Why I wanted to get into Journalism.
A question I get asked a lot what made you want to do that? That being a Journalism degree. Well I had always liked writing as a kid , I enjoyed writing poems, stories and other creative pieces in school. One of my favourite teachers in secondary school was Mrs Robinson, my Year 8 English teacher, who gave me a lot of encouragement whislt I was going through a tough time. One of favourite projects in English was creating our own magazines in class. This made me realise the career out of producing copy.
I eventually began to write for the school’s column in the local paper the Basingstoke Gazzette who eventually did work experience for. I began to realise early on that I wanted work in this field. Even more so when after the work experience it opened my eyes to local newspaper journalism.
Then when I saw the film Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film about music journalism and life on the road I felt (as cliched as it sounded) like I found my calling.
My own experiences with music journalism were extended further when I reached sixth form college and began to work for the college’s own magazine/newspaper. I began to emerse myself in the local music scene of Basingstoke and became friends with many of the bands. I also began to work for the music website Room Thirteen.com as a CD and gig reviewer. The first gig I got to review was Motorhead & Sepultura at Southampton Guildhall. Cd reviewing has it pros and cons, sometimes you get the latest releases for free - however the amount the crap you have to dredge in is hilarious. I lost count how many cheesy European power metal albums I had to review.
As competitive as the music journalism industry is my dream job is working for a publication like Kerrang or Metal Hammer just because I grew up reading them avidly a slightly mad dream but its dreams that keep us going I suppose.
Thanks for reading
Peace Out
