Growing up, I didn't want to be a musician, but I knew I wanted to pursue a career in music. My father would tell you how I spent my teens working at a music store, going to concerts, and once lying about my whereabouts so that I could see Nirvana (after he told me I couldn't.) That's when I learned to follow my instincts.
I grew up in California, not far from San Francisco. It was the 90s, and I was swept up by the area's music scene, but especially its zine culture. Kathleen Henna's My Life with Evan Dando changed my life, as did other music publications like Spin and Alternative Press, which is how I discovered Boston's alt-music scene and musicians like Juliana Hatfield, Belly, The Lemonheads, and Buffalo Tom. I loved what I read and heard, and decided I wanted to be a music journalist. I began writing essays and submitting them to magazines, albeit unsuccessfully — I mean, who wants to read album reviews by a 14-year-old?
Now, I get to produce music programs and write about music and artists and culture. I'm also a filmmaker and in pre-production on my first music documentary, which involves extensive research. In my case, that means watching other music documentaries, some of which have been right under my nose throughout my work as a senior producer at WGBH.
From an eight-part series about the history of music recording to a deep dive into Country music and an electric story about how Native American's shaped rock 'n' roll, the documentaries and programs below are available to stream right now. They're uplifting and informative, and I hope they inspire you to take ideas of your own to new levels, as I have, during this time of social distancing.
