Jim Ottewill is a business writer by day and a music writer by night. With bylines in FACT, Resident Advisor, MusicTech, and more, Jim has carved out a niche in the electronic music world. Jim’s first book is Out of Space, out now via Velocity Press. The book “explores the relationship between different cities and landscapes and the electronic music scenes to emerge from them.” For those in Glasgow, there’s a book launch later this week at Rubadub.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
I started going out in Manchester during the mid-nineties as a fresh-faced teenager, falling in and out of indie clubs, then went to Sheffield to study. It was in Sheffield that I started writing for free monthly magazine Sandman, became their Late Licence editor, ended up working part-time at venue the Plug on their PR (alongside plenty of stints in a call centre) and gradually began to write for mags like FACT, Resident Advisor and Hyponik. I balanced this with work as a financial and business writer and have continued to do so ever since. In the day, I’ll be writing copy about cybersecurity, green finance or music education, then at night, writing features for mags like MusicTech and Composer Magazine. I spent five years at PRS for Music on their member magazine M and had the pleasure of interviewing heroes like Boy George and Bill Withers. It’s been a pretty wobbly and winding ‘career’ path. Without ever having thought about it as a path. Or a career.
Can you please briefly describe the book?