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

penmanshippodcast.com