Interview with Potholes In My Blog creator David Reyneke
Image Retrieved from Bugg's Lifemusic.
This week's Read the Label Interview is a very special one. I was blessed with the opportunity to interview Potholes In My blog creator David Reyneke.
This talented young man breaks down the name behind the blog, the origin of the popular blog, his record label and the evolution of Potholes In My Blog.
Please take the time to read this interview and drop some feedback. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this interview and share it with your network. Thank You!
First and foremost, who is David Reyneke and what do you excel at?
Oh man, this is quite the ice breaker. I am really just passionate about music and sharing it with others. I think I excel at bringing people together in the name of music, as we seemed to have done a good job with Potholes thus far.
I am really proud of the fact that we were able to find bright, music loving individuals and put them to work on this fun little project. We don't pay any writers or anything, so we really just come together, share music and have a good time.
What caused you to create Potholes In My Blog?
I started the blog because, at the time, there really weren't any blogs out there that met my musical needs. You had a few sites with no quality control at all, posting 50 links a day and you had to sort through them yourself.
Then you had these pretentious little blogs that were posting maybe once a week, stressing exclusivity over all else. So we tried to find a happy medium, you know, posting a steady stream of good tunes, accompanied with insightful writing that added some value to the reader's experience.
I love the uniqueness of the actual blog name. Did you have other ideas outside of Potholes In My Blog?
Thanks! I remember when the blog was just an idea, Gedi and I were throwing ideas back and forth. It was really holding us back. So we decided to just add the word "blog" to song titles we liked, and eventually came across De La Soul's "Potholes In My Lawn". Potholes In My Blog, it was funny, and we never really thought people would care much about the site in any case. I'm happy people appreciate it, though!
The thing I value the most about your website is the versatility. Potholes presents hip-hop music as well as R & B tracks and so forth. What makes Potholes In My Blog different from other blogsites or websites?
The music on our site is really just reflective of our taste at any given time. I remember a few years ago we were really getting into indie rock, so we started playing around with that and posting bands like Real Estate every once and a while, in addition to our regular offering. That was more of an experimental phase, though, and we have since found our niche within, like you said, hip-hop, R&B, beat scene, jazz, etc.
I think what makes us different is our eclectic music taste first and foremost, and our constant striving for quality features and written pieces. We are always trying to provide insight with our writing, as opposed to the countless "cut & paste" blogs on the web. You can thank Andrew Martin for that. Oh, and I think our design/art is really cool. Like the podcast and album covers you see. Shout out to Theo!
Potholes In My Blog also has a successful podcast that has been in existence since 2011. Would you mind sharing the technical aspects associated with putting together a podcast?
We started using MixCloud, that is a cool site. We just mix a bunch of mp3s on Logic and then bounce it and upload to MixCloud. Track it out, and then there is that! We like to have artists we are digging put track listings together.
I think my favorite is Pharoahe Monch's. That was such an honor and his mix had everything from like Cannonball Adderley to Shafiq Husayn. Now it makes sense why is music is so good.
Potholes In My Blog has expanded from a go to source for music related content to much more. Potholes In My Blog has gravitated towards being a record label (Potholes Music). Would you mind sharing the evolution of Potholes Music and the artists that are currently signed to the label?
Yeah, it is pretty simple, actually. We are always talking to these great artists and we figured we might as well try and actually put music out. We started working with artists here and there, but finally decided to dive in and sign a nice cast of guys who have really impressed us over the years. We are doing a lot of small, free releases on Bandcamp, etc, but we also have digital distribution. Expect to see a lot of cool projects to drop in 2013, including some physical stuff!
Is it easy to separate blogging from the record label duties?
Not at all. I think it is just a natural extension. People have come to trust us in our taste, so I think they trust us with the music we officially release. And we don't actually review our releases so there isn't a conflict of interest or anything like that.
I know that Potholes receives a ton of emails from artists that would love to be posted on the website. What are some of your pet peeves in regards to email submissions?
I just can't stand it when people don't present themselves professionally. Bad grammar really makes me cringe, but there are a ton of things that will tick a blogger off. If an artist can't take the time to put together a proper email, why should we give them the time and listen to their music?
What is in store for Potholes In My Blog and Potholes Music for 2013?
More of the same, I hope! We continue to grow each and every day. More readers, more good music, it is definitely an exciting time in music. We will continue to try and make our label better. Hopefully we will be announcing some physical releases in the near future with artists like Danny!, as well as some other fun stuff.
One of our artists is working with me on scoring a short film that I will be directing with a buddy of mine. It has been such a long time coming, we have been working on that before the label even existed. More details to come on that, but I am really excited. I think people will start to take us more seriously as a label after we drop more substantial projects like that.
Any final thoughts?
I just want to thank you for caring about what we do and continuing to support! You've been around since the beginning, that is so cool. Oh, and all the readers who check our site out. I still can't believe people care what we have to say about music. Thank you!
