You Sing, I Write Celebrates 1-Year Anniversary!

It's really crazy to think that exactly one year ago today I began my blog. Originally, I started You Sing, I Write as a creative outlet since my current day job didn't (and still isn't) writing-related. Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a writer, just not sure what field or genre until my senior year of college. When I landed my internship at MTV News Online I knew for sure that becoming a music journalist was my career goal. Little did I know how competitive the field was and with the current job market, the outlook doesn't look too promising. So, to keep up my writing and creativity I thought, "Why not start a music blog?" I go to tons of concerts throughout the year, might as well cover them and try to get interviews with each band.

The History:
It was the middle of October and I already was planning to see Switchfoot at Hammerstein Ballroom with a bunch of friends, so I decided to contact their management and see what I could do. Surprisingly, within 24 hours of emailing I received a response back and was able to set up an interview with the band. Lucky for me, MTV was just launching it's own concert blog so I began covering shows and writing up my reviews for them as well as my own blog. Everything spiraled from there and soon I was doing phone interviews with bands on my lunch breaks, getting CD's sent to me in the mail on a weekly — sometimes daily — basis and the rest, as they say, is history.

This past year alone I've conquered some of my life goals, strange enough as it may seem. I lived my own version of Almost Famous when I went on tour with Army of Me for a few tour dates. That experience was like no other and I was able to meet and interview not only each member of Army of Me, but another up-and-coming band, Lights Resolve as well as interview Jeph from The Used on their tour bus. Looking back, never in a million years would I have dreamed my blog would have taken off to where it is today and there is still so much I want to do with it within the next year!

Of course my goal is to eventually have a full-time writing gig somewhere in New York, or maybe California. Hey, even Nashville sounds pretty nice at this point too, who knows. But for now, I couldn't be happier. I've been introduced to some amazing bands this past year and hope you all have enjoyed my interviews and reviews of each of them. While I can cross off going on tour with a band on my life "to-do" list, I hope that in the near future I can have many more amazing touring experiences and be able to vividly capture and chronicle each tale on this blog. I hope you continue to read and look forward to the new bands I feature each week. Thanks for all of your support and continuous comments throughout the past year. Keep them coming!

And, for being such loyal readers, I want to invite you all out to Maxwell's in Hoboken on November 8th. I'm planning a concert with three amazingly talented bands that I think you should all spend some time getting to know — Josh Charles, Joey DeGraw and The Canon Logic. Check them out on MySpace and hope to see you Nov. 8th!