Episode 22: Bernard Zuel

Bernard Zuel is senior music writer

at The Sydney Morning

Herald.

He was visiting Brisbane in early April as a guest speaker at

the inaugural Rock

and Roll Writers Festival, so after a day of inspiring and

enlightening discussions about all things music writing, we went

back to his hotel room in Fortitude Valley to talk more about that

very topic. I've been reading his album reviews and features

in The Sydney Morning Herald for years, so it w as a

treat to pick the brains of one of Australia's most prolific and

enduring writers in this field.

In 2016, Bernard is actually one of very few journalists in

the country to be employed as a full-time music writer for a

newspaper. We talk about this very fact, and the shrinking nature

of such jobs, as well as how he chooses which artists to write

about; how he manages to juggle writing up to six album

reviews per week; how he prefers to take notes in dark rooms when

attending concerts; why he hates the five-star ranking

system; the value he sees in writing negative music criticism,

and why he now uses voice recognition software rather than

typing.

Bernard

Zuel has been writing about music since typewriters, C90

mixtapes and coming home stinking of everyone else’s smokes. Having

written for RAM, Rolling Stone and street press, and

talked on TV/radio for anyone who asked and paid nothing, he’s been

covering arts at The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media

for more than 20 years, the past 12 or so as senior music writer

and chief critic. He still buys records and discs and sound files

because it’s great.

Show notes and links to what was discussed in this episode:

http://penmanshippodcast.com/episode-22-bernard-zuel/

Bernard Zuel on Twitter: @BernardZuel

Penmanship on Twitter: @PenmanshipAU

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