Hey and welcome to the Sonic Culture Studios blog page. My name is CJ and I do a myriad of things including run a recording studio, play music under the moniker Prehistoric Sun and just generally like to create things and admire others creativity and work. Among all the things I do and want to do, the idea of doing a blog has crossed my mind for the last few years.
me at 18 recording at Jake Clarke's (Superheaven) Home Studio
It’s kind of always stayed there since Sonic Culture used to be a blog I ran when I was 18. I wrote a few articles that I shared on Tumblr about local bands, smaller bands on labels and I made a list of songs for people to check out. The roots of the name Sonic Culture came from my love of music and desire for community. Being a pretty solitary person at the time, I was searching for a place to feel that connection with other musicians. When you grow up in a suburb in between two (arguably three) of the most bustling music scenes in the country you tend to feel a bit isolated from the commotion.
Flash forward to the present day and between social anxiety, covid and proximity to places to go to shows, Instagram has become my main source of community. It’s pretty great, but the ground is never steady. New updates and changes to how people see what you share makes it hard to rely on Instagram to spread the word on a new song or a show you’ve got this weekend. I also think that some of the most insightful content I’ve ever encountered has been from blogs.
I grew up getting Guitar World magazine every month. Seeing who was on the cover, learning what pedals the famous guitarists played, but the parts I held onto were the personal questions. Those new splinters of context were everything. They were rare, but these questions helped paint a better picture of who they were as people.
This is why I want to start a blog again. I want to move beyond your standard interview questions and foster a space where artists can get more personal. I hope this blog is a break from the usual forms of trying to promote music and having to jump over hurdles to get your music heard. In 2022 the best fans of music are other musicians and so this blog is first and foremost for us.
The blog is going to be focused on providing interviews with the goal of learning more about the people behind the music. The write-ups are going to be me doing my best to describe the music, make (hopefully tasteful) comparisons and share my favorite moments of the songs. I will not be rating the music and I won’t write about music I don’t actually like. I’m happy to listen to anything people want to send me, but sometimes it just isn’t going to be a match where I have much to say. I want this blog to be a podium to share other peoples work and their stories.
I’m really excited to start this chapter of Sonic Culture Studios and I hope that it’s fun and insightful. Thanks to everyone who’s supported me thus far and I’ll talk to you next time.