The Value in Writing About Music

By Francis Baptiste

When I first started my solo career, I wasn’t sure where to start in terms of putting myself into a music scene. It would require a lot of meeting new people—other artists, show runners, producers, session musicians, engineers, photographers, etc. When you’re starting from nothing, or when you’re new to a scene, it can seem overwhelming. What I found was, the best way to meet new people was to find a way to actively contribute to the health of the scene and provide some value to other artists. For me, the way I did this was through writing reviews of other people’s albums and live shows. It proved to be so beneficial to me that I always recommend to my music friends that they give music writing a shot.

 In the early years of my career I divided my time between focusing on other people’s careers as well as my own. I did that by writing music reviews for a variety of blogs and print publications. To this day, I occasionally write small bits for Exclaim Magazine.

Writing about other people’s music was a great way for me to meet people. Interviewing someone, you get to know their whole back story and personality. I also found that over time other musicians who were looking to promote their new releases would seek me out and send me their press releases. Savvy musicians often reach out to freelance writers directly, rather than submitting to overworked editors. Reading other people’s press releases helped me in learning to better write my own, which was very handy before I hired a publicist.

 It also felt good to know that I was supporting other artists by giving attention to their music. There were so many releases that my peers would produce that I felt deserved more attention than they got.

Perhaps equally as important, doing deep dives on other people's music really helped inform my own songwriting. Forcing myself to sit down and really immerse myself into another artist’s work to review it, gave me a deeper appreciation for the innovative releases others were creating, and for unique artistic perspectives.

I think it’s so important to give something back to the scene. Whether you’re a part-time writer, photographer, designer, hairdresser—whatever you have to contribute, it’s so valuable to the community to contribute in a more reciprocal way than to just be pushing your art onto people. We should all be supporting each other in the music community.

Francis Baptiste is a Vancouver-based singer/songwriter

Website: www.francisbaptiste.ca