LA isn’t just home to a community of bright entrepreneurs; it’s also home to a legion of great writers and bloggers. Throughout the year, Lalawag will be chatting with some of the city’s most prominent bloggers to find out a bit more about what makes them tick.
This week we sat down with Rich Thomas (@TheLandfill), music blogger extraordinaire. He’s currently involved with two music/culture sites: ChinaShop (@chinashopmag) and Mining The Landfill.
Tell us a little about your blogs.
Mining The Landfill is my own personal site – my name, my design, and only my stories. It’s also where I’ve archived most of the print and online features I’ve done over the past 12 years. ChinaShop is more of a mixed bag. We have a team of freelancers who cover music, fashion, art, film and everything in between. So the site’s a bit more pop culture than just straight up music. Regardless, I’m the Music Curator there, so I’m doing music no matter how you slice it.
How did you get started blogging?
Initially I just wanted a place online where I could display all my writing clips from magazines, and hopefully those articles could then be a resource to anyone wanting to know more about specific artist. There are so many music blogs out there, so it was important for me to show people I’ve been doing this for a while. I wanted to display a little more street cred, if you will. Not to take anything away from bloggers who didn’t come up in the print era, but I think I definitely come from a different school of journalism. One that’s probably a bit more “old school,” even though I’m just 34. So, Mining The Landfill started as a place where I archived all my print work, but then grew into a place where I published original online material.
What platform do you use for blog publishing? What made you decide to use it over the other choices out there?
I use WordPress, mostly because it’s easy to use and update on the go with either my Android phone or my iPad. Plus, it’s easy to make design changes to the template.
What’s your favorite venue in LA to see live music at? Why?
Growing up in LA, I’ll always appreciate the Greek Theatre the most. It’s more intimate than the Hollywood Bowl, and you still get that great outdoor vibe. As far as clubs go, I love the Mayan downtown, just because the interior design is so beautiful and the sound is always top notch. I’ve also seen a lot of great shows at the Henry Fonda Music Box. I think the common denominator with the great venues is that you feel like you’re in an intimate setting no matter how big the bands are that are playing.
What are the first three sites you check when you wake up in the morning?
Apart from my Gmail account, I check CNN, Facebook and ESPN. Little bit of everything.
Who are the five most important people you follow on Twitter?
Important is relative, but I follow a mix of athletes, musicians, publicists and comedians. That said, my favorite five would have to be Diplo (@diplo), Rob Tannenbaum (@tannenbaumr), Kevin Bronson (@krbronson), Consequence of Sound (@coslive), and of course ChinaShop (@ChinaShopMag).
What smartphone apps do you find indispensable on your home screen? Why did these apps make the cut?
When I first got my Android phone and my iPad, I went crazy on the apps. Then I tapered down the use of all non-essentials. Again, apart from my mail clients, I’d say WordPress is good for keeping tabs on site stats and making minor edits, Twitter and Facebook of course, a solid camera app (I like Android’s Camera 360), and Evernote, since I’m always making notes and taking down ideas on the go. It’s nice to have them aggregated in one place at the end of the day. And, of course, ESPN ScoreCenter to check on the games.
Where do you do your best writing? (at home, starbucks, the park, etc.)
At home, with a fresh coffee on hand. I like to hit the coffee shop just to get out of the house every once in a while, but that can get expensive. Can you tell I enjoy coffee?
Do you listen to music when you write? Any recommendations for good albums to listen to while writing?
I usually have a massive stack of promo CDs to go through, along with a bunch of album streams and digital downloads, so I try and multitask as much as possible, but I find it hard to concentrate on writing when I’m listening to vocal music. If I’m just checking emails and doing admin style work, then I’ll listen to anything. If I’m writing, my favorites are instrumental electronica and jazz: Geoffrey Keezer, Hauschka, the Album Leaf, Underworld and Miles Davis. Stuff like that.
What helps you the most in terms of expanding your readership?
StumbleUpon can be great, and of course Facebook and Twitter, but those two are tricky. There are certain rules of etiquette that people follow, but I’ve found there’s no real rhyme or reason to it. Not all people you extend #FF’s [FollowFriday] to do the same for you, and rampant self-promotion usually gets you unfollowed. The one thing I’ve noticed, though, is that the whole “post-production” process of what you do after a piece of content has been created can take just as much time — if not more — as creating the content itself. If you want to get eyeballs on it, of course. It’s just hard not to be white noise out there. Forming a solid network of people who you follow regularly — and who follow and re-tweet/re-post your stuff — is probably the best thing to do.
Do you have any other tips for the budding bloggers out there?
I’ve gotten into some pretty heated discussions on the topic of writers versus bloggers and it’s something I feel strongly about. Just because you’re one doesn’t mean you’re the other. Of course there are exceptions, but getting massive site traffic and having tons of followers doesn’t mean you’re an especially talented writer with anything interesting to say. Some bloggers I’ve read can’t even string a sentence together without screwing up basic things like spelling and punctuation. Granted, there’s a value in being first to the table with information, now more than ever, but at what cost? A lot of music coverage online is just regurgitated press releases and reused stock photos. I have a hard time subscribing to stuff that isn’t well researched and well written. So I guess my advice would be to have something unique to say first. Take a position that’s well informed, and try wherever possible to be funny. If you’re bringing something to the table that no one else is, people will find you.
You can follow Rich on Twitter (@TheLandfill)
