraham Huitrón from Mexico City. The really peculiar and young music team at Sopitas.com. Our thing is to write a little bit of everything. We try to be very selective and careful with the content, videos, releases, concerts and band proposals. We support national talent #HechoEnMexico.

Kirsten Spruch is the current Managing Editor at music media site Baeble Music. After graduating from high school, she knew exactly what field she wanted to work in: music. On a whim, she decided to apply for an internship at Baeble, where she was hired as the social media coordinator after only one month. One year later and she is still at Baeble, but now as Managing Editor, where she manages a team of writers, interviews artists, reviews music, handles their social media, and hosts several on-camera segments such as The Writer’s Block, The Dive, and more. When she’s not at the office, she’s at her apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn working on her own music, which she writes and self produces. 

Nathan Lankford is a rare breed. A native Austinite with a dedication to covering local music, as well as that of the acts coming into town. He’s the editor-in-chief for Austintownhall.com, as well as the owner of ATH Records; his work with both will always have an Austin-centric focus. His tastes focus on jangle pop, indie rock, folk and obscure reggae, but he’ll listen to anything and everything that comes his way. When he’s not covering music, he spends his days teaching middle school English and coaching soccer, but only when it doesn’t interfere with his music passions.

Gillian Driscoll is a music tastemaker with a penchant for pop colors, pop music, and Prince. You’ll find Gillian sharing her flavors of the week on her music blog Sound Dessert, which features the best emerging artists that deserve to be heard. When she’s not writing about bands, she’s working with them via her artist development company, Sound Dessert Consulting. Gillian moved to Austin, by way of NYC, in early 2013 after having the time of her life at SXSW. She looks forward to discovering new music at the festival each year.

Derek Robertson is a freelance music writer and digital journalist with over eight years’ experience contributing to a variety of publications, both in print and online. Having written for the likes of the Quietus, Dummy, Loud & Quiet, The 405, and Le Cool, as well as a three-year stint as the English Editor of PERDIZ magazine, he is now Senior Associate Editor at Drowned In Sound, where he oversees editorial direction and is involved in digital strategy. Currently based in Amsterdam, he also contributes to Subbacultcha, an independent music and art platform devoted to emerging artists, Europavox.com, and provides content for several internationally renowned Dutch festivals.

Brenna Ehrlich is the Editor-in-Chief of the Talkhouse Music. She previously served as the Senior Pop Editor at MTV News, Senior Editor at the O Music Awards, and Associate Editor of Media and Entertainment at Mashable — and has contributed to Rolling Stone, CNN, Nylon, Bandcamp and several other publications. She’s also the author of humor blog and book Stuff Hipsters Hate: A Field Guide to the Passionate Opinions of the Indifferent and YA book Placid Girl — plus she plays drums and sings in the band Medium Mystic.

Andrew Sacher has been writing about music at BrooklynVegan since 2010, but he’s been obsessing over it since hearing The Beach Boys at age 6. In addition to writing, he’s helped curate events and playlists. He has represented BrooklynVegan at SXSW for the past five years, as well as at music festivals like Firefly and Lockn’, and on BBC Radio 1. He is currently a senior editor at BV and living in New York City.

WE FOUND NEW MUSIC is an artist discovery platform dedicated to introducing exceptional artists to music industry leaders and organizations. In the past 4 years, we have helped introduce over 300 artists through performance & interview sessions, blogs, radio shows, Concerts & DJ sets with today’s most relevant artists, including FRENSHIP, The Aces, Bishop Briggs, and Billie Eilish. This will be WFNM’s third time presenting an official showcase at SXSW. Learn more at WEFOUNDNEWMUSIC.COM.

We are Almendra Hernández, Aaron Cortés and Abraham Huitrón from Mexico City. The really peculiar and young music team at Sopitas.com. Our thing is to write a little bit of everything. We try to be very selective and careful with the content, videos, releases, concerts and band proposals. We support national talent #HechoEnMexico.

Ben Umanov started MetalSucks in 2006 with his childhood friend Matt. He is also a partner in Blast Beat Network, an advertising and content network for heavy metal sites, an artist manager, and has worked at record labels, management and booking agencies in the past.

Hannah Angst is a former record store clerk turned editor of The Wild Honey Pie. In addition, she runs digital marketing for the label and management services division of Girlie Action. She enjoys talking about John Wick, learning the dances in K Pop music videos and struggling to finish crossword puzzles.

Rachel Brodsky is a music and culture writer and editor. Her writing has been featured in SPIN, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Paste, CLRVYNT, MTV, the New York Observer, LA Weekly and others. She’s been on staff as a Staff Music Writer with Paste Magazine since October 2016. Prior to that, she was an editor at SPIN.com for two years. She lives in Queens with her fiancee and two cats, one of whom is named Jones for Sigourney Weaver’s tabby in Alien. Despite writing about music for a living, she generally prefers to be in bed before 11 p.m. with her laptop and a bowl of snacks.

A recent graduate of Davidson College, Peter Bowman is a filmmaker and writer based in Charlotte, NC, working on everything from shorts to music videos to commercials. He’s also a contributing writer for All Things Go and curates playlists for Let Me Get Music. He loves mopey French films, hates biopics, and wishes more people would listen to Jóhann Jóhannsson’s recent LP Orphée.

Disco Naïveté rides the buzz with its knees pulled in. Established in 2009, the music blog was first to cover some of today’s stars like Lana Del Rey, Hozier and Haim. It branched out with a management and consultancy leg early 2016 to put its passive expertise to work.

Hailing from Wisconsin, Brendan came to LA to attend the University of Southern California. It was here that he discovered his knack for music and the business that surrounds it. He currently heads the Public Relations of The Nations and Lowly Palace. Additionally, he manages an up-and-coming artist, HVNNIBVL who is poised for a breakout 2017.

Ben Kaye is News Editor for Consequence of Sound, a leading online magazine covering the latest in music, film, and television. Raised just outside Boston, educated on Long Island (Hofstra University), and living in Brooklyn, Ben has been covering music for some seven years now. In addition to helping run CoS’ daily news section, he contributes heavily to live coverage and features with both his pen and his camera. He has also worked in comic book journalism and owns what some would call an obscene amount of comics and memorabilia.

Robert Williams is a Senior Staff Writer for Metal-Rules and Bulldozer Magazine. In addition to heavy metal journalism, you might catch Robert playing lead guitar for WITCHES MARK or as the rhythm guitarist in IGNITOR. He eats, breaths and sleeps Heavy Metal. One could argue that Heavy Metal is his whole world, well… besides fast girls and fast cars, anyway. His favorite metal bands include Accept, Angel Witch, Destruction, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kreator, Manowar, Yngwie Malmsteen, RIOT, Twisted Tower Dire & Venom. Robert enjoys consuming copious amounts of cheap beer & malt liquor, worshiping his meticulously alphabetically organized CD collection & petting dogs.

Originally from The Bronx, my name is Austin but most people call me Aus for short and my fianceé calls me papí (insert smirk emoji here). Allen Iverson is the greatest player to player basketball and don’t argue with me, I won’t listen anyway. I’m pretty confident I can out shoot J.R. Smith when it comes to Hennessey but hey, who knows. I hold a ton of influences such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Swaggy P and others, but I won’t list all of them. I have a small obsession with sneakers, which makes my role as an Associate Editor at HYPEBEAST a match made in heaven. When I have time I make music on my couch and imagine what it would be like to perform on a grand stage one day. Other than that, I just might be the most laid back person you’ve met.

Tim is the editor of London-based new music blog pioneer The Blue Walrus, where he has spent more than a decade unearthing new and exciting bands from the UK and beyond. He currently co-hosts the monthly Hopscotch live shows at London’s The Social and can be found propping up the bar at various gigs across the capital.

Chris Park started writing about Korean and Japanese music in 2009 covering all genres of music. Co-founded KoreanIndie.com as a joint project in 2011 until 2013 when Chris became the sole owner. Focusing on introducing independent music from South Korea across all genres. With the help of volunteer writers and Korean musicians, new artists are presented for international audiences to listen and buy the music. KoreanIndie.com supplies news, reviews, editorials, and interviews for the English language international audience.

Morgan Davis sells bootleg queso on the streets of Austin in order to fund Loser City, the multimedia collective he co-runs. When he isn’t doing that, he gets complimented and/or threatened by Austin’s musical community for stuff he writes at Ovrld, which he is the Managing Editor of.

Tim is the editor of London-based new music blog pioneer The Blue Walrus, where he has spent more than a decade unearthing new and exciting bands from the UK and beyond. He currently co-hosts the monthly Hopscotch live shows at London’s The Social and can be found propping up the bar at various gigs across the capital.

A lifelong music geek, Bill has been writing for BrooklynVegan for nearly 10 years, having lived through shitgaze, chillwave, seapunk and and other scenes he only sort of remembers. He is currently a Senior Editor at BrooklynVegan.

Julian Bridges is a writer, filmmaker and musician living in New York City. He graduated from the University of Michigan with Highest Honors in May, where he received degrees in Jazz and Classical Performance and was named the Presser Foundation Undergraduate Scholar. Bridges has performed at venues including The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, The Detroit Jazz Festival and Lincoln Center, has studied at the National Conservatory of Paris, and is currently a contributor at mxdwn.com.

Troy Meyer is the co-founder of B3SCI, a California-based music blog (blahblahblahscience.com), record label (B3SCI Records), and concert promoter (B3SCI Presents) featuring the best new talent worldwide. B3SCI Records has released music from Jungle, Moses Sumney, Zella Day, Marian Hill, SKOTT, and POWERS amongst others; and B3SCI Presents has curated and promoted early performances from The 1975, Tove Lo, Gallant, and many more. His ten years of industry experience includes label management and development and blog management and editing.

Andrew Sacher has been writing about music at BrooklynVegan since 2010, but he’s been obsessing over it since hearing The Beach Boys at age 6. In addition to writing, he’s helped curate events and playlists. He has represented BrooklynVegan at SXSW for the past five years, as well as at music festivals like Firefly and Lockn’, and on BBC Radio 1. He is currently a senior editor at BV and living in New York City.

Disco Naïveté rides the buzz with its knees pulled in. Established in 2009, the music blog was first to cover some of today’s stars like Lana Del Rey, Hozier and Haim. It branched out with a management and consultancy leg early 2016 to put its passive expertise to work.

Gillian Driscoll is a music tastemaker with a penchant for pop colors, pop music, and Prince. You’ll find Gillian sharing her flavors of the week on her music blog Sound Dessert, which features the best emerging artists that deserve to be heard. When she’s not writing about bands, she’s working with them via her artist development company, Sound Dessert Consulting. Gillian moved to Austin, by way of NYC, in early 2013 after having the time of her life at SXSW. She looks forward to discovering new music at the festival each year.

Reese Hayward is a LA-based, happy-go-lucky writer with an appreciation for both the underground and the more topical music realms. When writing Reese tries to set the scene for the reader to make them feel as though they are right there with him at the event. Hip-hop and electronic music are his main focuses but he also has a strong affinity for classics like Queen and CCR. On weekends you can find him at one of the many great Los Angeles speakeasies or causing permanent damage to his eardrums at a litany of fine music venues across Tinseltown.

Colin is a writer, editor and photographer in Calgary, AB. As the Music Editor of BeatRoute Magazine, he stays abreast of international and Western Canadian music for dissemination to both a print and online readership. Colin is also on a number of programming committees in Calgary and organizes a monthly party series for each BeatRoute issue release.

Brandon Bogajewicz has been “writing” about new music since 2009 when he started The Burning Ear. While still posting daily, he expanded to the monthly new music and original artwork vinyl club Vinyl Moon. This year he teamed both of those endeavors up with Fancy PR for an official showcase where you can find him rubber-necking between the two stages. When not eating breakfast tacos in Austin he can be found eating lesser tacos in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, or somewhere on the road.

Paul Bridgewater has been the editor of award-winning music website The Line of Best Fit for the last five years, helping to grow it from a small bedroom blog to one of the biggest wholly independent voices on new music anywhere on the web. As an advocate for emerging talent from across the globe, he’s worked to keep the site true to its original ethos – “celebrate or ignore” – throughout its first ten years of life.

A recent graduate of Davidson College, Peter Bowman is a filmmaker and writer based in Charlotte, NC, working on everything from shorts to music videos to commercials. He’s also a contributing writer for All Things Go and curates playlists for Let Me Get Music. He loves mopey French films, hates biopics, and wishes more people would listen to Jóhann Jóhannsson’s recent LP Orphée.

Nathan Lankford is a rare breed. A native Austinite with a dedication to covering local music, as well as that of the acts coming into town. He’s the editor-in-chief for Austintownhall.com, as well as the owner of ATH Records; his work with both will always have an Austin-centric focus. His tastes focus on jangle pop, indie rock, folk and obscure reggae, but he’ll listen to anything and everything that comes his way. When he’s not covering music, he spends his days teaching middle school English and coaching soccer, but only when it doesn’t interfere with his music passions.

Marcos Hassan is a staff writer at Remezcla, a noise maker/lover, and a writer since 2005. His work has also appeared in Noisey MX, Tiny Mixtapes, and more.

Justin is a photographer and music journalist from Rancho Cucamonga, CA. As a photographer, he splits his time between Guatemala and the U.S., documenting music scenes in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Antigua. As an editor at All Things Go, he curates innovative and unexpected new music. He loves travel, music and documenting that untold local history.

Nathan Headden is a freelance photographer and music writer; having written for a number of online and print publications over the past decade. In 2010, he and Kevin McStravick started Operation Every Band, a Tumblr-based music blog that focuses on reviewing music festival lineups, most notably every artist that officially plays SXSW each year. During SXSW 2015, using a borrowed camera in the photo pit at Chance the Rapper’s “Free the People” Showcase, he caught the music photography bug, and has been photographing musicians at shows and festivals in his hometown of Dallas ever since.

Brandon Bogajewicz has been “writing” about new music since 2009 when he started The Burning Ear. While still posting daily, he expanded to the monthly new music and original artwork vinyl club Vinyl Moon. This year he teamed both of those endeavors up with Fancy PR for an official showcase where you can find him rubber-necking between the two stages. When not eating breakfast tacos in Austin he can be found eating lesser tacos in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, or somewhere on the road.

Brandon Bogajewicz has been “writing” about new music since 2009 when he started The Burning Ear. While still posting daily, he expanded to the monthly new music and original artwork vinyl club Vinyl Moon. This year he teamed both of those endeavors up with Fancy PR for an official showcase where you can find him rubber-necking between the two stages. When not eating breakfast tacos in Austin he can be found eating lesser tacos in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, or somewhere on the road.

Brenna Ehrlich is the Editor-in-Chief of the Talkhouse Music. She previously served as the Senior Pop Editor at MTV News, Senior Editor at the O Music Awards, and Associate Editor of Media and Entertainment at Mashable — and has contributed to Rolling Stone, CNN, Nylon, Bandcamp and several other publications. She’s also the author of humor blog and book Stuff Hipsters Hate: A Field Guide to the Passionate Opinions of the Indifferent and YA book Placid Girl — plus she plays drums and sings in the band Medium Mystic.

Nastassia Baroni is a Sydney-based music journalist and the Managing Editor of Australian music website Music Feeds. She’s passionate about homegrown Australian music, The West Wing and defending the merits of the Eurovision Song Contest. She finds writing in the third person deeply uncomfortable.

Ben Umanov started MetalSucks in 2006 with his childhood friend Matt. He is also a partner in Blast Beat Network, an advertising and content network for heavy metal sites, an artist manager, and has worked at record labels, management and booking agencies in the past.

A lifelong music geek, Bill has been writing for BrooklynVegan for nearly 10 years, having lived through shitgaze, chillwave, seapunk and and other scenes he only sort of remembers. He is currently a Senior Editor at BrooklynVegan.

Brandon Bogajewicz has been “writing” about new music since 2009 when he started The Burning Ear. While still posting daily, he expanded to the monthly new music and original artwork vinyl club Vinyl Moon. This year he teamed both of those endeavors up with Fancy PR for an official showcase where you can find him rubber-necking between the two stages. When not eating breakfast tacos in Austin he can be found eating lesser tacos in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, or somewhere on the road.

Hannah was born in Austin and raised on live music, later attending the University of Texas where she wrote an award-winning thesis on the rise of Kpop. After graduation, Hannah wrote for Billboard Korea before continuing her studies of Music Business at NYU in New York City. There, Hannah achieved her Master’s degree by publishing another Kpop dissertation, this time on the power of super fans in Korea. While at NYU, Hannah founded moonROK Media, Inc., the world’s premier English source of Kpop news and entertainment. She now works full-time as Editor-in-Chief at moonROK, and recently moved to Seoul to open up the company’s offices there.

Morgan Enos is a songwriter, publicist, and music journalist. He makes many records as part of Medium Mystic, Other Houses, and Hollow Sunshine, has written for Talkhouse Music  Nine Bullets and Glide Magazine, and is one half of Five Roses Press. His Sun Kil Moon parody EP went viral in 2016, and was featured on NPR – All Songs Considered, The A.V. Club, Stereogum and more. He resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Nastassia Baroni is a Sydney-based music journalist and the Managing Editor of Australian music website Music Feeds. She’s passionate about homegrown Australian music, The West Wing and defending the merits of the Eurovision Song Contest. She finds writing in the third person deeply uncomfortable.

Nate Rogers is an associate editor at FLOOD Magazine. He lives in Los Angeles, where he was born and raised—and will truthfully likely die. He is the magazine’s foremost expert on Nicolas Cage and Guided by Voices, as well as the frequent, understated intersection of the two. He is skeptical of any celebrity Twitter account that is actually funny. He still hasn’t seen Joan Didion in person but he looks for her everyday.

WE FOUND NEW MUSIC is an artist discovery platform dedicated to introducing exceptional artists to music industry leaders and organizations. In the past 4 years, we have helped introduce over 300 artists through performance & interview sessions, blogs, radio shows, Concerts & DJ sets with today’s most relevant artists, including FRENSHIP, The Aces, Bishop Briggs, and Billie Eilish. This will be WFNM’s third time presenting an official showcase at SXSW. Learn more at WEFOUNDNEWMUSIC.COM.

Mike Clemenza is the co-founder of B3SCI, a California-based music blog (blahblahblahscience.com), record label (B3SCI Records), and concert promoter (B3SCI Presents) featuring the best new talent worldwide. B3SCI Records has released music from Jungle, Moses Sumney, Zella Day, Marian Hill, SKOTT, and POWERS amongst others; and B3SCI Presents has curated and promoted early performances from The 1975, Tove Lo, Gallant, and many more. His ten years of industry experience includes label management and development and blog managment and editing.

Derek Robertson is a freelance music writer and digital journalist with over eight years’ experience contributing to a variety of publications, both in print and online. Having written for the likes of the Quietus, Dummy, Loud & Quiet, The 405, and Le Cool, as well as a three-year stint as the English Editor of PERDIZ magazine, he is now Senior Associate Editor at Drowned In Sound, where he oversees editorial direction and is involved in digital strategy. Currently based in Amsterdam, he also contributes to Subbacultcha, an independent music and art platform devoted to emerging artists, Europavox.com, and provides content for several internationally renowned Dutch festivals.

Ben Umanov started MetalSucks in 2006 with his childhood friend Matt. He is also a partner in Blast Beat Network, an advertising and content network for heavy metal sites, an artist manager, and has worked at record labels, management and booking agencies in the past.

Morgan Enos is a songwriter, publicist, and music journalist. He makes many records as part of Medium Mystic, Other Houses, and Hollow Sunshine, has written for Talkhouse Music  Nine Bullets and Glide Magazine, and is one half of Five Roses Press. His Sun Kil Moon parody EP went viral in 2016, and was featured on NPR – All Songs Considered, The A.V. Club, Stereogum and more. He resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Ben Kaye is News Editor for Consequence of Sound, a leading online magazine covering the latest in music, film, and television. Raised just outside Boston, educated on Long Island (Hofstra University), and living in Brooklyn, Ben has been covering music for some seven years now. In addition to helping run CoS’ daily news section, he contributes heavily to live coverage and features with both his pen and his camera. He has also worked in comic book journalism and owns what some would call an obscene amount of comics and memorabilia.

Will Oliver started We All Want Someone To Shout For​ in the summer of 2008 as a way to keep showing his friends what new music he was listening to before leaving for college. It turned into something much more than he could ever imagine. What started as a mp3 blog whose job it was to find the freshest new sounds, it’s now turned its eye to the live music scene. Will has since found a passion for concert photography, photographing acts at the smallest DIY rooms in Brooklyn, to the big time stages such as MSG. He keeps hoping to find new ways to keep his passion going.

Paul Bridgewater has been the editor of award-winning music website The Line of Best Fit for the last five years, helping to grow it from a small bedroom blog to one of the biggest wholly independent voices on new music anywhere on the web. As an advocate for emerging talent from across the globe, he’s worked to keep the site true to its original ethos – “celebrate or ignore” – throughout its first ten years of life.

Kirsten Spruch is the current Managing Editor at music media site Baeble Music. After graduating from high school, she knew exactly what field she wanted to work in: music. On a whim, she decided to apply for an internship at Baeble, where she was hired as the social media coordinator after only one month. One year later and she is still at Baeble, but now as Managing Editor, where she manages a team of writers, interviews artists, reviews music, handles their social media, and hosts several on-camera segments such as The Writer’s Block, The Dive, and more. When she’s not at the office, she’s at her apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn working on her own music, which she writes and self produces. 

Nick Gerts is a Soundfriend contributor. By day, he works as a sports page designer and editor. By night, his works with music include Dissension Records, RedRacer and Queen Kwong.

Will Collins spends his time thinking about food but writes about music and movies. He’s a firm believer that North Carolina pulled pork is the reigning king of BBQ.

Austin-based journalist Cassie Morien has been covering music since 2002. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of Central Florida, Morien served as an editor for Boca Raton magazine until she couldn’t stand one more second of Florida’s swamps and sunburns. She finally escaped to Texas in 2013. Morien is a staff writer for Indie Shuffle and contributes to Teeth magazine. She also serves as the official blogger for SunFest Music Festival. When she’s not damaging her eardrums, Morien can be found tweeting for tech giants at INK Public Relations. She is madly in love with hashtags, music festivals, milkshakes, synth-pop, and the human race.

Kevin McStravick started Operation Every Band in 2010 with a blank spreadsheet and a mission: to listen to, rate and review every band playing the 2,000+ artists on the SXSW lineup.The opportunity allows discovery in all genres and to share recommendations for attendees, both in Austin and in spirit, every March. Kevin has participated in SXSW as a panelist, writer and lover of music every year and hopes to continue to do so until his legs finally give out from shimmying and shaking for a week straight. Kevin lives outside of Denton, Texas with his wife, two dogs and a new baby ready to take on her first SXSW in 2017.