Hi, everyone! I am publishing this today to commemorate the celebration of bazzreviews' second birthday! It's hard to believe that it has been around for this long... I most certainly never thought that when I sat down at my computer to create the blog on that cold, December afternoon that it would end up changing my life forever. Whether you've been a supporter since the beginning, or just recently found out about me, thank you all for making my blog your "Best Place to Discover Cool Music."
Let's talk 2020 real quick, man. I don't think I'm alone when I say it was one of the craziest years of my life for many reasons. I wrote my COVID-19 op-ed back when the shutdown began in March thinking it would just be a temporary setback, and it's been about nine months to the day since I published it. Crazy to see how my attitude, as well as the general public's, has changed towards this event. Not only that, but a pressing social justice movement over the summer has led to a significant change of power in Washington. I can only hope that we, as a nation will only go up from here.
Despite all of these setbacks impacting our nation, and the music scene singlehandedly coming to a standstill, bazzreviews had an even bigger second year. For starters, I interviewed some people that I never in my life would have imagined speaking to. Thanks to people like Julian Lynch of Real Estate, Karsten Runquist, the moderators of one of my favorite Instagram meme pages, music.shitposting, and more. Getting to talk with you about your respective creative processes was a very rewarding experience.
Speaking of talking about creative processes, 2020 allowed me the opportunity to receive my own guest spots on some wonderful podcasts. Thanks to guys like Noah John over at Without Warning and Jake Joseph of the Big Fish Podcast/abucketofjake for having me on and putting me out to a new audience.
Support also grew tremendously this past fall with my attempt at a virtual music festival, Bazzfest. It was a project I was certainly proud of, but many of you know it faced some *slight* operational problems and singlehandedly sent my mental health to its absolute lowest. As they say, though, you live and learn. I cannot even begin to thank everyone that agreed to perform at this festival, and the same goes to those who donated to Campaign Zero. Without you guys, this festival would still be an idea on the back burner of my mind.
With some general recap stuff out of the way, I want to give a preview of what's to come in 2021. Being the pessimist that I sometimes am, I want to start with some negative news: it is with a heavy heart when I say we will not be releasing bazzcasts for the time coming. There will still be one final episode before year's end, though. It was cool to see a differing audience throughout the year on my Spotify Wrapped for Podcasters, but the growth in recent times has been poor at best. As much as I enjoy making these episodes, I don't want to pour wasted time and effort into something that few people will listen to. This was a decision I had thought about for a long time and was not an easy one to make. Here's some better news, though: I intend on completely switching our platform to YouTube. The power of the YouTube algorithm will be more effective in spreading my content than relying mostly on grassroots and Instagram discovery to boost traffic. Some of you might have heard about that if you listened to the Big Fish Podcast that dropped in early November, but if not, this is what will be happening: You'll still get the reviews and interviews you're used to seeing here on the blog and on the bazzcast, but I wanted to add a visual component to all of those things. Not only that, but I will be also adding video essays into the mix, like some of my personal influences Polyphonic, Alfo Media, etc. have done so well for years. I am very excited to share some of the ideas I have been working on for the past few months! I haven't planned out a "release schedule," so to speak, but you should expect about 2-4 new videos from me per month.
I also want to plug a few other things that are out there that you can do to support me and what I do. First of all, I want to recommend joining the bazzreviews community discord if you have the app. We are a small, but mighty group, a special shoutout to new pals Callum, Sam, and Ceezy for being the real homies on the server. Whether we're voice-chatting, discussing various topics in music, or people dropping content ideas, I would love to see some new members on there. This year is about me connecting with way more people instead of having people reach out to me. Secondly, it would mean a hell of a lot if you guys could support me financially by buying some bazzmerch. Another big thank you to my very close friend, Aidan Hilmersen, and another brilliant graphic artist, Sage Klein for drawing up some great designs. I hope you like my content enough to cop some gear to wear around your area. I know money can be tight for a lot of people right now, but if you find it in your heart, use the code word "BAZZ" for 25% your order of various hoodies, shirts, mugs, and stickers that are on the Teespring store. You can find that under the bazzmerch tab on the site, but I'll drop it below for convenience's sake. Lastly, if there's something you enjoyed on my page, please remember to share all of the content with some people! Get the word out there in whatever way you can. Like joining the Discord, it's a completely free option! I would appreciate that more than anything, to be honest. I'm always wanting to meet new people and see how they react to the things I'm doing.
Here's to an amazing third year at bazzreviews. I'm glad you're all here with me to kick it off.
Be well, be safe, be you.
All the best-
-BAZZ
To subscribe to the brand new bazzreviews youtube channel, log on to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiRrb8yLj6YG36I-bfJZzUw
BAZZREVIEWS COMMUNITY DISCORD LINK: https://discord.gg/jGFdaGR
BAZZMERCH LINK: https://teespring.com/stores/bazzmerch-store-2