Publishing

In the Spring of 2005 I moved from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Urbana, Illinois to pursue my DMA in Jazz Performance at the University of Illinois. That summer I had some free time and decided to contact Just Jazz Guitar to see if I could contribute and article or two for their magazine. Owner Ed Benson immediately brought me on board writing reviews for JJG, which later grew into writing interviews and lessons for the magazine as well.

Fast forward 3 years to 2008, I had just finished the coursework for my Doctorate and with my extra time, now that I wasn’t taking any classes, I reached out to several websites and print magazines to see if I could do some more writing work on the side. I met John Kelman and Mike Ricci at All About Jazz as well as Rick Landers at Modern Guitars Magazine. Between those two publications I became very busy writing interviews, historical articles and product reviews in my ever shrinking spare time.

Though I was taking on a lot of work, I really loved writing and especially getting to talk to many of the guitarists and musicians that I had grown up idolizing in my youth. When Modern Guitars folded, Rick called me and asked me to join him in a new venture called Guitar International Magazine, and I immediately said yes. Though we were pretty green in the realm of website maintenance and construction, we dove in head first, setting up interviews, rebuilding from the Modern Guitars archives and bringing in fresh blood to the business. We had no idea if the site would survive, but it definitely has and we only have our loyal readers to thank for our rapid growth and success.

Since beginning as a columnist and contributing writer with GI, I have since been promoted to Associate Editor, then Editor in Chief, and in 2011 I was brought on board as the President of the Guitar International Group (GIG), the company that own GI and all of its publishing endeavors. It’s been a wild ride so far, especially for someone who was trained as a performer and has never taking a writing class in my life, but I’ve learned a lot from my peers, and from just going out there and writing on a daily basis. Though I never envisioned myself as a journalist growing up, I have come to love this field and the doors it has opened up for me in every aspect of my career.

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Matt Warnock and Orianthi at Winter NAMM 2011

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Interviews

Rock

Ace Frehley
Andy Johns
Brian Aubert
Greg Howe
James Burton
John 5
Jon Anderson
Omar Rodrigues-Lopez
Paul Gilbert
Ritchie Blackmore
Robby Krieger
Sammy Haggar
Steve Morse
Steve Vai
Top Topham

Jazz

Alex Skolnick
Ben Monder
George Benson
Jonathan Kreisberg
John McLaughlin
Kevin Eubanks
Lee Ritenour
Robben Ford
Sheryl Bailey

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Events Covered

Experience PRS 2010
Summer NAMM 2010
Winter NAMM 2011