If there is one thing 27 year-old Grayson Currin would suggest to college students with their eyes set so dreamily toward music journalism, it would be that college should “be less about journalism school,” and “more about learning something you may never have the chance to study again”.
Currin, who graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in Biology, is now the editor of Independent Weekly and writes freelance for countless other music news sources (Pitchfork, Spin, and The Washington Post, to name a few). While in college, he wrote for the student newspaper between his dissections of small amphibians. “Like a madman, for two years...” he says, which was enough to garner attention from Independent Weekly, who sought him out to hire in his Sophomore year. “They needed more help writing about music in Raleigh,” he says. “They hired a college Sophomore, me, who really didn't know what he was doing.”
He began working with them full-time two months before his graduation in 2005, and quickly became editor in February 2006.
Further extending his reach, Currin dabbled with other magazines and papers, and even had a brief stint as a janitor to bring in some extra money to support a modest lifestyle.
After submitting a total of three critiques to Pitchfork they hired him in 2006 as, in his words, “a sort of retained freelancer”. He now writes twenty to thirty articles for them annually, does several feature pieces, and has a monthly column composing a review and think-piece called “The Out Door”.
Currin’s writing style stands out among his colleagues at Pitchfork, as it is particularly spacious and colorful. He hopes to avoid the “self-referential bickering” that often plagues music critics and journalists (though he admits, he is guilty of it), and reads articles centered around a more focused, journalistic narrative and extensive art critiques in order to combat the hold of that style. People sometimes consider Pitchfork writers to be pompous, nose-in-the-air snobs, and when asked whether this has impacted his style, he simply replies that he would rather be seen as pretentious, than pretend that he does not have an articulate, academic opinion. He goes on to say, “This isn't the elementary school playground; I'm OK if people feel the need to call me or my colleagues names, you know?”
When he is not writing, editing, or co-directing the North Carolina music festival “Hopscotch”, Currin keeps in contact with record publicists and friends involved with touring bands, scours Twitter and several music blogs, and reads interviews and essays about artists that interest him, in order to keep up on the latest releases and music news. “[I try] to pay attention to music wherever I am,” he says, but I’m sure the one-thousand-and-some emails he gets regarding music every day helps a little as well.
Considering the best and most frustrating aspects of his work, Currin says that it all revolves around the amount of work left to be done. “There is so much music, which makes my job endlessly entertaining and endlessly frustrating, like Sisyphus with love,” he laughs, referring to the Greek king Sisyphus, forced to an eternity of rolling a massive boulder up a mountain. “[It] applies on a daily, weekly, and yearly level, forever.” But at the end of the day, after all of the boulder-pushing, Grayson Currin remains happy with his position; “I’ve gotten better at it, I hope.”
Additional bits-n-pieces:
ReplyDeleteIn summary, the biggest thing I learned from Grayson was that the best knowledge you get comes from the practice of whatever you're learning. As kind of a sub-point to that, don't be afraid to study things that don't directly apply to the job you hope for, because they'll likely help somehow anyway.
What I learned from this experience, rather than Grayson, is that I should probably do a little bit more pre-planning, just to make sure nothing falls between the cracks.
I basically chose Grayson because of his writing style. I had known him from his reviews and articles, and the way he wrote stood out from most other people working there.
Pitchfork linked his e-mail, so it was simple enough to get a hold of him and ask if he'd be okay doing a brief student interview, he said sure right away.
When I got ahold of his number, I asked for some general background information to make sure I had it all right. Where he went to school, the major, his age, all pretty basic stuff.
I asked if he felt his major was going to help him, at the time, and he chuckled a bit about that. As I said in the article above, he told me it gave him the passion and dedication to research that he uses now.
Asking how he got involved with IndyWeek and P4K, he talked about writing for the school paper, and how that was really the key to where he is today, because that's what got him noticed.
I asked where he's written, and what jobs he's held, he listed off Spin, Village Voice, Malibu Magazine, Nashville Scene, and The Washington Post, that he directs a music festival every year, etc...
When I asked if he felt that people need to have multiple jobs to work in his field, he more or less said that he's very lucky with the way he's working right now.
So, really, what surprised me most was that he suggested so readily that people branch out and study things they're interested in just because they might not get another chance. It made me consider the things I've wanted to pursue, but dropped because I figured they might get in my way and take up my time; I actually see those as avenues to follow and loop around to aid my knowledge, now, rather than obstacles to an ultimate goal.