The music webzine and the art of survival.

Music journalism can be a pretty sweet gig. For those folks out there who love music and have a knack for writing, running or even working for a rock webzine can be handsomely rewarding.

These benefits include (but are not limited to) a ton of free music and swag, the opportunity to interview some of your favorite bands, a platform to flex your creative and literary muscle and exposure to more kinds of music than you ever thought possible. And with user-friendly hosts such as Blogspot, starting a webzine is easier than ever.

There is, however, a lot to consider. First off, what's going to make your webzine stand out among the countless other sites out there? What's going to be your focus? For that matter, unless you have absolutely nothing else going on with your life - say, a job, a family and a worthwhile life's ambition - setting aside time for site maintenance is not going to be easy. If you want regular or even semi-regular updates, you're going to need help. Where are you going to find it? And no webzine will succeed without establishing a strong rapport with both its readers and the scene(s) it covers. It doesn't happen overnight, and without it, there ain't a garage band in the world that'll give you the time of day.

But even with the right tools and dependable staff, life happens. For most folks, a webzine is a hobby (read: doesn't actually make any money), and there may come a time when keeping their site running just isn't possible anymore. But for the benefit of those who still want to give it a shot, we've interviewed six webmasters of six very different 'zines, each of which has dealt with its own fair share of problems.

"I started in 1983… that was the genesis of the [print] magazine, per se," said Ray. "I had written music reviews for my high school & college newspapers but since graduating from college in 1979 I hadn't done anything. I was managing a record store in the early '80's, when the NWOBHM and the Euro-metal scene really started going. Of course, Kerrang! & some mags like that were going, but they were the glossy variety. Then, one day, we got a shipment of records & things in and in it were several copies of a raggy, newsprint-style (Max Rock & Roll type) from San Francisco called Metal Mania. It was published by Ron Quintana, who's probably more famous for giving Lars Ulrich the name "Metallica" to use but here was something that kicked something into action inside of me, 'cause he was writing about stuff like METALLICA (still a semi-local SF phenomenon), EXODUS, SILVER MOUNTAIN, early SCORPIONS & also punk like THE DEAD BOYS, RAMONES, & even jazz fusion like RETURN TO FOREVER. The freedom of what was printed plus the affordability of being able to do it hit me. I thought, 'I can do this.'"

Fast forwarding to 1998, after the explosion of the ol' World Wide Web and realizing he could reach a wider audience with far less work, Ray's Realm went digital. "With work, family, etc., the work & expense involved with typing, layout, printing plus the time-consumption of it took forever and, the reality was it was only reaching whomever I could get physical copies in their hands," Ray told us. "I started with an AOL Hometown page which was easy because you didn't have to know HTML or anything-it was basically just dropping in text. I could just sit there at the computer & do the whole thing."

Recently, Ray's Realm made the jump to Blogspot, and with the polished look, improved navigation and reader interactivity, the internet will never be the same! "I really have to thank Peacedogman (Mark) for pointing me in the Blogspot direction," Ray said. "There's a lot I'd like to do like getting some pictures up, different things, more polls, reader interactivity, etc. But so far, people have really taken to it & I've gotten a world of positive response. It's easy to work with for someone like me who has very limited time, etc."

To give folks an idea of just how much Ray has on his plate, he gave us a peek into his day job and daily routine. "My wife & I own a daycare center," he told us. "It's a stand-alone building (not in a home...I really don't like those kind of daycares) and we have 55 kids right now. Along with five kids [of our own] (including a special needs child), time is not plentiful, believe me! It's important to us that everything is right down the line, by the book & that our staff (now 5 people) are trained, licensed, credentialed teachers. It's definitely a teaching environment as opposed to a glorified baby-sitting service. That's not to say that the kids don't have fun but it's done in a way that they're learning stuff all the while. My wife is the director & she & the other teachers all have all (if not more) of the required credentialing hours. My job is basically this: I get our 5 kids off to school in the morning (4 different schools!), then start to work at the Center. I do whatever maintenance is necessary, make massive runs to the grocery store (we're in the state food program, so we provide breakfast & lunch to the kids), Home Depot, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart, whatever is necessary. I take whatever forms need to periodically go to the offices in downtown Baltimore for the Child Care Agency, the Fire Dept, the Health Dept, etc. I do the billing, tax work and business side of things. Then, at 2:00 it's time to start picking up our kids again from school. I get them all home, do laundry, clean the house, fix dinner, etc., whatever else has to be done until about 6:30 when my wife gets home from the Center. It's a full day, but very satisfying & different every day. I can't stress enough to anyone that if you ever get a chance to run your own business, do it, it's just rewarding as hell."

As the faithful readers of Ray's Realm are already aware, one of the things that's set it apart is the impressively wide range of music it covers. "I cover metal, hard rock, heavy stuff in general, punk, prog, bluegrass, Celtic, folk… all genres of music that I like," said Ray. "I have never put any restriction on it, whatever people send me I'll review. I do generally try to get in contact with bands/artists that are in those categories that tend to float my boat, but I can't think of anything I've been sent that I haven't reviewed. So, I'm pretty much open to anything."

Although Ray's Realm fans can look forward to a more or less steady stream of reviews, Ray explains that he doesn't let the Realm become a source of unnecessary stress. "My first wife & I split up in late 1999 and there was some downtime then, emotionally and for practical reasons," Ray said. "And there have been a few others like when my current wonderful wife moved in with her children in late 2001, the birth of our daughter in 2002, things like that. I don't make any commitments, no deadlines, if family or business things crop up, they come first. I'll always get back to the site. It's strictly my hobby and fun to me and if it became a business, fraught with deadlines & stress, I'd drop it like a hot potato. It would lose all its appeal. That being said, when a band sends me something, I make every effort to get to their review as soon as possible. I've been around the music business & bands for many years & I know what it's like to try to get your stuff out there. I always have a soft spot for the DYI bands, the people putting stuff together with paper clips & bailing wire in their basements. That's the real love for it, & I try to respect and do what I can for any real artist. Even in bad reviews, I try to be fair."

So what's kept Ray's Realm going for so long? "Love of the music, pure & simple," he explains. "Music has been a wonderful, satisfying part of my life that I can never see going away."

As Todd tells us, though, it takes a lot of work (and people) to keep the 'cake from going flat. "We have approximately 100 staffers for both the zine and the website," he explains. "They're worldwide. We have a high concentration of L.A.-local folks as that's where we're located but we have a big Wisconsin contingency, some Canadians, and some Europeans, too."

As such, he's had the work force to keep the updates coming with zero percent downtime thus far. "The 'zine comes out every two months. Website gets updated every two to three days. Seven years straight through. I'm a planner. We have really great people working for us and contributing to us on a regular basis. I try not to strain one or two folks too much; I spread the work around.

Proving that the art of the print 'zine isn't dead; Todd explains how maintaining a person-to-person business sense has worked wonders for the printed version of Razorcake. "We have 1,000 subscribers and a 6,000 print run," he told us. "It's a great arrangement. I highly recommend controlling as much as your own distribution as possible, build up a workable database, and keep it updated and functional. Treat people nicely and like human beings, keep track of their orders, make them feel that it's not machine-on-machine communication. The real tragedy is that mom and pop music stores got decimated, the chains took over, the chains are failing, but there's no brick and mortar to fall back on. That blows."

While Razorcake is essentially a punk rock publication, he told us how keeping an open mind and a broad understanding of the genre have kept the 'zine flourishing. "We've always used a very broad definition for punk rock and kept the spectrum open so as not to corner ourselves in a subgenre," he said. "We get plenty to review, interview, and interact with. I feel that Razorcake's relevant and picky without being dogmatic or stuck in some blinders. We like DIY punk rock; that's our mainstay, but we'll venture out of that on occasion, if it suits a reviewer. If you want free jazz reviews or in-depth hip-hop reviews, we're probably not your bag. [And that's] totally cool."

In addition to covering music, Razorcake does reviews and features on books, movies and beyond. Does it ever get overwhelming? "Daily," Todd jokes. "Well, that's not true. I feel overwhelmed about half the time. I believe that punk's a broad thing. The warhead is music - it's what brought everyone into the fold - but there's a lot more propelling it; a lot of it hidden or not talked about that often. That's why we also cover the other arts that punks are involved in. Seems fair to me."

And unlike many other 'zine founders out there, Todd has managed to turn Razorcake into a profitable business. "Razorcake is my full-time job," he explains. "I'm the director of the non-profit, editor of the zine, run the website scheduling, and am co-president of the Razorcake record label. It's a lot. I don't pay myself very well, but the whole enterprise supports itself. No debt. We don't do something we can't afford. We're very conservative when it comes to finances because we've never had anything that sold, or did, astronomically well. It's like we're building a slowly bigger and bigger snowball."

When it comes to the website, Todd explains that one of the biggest problems he and his cohorts run into is the technological roadblocks that come their way. As he tells us, "I'd like for us to not spend so much time uploading the hundreds and hundreds of reviews from every two-month rotation. (We're at 10,000 or so individual uploads so far). It totally kills whoever's stuck with that task. (We try to rotate it. It's like Russian Roulette. That and making buttons are the black holes of Razorcake duties.) We have a very nice guy, Ian, who's been helping us figure that automation stuff out. It's a long process. Technology's hard. Paper and scissors, I understand. Contact cement? Got it. Understand how that works. Computer code? Not so much. But I can beta test with the best. I think my true calling in life is to break everything I touch… about five minutes. Not kidding."

Fortunately, he doesn't have to do it alone. "Daryl's an editor with me on the website. Adrian comes in once a week and takes information (like stores who are interested in carrying us, people who sign up to our email updates) from the site and puts into our database. We probably spend fifteen to twenty hours a week on updating, posting stories, and whatnot. Our main 'web dude' is Skinny Dan. He set up the architecture of the site: PHP Nuke, Zen Cart (both free, but need lots of tweaking). He also administers the hosting. Dan works on video games during the day. We'd be way fucked if it wasn't for him."

So what keeps Razorcake going? "Dumb determination," says Todd. "We also actually love the music and the culture. I think it's a service that fewer and fewer places are doing consistently: providing context to music without being dillholes or worrying if we're going to lose advertising. (We lose advertisers because of negative reviews; I'm just not worried about it.) It's also a way for people new to us to get an idea of what we're about, and hopefully they'll check out the zine too, or buy some of our distro to keep the wheels spinning. As I said, we're self-supporting. There are no hidden benefactors. We're grey-collar workers. We do all the heavy lifting (literally) and the shipping. We also do all of the editing and computer work."

The only remaining question is this: Is there anything Todd would like to change about Razorcake? "Whatever I could yell at my computer, the site would automatically do. That'd be rad," he says. "On a more serious note, we're always fiddling with things, trying them out, trying to make the site better. Baby steps. I'm not a big fan of 'Oooh, look at the shiny, spinning thing.' I want the site to load quickly, and to be able to upload useful, easy-to-find information, as much as we can handle, without compromising the quality gates we already have in place. We have a continually filling binder of all the improvements we'd like to see. It's an organic process."

"Man - it sucked," says Erik Thomas, editor of Digital Metal. "We actually got hacked twice. It was back in May. First, our database got hacked to where all the article titles said 'Hacked by Guga!!!!' We managed to fix that, as we just manually changed all the articles headers back. Then after we did that, the same lowlife fucking asshole wiped every article out. We lost everything. If I ever met 'Guga', I'd fuck him up - that's such a worthless act of random hacking. I dont know if it was a band we pissed off or what but we lost 6 years of data. Luckily we had it all backed up so we only actually truly lost about 6 months of data."

But what may be surprising to readers is that 'net safety isn't their No. 1 problem. "Actually, it's keeping writers," Erik told us. "Updating the site isn't much work - just some basic web stuff and HTML coding. Keeping a staff that can write well consistently is hard. So many guys jump in all excited to be writing for the site, kick out a few reviews of bands/CDs they love, and then when it comes time to review something bad or not up their alley, they disappear. Right now along with the core of Chris (owner/editor), myself (co-editor) and Mikko (web design), we have eight active writers, but that changes all the time as its hard to find consistent committed writers who stick around."

Fortunately, Digital Metal has maintained a core of writers that has given the site an outstanding rapport within the scene with the quality of their writing. "Guys like Nathan Birk, Chris Dick, Drew Juergens, Mikko, Tim Gladu, Fred Phillips and others have the respect of the bands and labels because of their writing," Erik explains. Many of our writers have gone onto other things in the music business. The writers we've kept have a reputation for insight, knowledge and fairness in their reviews."

As is the case with Razorcake, Erik credits much of the success of Digital Metal to the staff's open-mindedness to each genre of metal yet sticking with what they know. "I'd say as expansive as 'metal' is right now with all its various off shoots and subgenres, we are satisfied [with our coverage]," said Erik. "I think you run the risk of spreading yourself too thin if you start getting into maybe movies or games. There's enough metal out there to cover as it is."

"I haven't updated [the site] in over a year," Sick told us. "At one time I probably had over 20 writers from all over the world, including musicians from established bands. I've had quite the insane crew under my command... it's always been an 'inmates running the asylum' kind of site."

In its heyday, WTD was a haven for all things heavy. "I was always happy with our coverage," said Sick. "In fact, I think we excelled in that area. Our rule of thumb was always, 'if it's heavy and it rocks, we dig it.' I don't really care for small niche sites, like just black metal coverage, or just stoner rock coverage. We covered a lot of different sub-genres of rock and metal. I think in order to expand we'd have to go outside rock music...although we did have a review of one of HANK III's country albums on the site."

At the same time, the Reverend warns future webmasters not to spread themselves too thin. "Back in the day we had a cult movie section, and while it was cool, I think it detracted from what I ultimately wanted to accomplish, which was establishing a music site that covered all the kick ass bands that were too fuckin' good to miss out on. It was a subdomain, separate from the main site, but we still put a lot of effort into it that probably should have gone to the main site."

After becoming a dad, Sick tried turning WTD into a less time-consuming blog format. "The blog format was an awful idea, to be honest," he said. "It was okay when I had a few writers working with me, but they all stopped contributing, either due to no one being available to update the site or their own laziness. I think if I do find the time to do the site again, I'll probably go back to the old layout and content management system. I think the reason why the 'new' White Trash Devil didn't take off is because it lacked the personality of the old site. The way the site looks now is really nice, but it's too clean and simple for a site with the moniker it has."

Finally, WTD was put on the backburner. "I'm going on 35, I have a wife, two kids under two years old and another on the way, three dogs, and a mortgage," Sick explains. "Ultimately when it comes to free time I think about relaxing and enjoying myself before working my ass off on a site that doesn't make me any money. I would love to be able to do it like I used to, but it's not possible right now. Sometimes I miss the chaos and the craziness of the site, but those days, and the people responsible for the chaos and craziness, are long gone."

Still, it's a decision he doesn't regret one bit. "I truly enjoy spending as much time with them as possible, so it's tough to sit around thinking about doing an album review or trying to hook up an interview," said Sick. "A lack of a reliable writing staff is a pretty big obstacle too. I had spoken with my friend Karma from fourteeng.net about possibly combining our two sites, but the logistics of it were a nightmare, and I couldn't image having yet another new design worked on."

Although having gone a year without updates, the site is still up and running. So what is the future of White Trash Devil? "I pay very little for webhosting and I wanted to keep the domain name registered because I still think it's a great name. It has this odd ability to both mean nothing and sums up what the attitude of the site is. Like I said, I'd love to do something with it again, but I just don't know what or when. In closing, keep WTD bookmarked, kids. You never know what Uncle Sick will throw your way."

"I started the website in early '98," said Cheryl. "I had just gotten my first PC so I could do some drafting work from home and decided to get my own internet connection. The first websites I visited were Metal Rules and the BNR Metal Pages. That is when I got the idea to start my own website, combining both the encyclopedic and zine formats. It was called Skyklad's Heavy Metal and Other Oddities. The first part contained reviews, band pages, tour dates and news. The Oddities part served as more of a personal page where I posted pictures of my drawings, artwork, etc. Along with the website came a forum so during one of the discussions I wrote 'preaching the METAL Gospel' and shortly after, the name was changed. Metal IS my religion after all so it fit perfectly!"

As the site grew, so did its number of contributors. "In the beginning it was just me doing everything," Cheryl explains. "Then I started accepting reviews from a few people like Heart Of Steel and my friend Kibitzer (both from the Metal Rules forum). As the page grew, contributors came and went, however, there was a core group of people who were the last (and some of them the longest) contributors: Heart Of Steel (USA), Mordred (Portugal), BlackGoat (Germany), Runehammer (UK), Karan (Mexico), Loucypher (Basque Country), ManOfStraw (Netherlands) and Carcassvoice (Netherlands)."

Things started really picking up for the site when Cheryl moved from the U.S. to Germany in 2001. "When I first started TMG I was working full time at an engineering company doing technical drawings on the computer, so I only had time to work on the website when I got home in the evening," she told us. "I also spent a lot of time album hunting and going to shows so that cut into website time too. Back then, building the band database was most time consuming, especially considering you actually had to SCAN your own album covers and type out your own info / discographies, as opposed to today where you can easily swipe that info elsewhere on the net. Things changed in 2001 when I moved to Germany. I had much more time (being unemployed) to devote to the website. It grew quite a lot."

Eventually, though, the stress of maintaining TMG took its toll. "Probably the biggest obstacle was keeping up with all the bands and stuff to review," Cheryl said. "Since it wasn't just doing reviews but making band sections, it was very time-consuming keeping up with everything and making it the best I could. Even in the times while I was unemployed and JUST doing the website, I still found myself not being able to keep up. I eventually got burned out from writing about Metal in general and looking at a notepad with HTML in it!"

Finally, in 2005 Metal Gospel shut its doors for good. "I basically got burned out and tired of doing it," she said. "There's only so many ways I could write 'something is great' or 'something sucks' and I found myself sitting for hours listening to something with an empty sheet of paper with nothing to say. I also never had enough time to listen to the stuff I REALLY enjoyed because I was always listening to some band's demo or something sent by a label. It started to become more like work (without pay) than enjoyment so I decided to end it before it got bad. I don't regret the decision."

Looking back, Cheryl told us she is very satisfied with what she accomplished with Metal Gospel. "I believe myself and the other contributors provided a positive insight on metal and many great bands, always steering our readers in the right direction for quality metal. The website had a special down to earth, say it like it is kind of atmosphere and that's exactly what I always wanted for it."

Fortunately, Cheryl is still very active in the metal community and in 2002 founded the Witches Brew record label. As she told us, "I got some very cool demos during my time doing Metal Gospel so that made me want to start my own label and give underground bands a chance to get a professional release out, thus Witches Brew was started in 2002. The label reflects my personal taste in Metal so being a huge Thrash and Death Metal fan you know what to expect for the most part! Since 2002 I've released CDs by SCYTHE (German Death), THE CHASM (Mexican Death), TOXIC HOLOCAUST (US Thrash), VEXED (Italian Thrash), REDIMONI (Spanish Thrash), HAMMERWHORE (US Thrash), DEVIL LEE ROT (Swedish Blackened Heavy), HATEWORK (Italian Thrash), GAMA BOMB (Thrash via Northern Ireland), THARGOS (German Thrash) and PYÖVELI (Finnish Thrash). Other bands on the label (some of them very recent signings): SAURON (US Thrash), IMMACULATE (Swedish Thrash), DEATHHAMMER (Norwegian Thrash with touches of Black) and MADGOYA (Serbian Thrash / Punk). Releases from these bands plus a new REDIMONI + SCYTHE album are coming this year! For readers who would like more info about the label or myself, head to witches-brew.org or myspace.com/witchesbrewgermany. Cheers N Thrashin' Beers!"

As with many webzines, Peacedogman was founded in large part due to Marchman's dissatisfaction with the other music coverage out there. "Back in the early '00s, it seemed like all of the music sources were very secular - not a lot of cross-genre tolerance," says Mark. "Also, many great bands of the past and present were being ignored, and I felt (and still do) that a great deal of mediocrity is celebrated on metal and punk boards and in other webzines. Hence, I started my own thing."

Since then, Peacedogman readers have gotten regular and timely updates on not only an insanely wide range of reviews, but all sorts of quirky features, usually devised by Mark himself. The notable exceptions have been during the major renovations of the site. "The 'break' for the first overhaul was from July to December of 06. A lot of sites go on hiatus for the 'upgrade', but most of them never return! Ours was not that long, when you think about how radically we changed everything. Plus, we had a couple of poor writers that I needed to get rid of, so the break was the perfect opportunity to do that."

As can be seen with all the new features that keep on coming (RSS feed, reader interactivity, etc.), Mark is in it for the long haul. "We'd be consuming this music anyway, so we may as well write about it and keep our readers informed," he says. "Plus, most of my staff guys and I know this is more of an endurance race than a sprint competition. It's about continuity and quality. Everyone with three black metal albums has a website these days, but quality and continuity are what separate the leaders from the followers."

But what's the hardest part of maintaining Peacedogman? "Really it's just time," he explains. "I juggle a lot of different things like a career and family, but it seems we're always coming up with new angles and ideas at Peacedogman.com and sometimes it's hard to balance it all. Plus, there's getting the word out. Anybody that has varying tastes in strange or heavy music should check us out, and at least decide if it's a cool place to bookmark or not. We've got some real healthy numbers of regular readers at this point; I'd like to grow a little more without having to worry about getting 'too big'. That's about it, really."

The only remaining question is this: What's next for Peacedogman? "I'm not sure," he says. "Maybe I'll set up an annual Peacedogman music festival one day just for fun, set up a show, get a bunch of bands to play, and lose huge amounts of money on it. Maybe one day…"

Well, hopefully what we've heard here sheds some light on all that goes into a rock website. Extra special thanks to everyone who took time out to make this piece possible. Visit all their websites and show 'em some love. In the meantime, we here at Peacedogman aren't planning on going away anytime soon, so keep checking back with us for more of the good stuff!

- Cardona

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