check, check 1-2-3…

I wrote for SoundCheck magazine from about 2002-2003, and I’ve been out of the loop since I decided to focus on school and stopped writing for a while.

About a few years back, I thought I’d jump back into the writing game and searched around for the website, only to find out that SoundCheck was no more.

Turns out, in 2004 the magazine stopped printing mainly because there is so much revenue from ads to go around, especially when you release your product for free.

During my stint at writing, I got the bug and wanted to start my own publication. I did, and had a great deal of articles and interviews I was excited to get out into the world. It never got off the ground even after the first issue. I found it hard to work without ads, and find a way to scam school by making free copies, all the while working my one-person operation.

Enough of the sadness, let’s get on with the awesome experiences…

1-Seeing my first review in SC (Bouncing Souls!)

2-Interviewing Reel Big Fish in their backstage hangout area. Aaron and I had the same Adidas shoes on and made me take a picture of our raised feet in the air. We sat on a couch together and chatted, our interview was more like a conversation with best buddies.

3-Again seeing my RBF interview in SC, with my photography.

4-Since I’m not from the New England area, which SC was based in Boston, my inbox used to be flooded with requests from Boston bands to do writeups on them.

5-Record labels sending me records to review and saving me wads of cash.

6-Boston, 2002 St. Pat’s Weekend/DKM :)

7-River City Rebels forgetting to put me on guestlist for their show—which was okay because I already had tix. They felt bad and wanted to hang out after the show, unfortunately I couldn’t (angry exclamation marks !!!!) but we’d promised to work out a future interview.

8-Dan O’ Day and I playing phone tag. Finally he called my house and we chatted about No Good, No Time, No Pride.

9-Me getting random email from Alex/Los Creepers wondering about interviewing his band. Which was funny because I had booked tix way early to go to Hootenanny that year and they were playing. So it worked out. We had a great time chatting under the sunny OC sky and got to see Little Richard and Social D. Up front.

10-Getting packages from Alex’s Split Seven label, hearing music from all these great LA bands.

11-Learned about the in’s and out’s of publishing from Rachel Varla of Varla Magazine, which she gave me such a fab interview for my zine about the biz.

12-Probably one of the coolest and best interviews ever was with Roger Miret. Played a club show fresh off his Good Charlotte/arena tour. We met before the show and promised to talk to me afterward. He sought me out and we chatted about cars and first concerts. Again, more like a get-to-know-you conversation. He also gave me his address because he wanted to see the issue when it came out.

Funny that this entry was started because I stumbled across some online archives of SoundCheck and eventually want to post them here!

I’m also going to dig up some of my past writing (the Kneeduster zine stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day) and post it around here or maybe my website I’m working on. So keep a watch on that.

Plus, it was also fun to reminisce about the old days.