The STORY of the UNHEARD NEWSLETTER

Picture the archetypal artist, the modern musician. Depicted in film and social media as drifting or driving alone, down winding roads to stardom far ahead. The experiences of community and culture making their sound possible are barely visible in the clutter of the car. In there somewhere, under the charting and streaming and influence awards, foreign DJ remixes, and other dubious accessories, the stories, the testimonies of experience, gather dust. And radio stations churn top 40s, waxing the focus on the individual as the stories of local spaces are eclipsed by a reproduced mainstream. We hear and start to predict the same music. From all corners of what once were well-rounded musical communities, habits emerge. Tendencies, to isolate and insulate.

Familiar and naturalized comforts, habits of hearing reveal themselves only suddenly, guardedly, in sparse moments of epiphany. So our work here is to reveal them in every moment we share, in every space we are welcomed: to UNHEAR our biases and judgements. We share music news, unique content, and documented experiences with committed epistolary reflection. Breaking barriers and cracking the coated shells of industry bubbles is the way we choose to move forward. Leveraged by interdisciplinary expression and new modes of organization, we listen, write, and move forward.