Why We're a Team

This is something that I’ve wanted to write about for a little while now, but I wasn’t totally sure how to put my thoughts together. I’ve sort of covered the “conception,” for lack of a better term, of our blog in a few other posts, but I’ve never really talked about why I feel like things have been going so smoothly. I also wanted to avoid coming across as cheesy or cliche at all costs, but I kind of feel like that’s inevitable, considering this is going to be a post about my relationship. I also know that not everybody is going to agree with my thoughts on working professionally with a romantic partner, and that’s okay. Sometimes, it works for people. And sometimes, it doesn’t. For me, it’s been the best experience I could have hoped for. I just wasn’t sure when the right time to write about it was, but I feel like we’re there now.

Okay.

I feel like, when it comes down to it, if you’re going to start any substantial project with another person, you need to work with someone who loves it just as much as you do. In my case, I needed to work with someone who loves me, because my writing is a really vulnerable extension of myself, even though most of these posts aren’t about anything personal. Dylan is the person I feel like I’m the most myself around, and sharing ideas and showing him early drafts of interviews isn’t intimidating to me in a way that it would be if we were simply coworkers. He knows the things I struggle with creatively, and he doesn’t ever make me feel inferior for them. He is my most honest - and therefore, most valued - critic. He isn’t afraid to tell me if something isn’t good. I’m not afraid to tell him if a photo could be better. There’s no fear between us because we know that it’s better to hear the truth than a smile-through-the-teeth lie. We’re each other’s most dependable confidants because of it. There’s also no sense of jealousy because we handle completely different aspects of the blog. If Dylan was a writer, it would probably drive me crazy. But, he lets me do my thing, and I let him do his, and we come together in the end to collaborate on a post that we’re both proud of. It just works. Having someone who is more than a coworker as your partner works.

Because he shares my passion for music and this industry and respects the work that I put into my writing - and I respect the work that he puts into his photos - we make the best team I could have ever imagined. I don’t think this blog would have been successful if I was working on it alone. It would have taken much longer to build the reputation, make contacts, book shows. Dylan is fearless when it comes to putting himself out there. I’m not. He was so on board with emailing every single PR contact he could find for all the shows we wanted to see last year, while I was more hesitant to do so because, who are we? But, that’s how you learn. That’s how you grow. You have to jump and (probably) fall before you can ever figure out how to finally take off. Eventually, contacting bands became less uncertain and nerve wracking for me and more fun, because we could have conversations like, “Circa Survive is coming around this fall, I bet we can get an interview.” I feel like we’ve reached a place where that’s actually an achievable goal, and that’s just an immense sense of wow. Somehow, we’re doing it. We’re doing what we absolutely love.

Lately, I’ve noticed this really incredible sense of professional maturity develop between us. We’ve been planning some really exciting things for the fall and winter, and I think it’s helped us really develop a groove. It’s taken a lot of time, patience, communicating with people outside of ourselves, budgeting (yikes), and trial and error. And I’ve wanted to get frustrated and bag the whole thing plenty of times. But, I know that if I ever want to expand the work that we do, I need to be persistent and not give up when it feels like we’re getting stuck. (I’m being purposely vague because what we have in store is going to be so cool and I don’t want to ruin it).

It feels really good to talk to bands that we’ve already worked with and find out that they’ve given our contact to other people. It feels even better when we’re approached by an artist first. That sense of accomplishment isn’t something that I ever want to lose, and I know that I never could have gotten there without Dylan. This blog is truly the product of a partnership that I feel incredibly lucky to have because I know some people might never find it. I’m not saying that I’ve found my career in running this blog - that’s probably unlikely. But, you also never know. If it’s a good thing, keep going.

And this is a good thing.