I\u2019m currently working as the Director of Operations for Suoni Per Il Popolo, an experimental music festival<\/a>. Our organisation has been going through some flux over the last couple of years and only just settled on titles. I have been involved in booking, curation, developing and implementing live streaming and now returning to live-show production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I try to listen quite broadly. “Genre agnostic” as they say. Over the past couple of years as live music slowed down my listening habits went more international. In the pre-pandemic times, I would listen largely to local and regional acts. That way I was aware of what was happening in the scene for booking purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These past couple of years I have been exploring a lot more of what\u2019s happening in Africa (Nyege Nyege Tapes<\/a>, Asher Gamedze<\/a>) and the UK (Brownswood Recordings<\/a>, Sault<\/a>). Repetitive Music by Competition<\/a> & Buffering Juju by Dumama + Kechou<\/a> have been things I have played a ton of the last little while as well as the reissues for Universal Liberation Orchestra\u2019s Communion<\/a> and The Same\u2019s Sync or Swim<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wire Magazine<\/a> and Musicworks <\/a>would be the print publications that I follow most closely – I also really like some of the stuff coming out in the quarterly Sound American<\/a>. Online I look at The Quietus and Bandcamp daily. I\u2019m not huge on the streaming platforms so I don\u2019t follow any playlists. I do listen to some internet radio like FSR<\/a> and N10.as<\/a>. I follow some people on Twitter like the Tabs Out podcast and NYC-based music journalist Zach Lipez (whose newsletter<\/a> abundant living is fantastic!). Often my friends and coworkers tell me about music. I think that is my main source of new recommendations. I have been reading Harry Sword\u2019s Monolithic Undertow <\/a>(which is a historical survey of drone music). And an interesting book on the origins of Kwaito called Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and Subjectivity in Post-Apartheid South Africa by Xavier Livermon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was actually thinking of getting a CD player for my HiFi pre-pandemic and then when it hit, that was the push I needed. Sometimes, I fill in at a local record store Sonorama<\/a> and there\u2019s so many used CDs around that you can get amazing stuff for incredibly low prices. I definitely still buy cassettes. Records are something I love but I\u2019m not a purist. I like listening to analog media because it takes my listening away from the screen. When I put something on my stereo system I get to have a little ritual around my listening – it becomes a more intentional moment. Anything I get through my phone or my computer is tied to the whole internet which is work which is distracting. That said, I use Bandcamp a ton.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When I put something on my stereo system I get to have a little ritual around my listening – it becomes a more intentional moment.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I make a point of not listening too much while commuting or walking around – I prefer to listen to the city and sounds around me. I have a Sansui 661 receiver with Elac speakers the other components are all just cobbled together over the years, hand me down from friends or garbage finds – oh I guess except for the early aughts era NAD CD player I mentioned before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I\u2019m listening to pre-release music it is either a release I have played on, a mix sent to me for feedback by friends or a band that would like me to organise a show for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think digital is great for sharing music quickly. The fact that I can listen to albums from folks in Halifax or Vancouver, or even farther afield, just by clicking a link is great. I think the fact that digital music is tied to devices that are multi-functional means that it\u2019s harder to focus just on listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I ‘wishlist’ of a lot of things on Bandcamp. I used to keep a running thread on my Twitter feed of cool releases I found on there but I have slowed on that so it\u2019s mostly the wishlist feature now. If I find the music outside Bandcamp I tend to try to write it down in the margins of one of my various notebooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Byta you are in control of your music. <\/p>\n Read More<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n My coworkers at Suoni Per Il Popolo and bandmates are the people I share music with the most. Generally I just tell them with my voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We held our first IRL edition of Suoni Per Il Popolo this June! Check that out here<\/a>, and stay tuned. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat are you listening to?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do you discover new music?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Where do you do most of your music listening?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do you find and listen to pre-release<\/a> music?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Byta delivers fast and secure audio sharing<\/h3>
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Anything you want to \u201cpromote\u201d?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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