Harry Levin Interview
Harry Levin is the managing editor of EDM Maniac and a freelance journalist with bylines in outlets like Billboard, Beatportal, and more. He also runs the newsletter Writer’s Brain.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
Well, when I tell this story, it always begins when I was 11 years old and my parents gave me a CD of Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth album.
After hearing the call and response from Robert Plant’s titanic vocals and the earth-shattering sound of the rest of the band on “Black Dog,” I knew that music was my path (Zeppelin is still my favorite band today).
The ensuing 19 years have been about figuring out what that path looks like. I spent my schooling years up to college playing trombone and studying jazz, but as I got older I realized that wasn’t doing it for me. I didn’t feel like I was truly connected to the artform I loved so much.
So in college, I had a pivotal moment (around a time when I happened to be watching Almost Famous every other day), and I asked myself, what do I actually enjoy doing?
I love music with every fiber of my being, but I don’t love playing music or creating music, so what is the thing I actually enjoy doing, and how can I apply that to music?
The answer was having opinions. I have long-winded, often incendiary, opinions on almost everything, especially music, and so I decided to start writing them down.
Also in college two classmates of mine told me they were getting free tickets to gigs after doing nothing but starting a Tumblr. So I did the same. Started reaching out to opening bands, offering pictures and an interview on my Tumblr in exchange for list spots, which eventually got me involved in some more notable blogs that got me into bigger festivals like Symbiosis Gathering and the very first (and very best) Dirtybird Campout (even if they didn’t make me any money).
I ended up graduating with a journalism degree, but with my lacking self-esteem, I didn’t think it was possible to make a career as a journalist and so I spent four years after college doing everything else in music while still writing for free.
I worked in events, labels, PR, social media, marketing, and marketing was the one that stuck and got me a real-full time job in 2019.
Then the pandemic hit, and something crazy happened. When the rest of the industry essentially evaporated, my journalism career took off. I started writing long-form narrative features with artists I admired, I started making way more money, and I made a couple of important realizations.
First, I realized that I really loved journalism and it wasn’t just a source for free tickets. Second, I realized that there’s no law of the universe that will prevent another global pandemic next year, so I might as well do what I really love now.
Since then, it’s been all journalism all day.
Did you have any mentors along the way? What did they teach you?
My current mentors in journalism are my peers and editors. I’ve worked with so many great people who have influenced me as a writer and a human being. Here are just a few:
Kat Bein of Spin, Billboard, Discogs, and her own incredible content, for encouraging me to find my own voice and demonstrating the value of journalists as a whole.
Katie Bain of Billboard Dance for providing amazing edits to my work and really pushing me to find the stories in my ideas.
Devin Lezama of EDM Maniac, for supporting me so early on in my career, giving me my first paid assignment, and continuing to support me now.
Cameron Holbrook of Beatportal for passing me amazing opportunities for some of the best interviews of my career.
There is also one mentor outside of journalism I need to mention: my high school pre-calculus teacher Brian Kukan.
Brian introduced me to meditation when I was 16 years old, and not only do I still meditate today, but meditation was the first step on a journey of self-actualization that is really the main reason I have a career as a freelance journalist to begin with.
Walk me through a typical day-to-day for you right now.
It’s pretty simple. Currently, I balance work as a freelance journalist while serving as Managing Editor at EDM Maniac. The first thing I do during my work day is go through all my emails. Then after that, I follow a to-do list that I collate at the end of the previous work day.
What does your media diet look like?
In 2023 I’ve made a commitment to do more reading and listening to music and less TV watching and social media scrolling.
Reading includes fiction and non-fiction as well as reading articles. No matter what I’m reading, it makes me a better writer.
Listening to more music has been such a joy. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that listening to music provides far more relaxation and stress relief than watching TV.
In terms of social media, I’ve found a good balance of making it just as functional as it is entertaining. Twitter has become a source of bylines and connections, Instagram a source of story ideas.
How has your approach to your work changed over the past few years?
I’ve only been freelancing for around 19 months, and to toot my own horn a bit, I’ve really surprised myself with my ability to manage my time without burning myself out.
I very rarely work on weekends, and I almost always give myself half days on Fridays as well. That does mean I hustle a lot during the week, but it’s quite rewarding.
If I am burned out at the end of a week it’s generally because I’m working really hard on a piece that matters to me, and I know how to scale back in response.
A couple things I’ve noticed since I started freelancing:
At this point, I find myself more excited about the story I’m telling, rather than the people I’m interviewing.
I find ideas for pitches come far more naturally to me. If someone were to ask how I come up with ideas, I wouldn’t really be able to explain it. I guess, after a while, the way you think just shifts. I’m excited to see how that evolution continues throughout my career.
How do you organize your work?
Everything is in google sheets. I have a color-coded list, and every assignment has its own item in the list that includes the publication, the assignment itself, the next step for that assignment, the due date, and any other necessary information.
Those items are listed in the order I handle them and/or organized by color. In general, there are three colors: yellow, red, and blue.
Yellow means it’s an assignment that is in progress. Those are usually at the top of the list because there is a hard deadline.
Red means it’s an assignment I have yet to start. These assignments are usually attached to making time to write pitches. They are generally in the middle of the list.
Blue means it’s an assignment that is waiting on a reply. Every freelance journalist knows the woes of waiting for an editor to get back to you. Seeing the item on my to-do list in blue provides the relief of, at least for the time being, the assignment being out of my hands (except for maybe a follow up).
It can be nerve-wracking waiting for a response as well, but I specifically choose the cool color blue for those items to remind myself that I don’t have to think too much about the assignment in question. Just have to be patient.
Where do you see music journalism headed?
Hmmmm, I haven’t really thought about it too much to be honest. What I truly believe is that artists will always see the value in journalism.
If you’re not already aware, most artists don’t love the fact that so much of their career depends on factors outside of their passion of making music.
That’s where they want to put their focus. Towards the craft. Not gaining attention on social media, and that’s where journalists come in.
I don’t know any journalist who sees an artist having a viral TikTok hit as a story, and I certainly don’t know any editor who would commission that story.
Journalists (at least the good ones) write from the heart the same way artists create from the heart, and that’s why artists want journalists to tell their stories. They want professionals who understand the scene and appreciate what they do.
Anyone can repost a track on Instagram these days. Very few can give context into who made that track.
So often artists have told me after a story is published how grateful they are for what I wrote, and to me, that gratitude is an extension of my own gratitude for the music they make.
What would you like to see more of in music journalism right now?
Money. Stop the layoffs and dismal rates. We deserve to make a living off of what we love.
What would you like to see less of in music journalism right now?
The same questions in interviews. As managing editor of EDM Maniac, I oversee 10 writers and interns and when I’m teaching them how to do interviews, I always implore them to read previous interviews from the subject.
No one likes being asked the same questions over and over, and all it takes to prevent that from happening is a quick google search.
Also no more email interviews. If you can make time to answer questions via email, you can make time for a zoom call. If an artist asks for an email interview, they’re asking you for free self-promo. Forget that.
What’s one tip that you’d give a music journalist starting out right now?
The first thing I’d say is: find a niche.
For me, my niche is dance music. I spent seven years writing in dance music for almost no money before I started earning an income from journalism, and the reason I believe I am now able to support myself through writing solely is that people within dance music were familiar with me before I started making the ask for more work.
Currently, I’m working to expand my writing into different genres of music as well as video games, movies, TV, travel, and technology, but I feel confident about that because I know I can rely on dance music to pay my bills.
How do you typically listen to music, both in a professional and personal sense?
Generally, I split my listening into two categories: new and old.
I have curated my social media feeds to where new music is constantly being delivered to me (pro tip: the key is following indie labels) and so I am always downloading albums on Spotify to listen to.
“New” in this sense doesn’t mean “from this year” either. Just means it’s an artist or album I’m not super familiar with. If an artist comes across my eye line, I’ll search for them on Spotify and download an album.
Listening to new music provides a sense of excitement and possibility. With the current access to practically every song ever via streaming, we can find our new favorite artist with the tap of a button, and upon finding a new favorite artist, there is no telling what might come of it.
For example, although I was aware of St. Vincent for a long time, she became my favorite artist (who is still alive) in 2018.
After falling in love with her music, I ended up seeing her perform in Oxfordshire, UK (for context I live in LA), and during that show, I met a whole slew of new friends who came to see the show from different parts of Europe like Portugal, Ireland, and The Netherlands, and now I have a network of friends on a new continent. All because I fell in love with St. Vincent’s music.
That can happen with every new album downloaded on Spotify.
Now, listening to old music, on the other hand, provides a sense of comfort. Most of the time when I listen to old music I’m listening on vinyl. It’s a ritual. I turn off the lights, spin the record from beginning to end, and the wondrous familiarity of it all makes me feel safe and secure.
No matter how horrible I felt about myself growing up, music always provided relief. That’s never changed, and I still rely on that relief today.
What artist or trend are you most interested in right now?
There are two artists about whom I am supremely excited these days.
First is Elkka. Coming out of London, she personifies the best electronic music has to offer.
Her DJ sets are unpredictable and utterly infectious in their danceability. She truly channels all the influences from the UK and amalgamates them into this coruscating and sublime mixture that can’t be described as anything but her own.
And her original music, sheesh. Like anyone who says dance music is basic or banal or uninteresting needs to hear what she’s making. It defies genres and brings the ideas of composition, melody, harmony, and rhythm together under an electronic umbrella.
Plus, she also has a live set. I’ve yet to see one, but it is on the top of my list for 2023.
The second artist is another London killer named Gretel Hänlyn.
Rock music has been outside of what’s popular for decades now, so when I find an artist who not only rocks out super hard but brings their unique voice to the genre, I can’t help but feel ecstatic.
Gretel is on the cusp of her second EP, The Head of the Love Club, and it’s almost hard to believe it’s better than her previous one, Slugeye.
There’s a reason the guitar-bass-drums-voice combination defined a generation. That magic, when executed properly, is still around, and Gretel is reminding people of that. Plus she’s so young so there’s no telling where she’ll go from here.
What’s your favorite part of all this?
The music.
What was the best track / video or film / book you’ve consumed in the past 12 months?
Dang, 12 months is a big window. I’d have to say the catalog of iamamiwhoami, wherein the idea of track, video, and film, are all intertwined into one consistent narrative that’s been running since 2009.
If you had to point folks to one piece of yours, what would it be and why?
It would have to be this one, where I featured INVT.
What I love about this piece is that it checks off so many awesome boxes for me. Firstly, I highlighted a deserving upcoming act. They’re about to take over the world, and giving a platform to deserving artists is in my top three favorite things about being a journalist.
Secondly, I also interviewed my favorite electronic artist of all time, Skream.
Finally, this was a story I was curating for months. I saw the angle when Skream compared INVT to himself and Benga (which is the ultimate endorsement throughout the known universe), I ran it by multiple publications, and it literally came together the day of when Luca (of INVT) called Skream into the green room while I was interviewing them and Skream agreed to an interview on the spot.
Then, after that, I watched all three legends spin back-to-back, and it was my first night in London, where I would go on to spend six months in 2022. Those were the best six months of my entire life.
Anything you want to plug?
My newsletter, Writer’s Brain. I’ve been having so much fun writing just for myself. It’s a confirmation I’m actually on the right track which is something I definitely need on a regular basis.