Interview with Ryan Reed

Interview With Ryan Reed by Matt Williams

Ryan Reed is a freelance music journalist who has contributed to pop culture online magazines such as PopMatters, Glide, Consequence of Sound, and even national music magazines Paste and Billboard, just to name a few. Reed currently lives in Knoxville with his wife Jennifer, though the two formerly lived in Williamsburg, Kentucky, where Reed attended high school and the University of the Cumberlands where he graduated with a degree in English.

Matt Williams: You’ve come a long way with your writing career, starting as a student journalist at the University of the Cumberlands. Now, you write for Billboard, Paste, Boston Phoenix, Metro Pulse, and more. What goes through your mind when you consider this advancement you’ve made?

Ryan Reed: It seems pretty surreal, given how quickly I've been able to make that leap. It seems like only yesterday that I was writing over-long rants for The Patriot about albums nobody else cared about. I feel pretty good, even though feel like a small fish in a big pond sometimes.

MW: What peaked your interest in journalism writing?

RR: All my life, music and writing have been my two biggest passions. So from a pretty young age, I loved reading about music as much as I loved listening to it. Rolling Stone was a big deal to my 13-year-old self. I spent a lot of time analyzing those pages, learning about fascinating genres and classic albums and all sorts of stuff that was supposed to never lead to a career. At the same time, I was also learning how to write, I suppose.

MW: You mainly write about music; are there any other subjects you’re interested in writing about?

RR: I've barely covered anything else in my career so far, but I have briefly touched on TV and film. I would love to expand my reach more into those worlds, as I'm almost equally interested in those areas. That's actually a goal of mine at the moment—to break into TV and film reviewing, to start profiling directors and screenwriters, not just songwriters and musicians. Also, way back when, I wrote a few basketball write-ups for the local newspaper. If the opportunity presented itself, I wouldn't even mind doing that on occasion, just to mix things up. It's nice to sharpen the other tools in your shed once in awhile. And I mean that in a totally non-dirty way. I've published a couple poems, too. I'd like to do a lot more of that.

MW: You got your first writing job at PopMatters as a writer and now you’re the associate music editor. How did this happen?

RR: My first writing gig, if you can call it that since it's unpaid, was at PopMatters, where I started as a music writer. I wrote reviews and did interviews there for a number of months before I expanded and started writing for lots of other places. I got an Associate Music Editor position at a site called Consequence of Sound, so I figured, "Hey, maybe I could also do that for PopMatters!" I reached out to my editor and expressed my interest, and before I knew it, I was pulling double-duty. I've since parted ways with the Consequence folks, but I'm currently still on staff at PopMatters.

MW: Paste and Billboard are pretty big deals. How’d you get hooked up with them?

RR: Both of those came about just from...persistence. I didn't have any connections whatsoever, but I sent lots and lots and lots of e-mails with writing clips and review ideas—and I sent those e-mails to just about anybody whose name I could find on the websites. One thing I am proud of is that I never gave up when I didn't get responses from those places. It took a lot of pitching, but it paid off in the end.

MW: You’ve interviewed the Young Veins, Ra Ra Riot, Cake, and Peter Gabriel, just to name a few. Got a favorite interview you’ve done?

RR: Peter Gabriel is definitely a big one, not only because he's enormously famous but also because he's one of my favorite human beings to ever exist. I was pretty terrified and also really, really thrilled. I loved interviewing Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta, which I've actually done twice—and actually just did earlier today. My recent interview with Tim Fite was pretty awesome, as well.

MW: How did you manage to get an interview with somebody as legendary as Peter Gabriel?

RR: Persistence coupled with an awesome editor—and did I mention persistence? Lots of e-mailing and pitching and persuading and hyping and coordinating and canceling and postponing and good times.

MW: Got any more interviews coming up in the near future?

RR: That's the name of the game. That's how I pay the bills these days. Some upcoming interviews/feature stories I’ve got coming up are Tim Fite, The Mars Volta, Choir of Young Believers, M. Ward, Bear in Heaven, Islands, Dr. Dog, Nada Surf, maybe a couple others I've already forgot about.

MW: Who is your dream interview?

RR: Thom Yorke of Radiohead, although he kinda-sorta scares me a little bit...kinda.

MW: You have reviewed live concerts as well, including a Paul McCartney concert. How is reviewing a concert different from reviewing a recorded studio album?

RR: It's a very different experience because you're reviewing an event, not an artifact. You can go back and listen to a studio album 15 more times if necessary. You can't do that with a concert. And no, reliving the experience on an iPhone is not the same. It's a lot of frantic note-taking and scribbling and marking and giving nasty looks to the annoying sorority girls behind you who won't shut up during the encore. I love the mania of reviewing a live show, and it's also a nice change of pace from sitting around on the couch, staring into the dazed glow of my laptop 24/7.

MW: If you could go to any concert and review it, who would you see?

RR: If I could get good seats, I'd pick Radiohead. I still haven't seen them in concert, so that would be perfect.

MW: You’ve reviewed some big name albums too, like Adele’s 21, Manchester Orchestra’s Simple Math, and Radiohead’s King of Limbs remix album. Do you pick the albums you want to review, or are they picked for you?

RR: I pick everything I review. I usually pitch a publication with a specific review idea, or even a list of review ideas, and then my editor from said publication will give me the ol' ye or ne. Sometimes an editor will come to me with an idea (often when they're desperate or when somebody else bailed) and say, "Hey Ryan, you wanna review this?" Other times, giant lists of albums are sent out to writers through an e-mail blast, and those cases are typically first-come, first-served. But I've never reviewed an album I didn't want to review—even the horrible ones.

MW: Do the websites and magazines you review for send you the albums you review for free?

RR: In these increasingly digital days, it's unfortunately becoming more common to get a download, secured online stream, or a really annoying burned copy than a shiny new CD with artwork. It still happens on occasion, though. We reviewers get all our music from publicists or record label contacts, so the publication itself typically has nothing to do with that part of the process. Once I get the assignment for a review, I check my inbox to see if I've received a press release or general "Hey, check this out!" e-mail. If so, I respond and request the album. If not, I Google a lot until I find a contact. Facebook is a good resource for that, surprisingly.

MW: What about free tickets to shows?

RR: I get free tickets to any show I review—sometimes it's a +1, meaning I can bring a friend, and sometimes it's just a solitary ticket. Since I typically don't get paid for doing live reviews, I'm usually pretty picky about what I review, and I usually don't go to shows by myself. Sometimes if I profile a band or review a band's album, I can get a couple tickets to a local show, if I ask nicely. That's a pretty cool perk.

MW: I’ve read before that some actors don’t like to watch their own material. How do you feel about reading your own material? Are you confident in it?

RR: Good question. Being that an essential part of the writing process is revising and editing, I get pretty addicted to going back and looking over what I write, even when it's too late. Sometimes I notice mistakes or awkward spots after something has been published, and I cringe to myself. Time gives a lot of perspective. I might think I just wrote the greatest review ever, and then I read it once it's published and think, "This is garbage." Sometimes I think I just wrote the worst review ever, and then I read it once it's published and think, "This is surprisingly un-terrible."

MW: Are there any writers who inspire you?

RR: In terms of other music journalists/critics, I'm really inspired by Rob Sheffield, who writes frequently on pop culture for Rolling Stone. To me, he's the greatest music writer ever—he's extremely entertaining and totally unique.

MW: Did you always know you wanted to do this?

RR: I knew I wanted to do something creative—write screenplays, write and produce music, write about pop culture, etc. I didn't think any of those things were actually possible, so I majored in English and nearly finished a Masters degree in English Teaching. I haven't done my student teaching yet. If I'd known I could actually do this for a living, my life up to this point may have been a whole lot different. But I don't regret taking the path that's brought me here. It's made me who I am.

MW: What can you say to an aspiring music journalist who wants to be in your position to motivate them to keep trying?

RR: You said it yourself—keep trying. I've gotten as many no’s as I've gotten yes’s. Also, it seems obvious, but you have to write and write and write and write. And read a lot. Particularly write and read a lot of reviews and feature stories and anything you may be interested in writing. Start a blog. Send e-mails. Hustle. Google. Use your noodle. Do your research on a publication if you plan to pitch them. I've learned that the hard way. Be creative. Find your own voice. Even though I love Rob Sheffield, the worst thing I could do is try to write just like him. I want to capture my own spirit, even if I don't always succeed in that.

MW: Was being a music journalist your first career choice? Was there anything else you wanted to do?

RR: Pop culture writer, songwriter, producer, poet, filmmaker—I've wanted to be, and still want to be, all of those things.

MW: Any final words of wisdom?

RR: Don't let anybody ever tell you that your dream is stupid. Dreams are never stupid. Unless your dream is to watch lots of Tyler Perry movies.