A Week In The Life [Strong Start 001]
Over the past few days, I’ve been feeling very motivated. I have some new ideas that I’m ready to make happen. I’m not exactly sure how they’ll benefit my career, but I want to make them happen, we’re gonna make them happen. First up, is a weekly Blog Series that I want to call Strong Start. They’ll be recap blogs, discussing a week in the life of FRAGMENT RADIO, from the perspective of Bhaven Moorthy – a rookie music journalist out of Mississauga, Ontario. A lover of music, who’s mission is to give you your flowers while you’re here.
This past week, Friday to Friday have been some of the best days of my young career.
On Friday afternoon, I linked up with the Sidedoor team for the first time in a very long time. Throughout Quarantine, we’ve been keeping busy creating all sorts of content for the website, including a number of really dope interviews. Some of my personal favourites are the Certified Benji interview as well as the NLE Choppa one.
Since gathering restrictions have lightened, Sidedoor has been able to get back to work on their 2nd print issue. Last Friday afternoon, we shot and interviewed Uptown Boy Band, a Korean-Canadian hip-hop/R&B group who are doing everything they can to be true to who they are, while putting on for their people, while also dropping dope music. As you can imagine, I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with them. I still have to write the rest of their interview though lol.
The Friday night, I was watching the Raptors and Celtics play Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals… While going through beat submissions for the first-ever Finessed Media Beat Battle. I was blown away by every beat we received. The Raptors lost, but I still felt like we won.
On Saturday afternoon, I hosted the aforementioned Beat Battle, and it was a great success. We had producers from across the world attend, but also some of my favourite producers from Mississauga. I figured a beat battle would be a dope way for producers to share their music with the community, while also receiving feedback from YoungTN - a 17-year-old Toronto-based producer, who happens to be Tamil, who also happens to have a placement on the best selling rap album of 2020 so far, Lil Baby’s My Turn.
It was dope to be introduced to so many talented people, but it was even better because I knew I had my team there with me. Although Mississauga didn’t walk away with the W, we all got to interact with TN as well as a bunch of creatives from all over the world. The same day we hosted the Beat Battle with Finessed, we dropped the YoungTN Interview with Sidedoor. Again, we didn’t technically win, but we won.
I took the rest of Saturday and Sunday to myself. It was a relaxing weekend. And for the first time in a long time, I felt like I had deserved that. I had been out and about the last few days, working hard, in and out of studios, helping make moves for all of us. Something was telling me to take the weekend off because I would be getting right back to it on Monday – and I was right.
On Monday, we recorded a really dope episode of FRAGMENT RADIO. We not only shared some of our favourite songs of the week, but we also broke down the new Big Sean album, Detroit 2, as well as his online perception. At the end of the episode, I tried to convince Ahadu that Double Or Nothing wasn’t a terrible project, but it didn’t work lol.
Immediately after recording FRAGMENT, I got together with some of the dope women over at Finessed Media to record a trial episode for a podcast that we want to launch over there. It didn’t go perfectly, but it was still really fun. We learned a lot by just trying to make it happen. We’re going to get better, and we’re going to be sharing them very soon, so keep an eye out for the work I do with Finessed Media, including their Intern Insight Blogs.
Every Tuesday, I drop a quick post describing what being a Finessed Media Intern does for me, as well as the community. I’ve discussed the support, management, and confidence that they have given me. This past Tuesday, I discussed how our weekly meetings with the CEO keep us organized and accountable for the goals that we set weekly. I love the team over at Finessed, and they make it clear that they love me. Finessed Media is doing great things, and I’m very happy to be apart of their growth.
In addition to giving me another space to publish my written work and develop my hosting/podcasting abilities, Finessed has introduced me to a number of Creatives. On Monday of last week, I worked on an artist bio for Sheri John, an artist managed by Tiffany Edwards under their independent record label, Visions Out Loud, LLC. They reached out to me because of Finessed’s recommendation and offered to pay me $100USD for my work. I sent a draft to the bio on Monday night and scheduled to meet with them on Thursday.
On Tuesday, I connected with the winner of our Finessed Media Beat Battle, an up and coming Atlanta-based producer, @Swankswank_. We now have a relationship and are working on getting a cypher together for his battle-winning beat, “KAPPA”. If all goes well, Swank, the cypher-winner, and TN will collaborate on a single.
That same night, I prepped for one of the coolest interviews of my life. Sidedoor hit me up earlier in the week to let me know that Sean Leon, a local-legend in Toronto was teaming up with LG Canada for a performance to promote their new phone. Because of the LG PR team, Sidedoor, and I, would be given the opportunity to speak with Sean about his music, his relationship with Toronto, his relationship with Technology, and how LG was helping bring all of that together.
I interviewed Sean on Wednesday and it went incredibly well, but unfortunately, we lost the recording of it, so you’re just going to have to trust me lol. During our conversation though, Sean made it clear that he is excited about what Sidedoor is doing, so we’re definitely going to be working with him on Issue 3, which hopefully won’t be too long from now.
On Wednesday evening, Domi came over to just hang out. We didn’t have much to do, so we decided to have a couple of beers and fix up the basketball net that sits out in front of my house. I’ve been using it every day since.
On Thursday evening, I spoke with Tiffany and Sheri, about the artist's bio, and they absolutely loved it. They had almost no feedback and were proud to support me with a payment, so I sent my first ever invoice as a freelance writer out that same night.
After talking to Sheri and Tiffany, I had one of those dope Finessed Media meetings I was talking about earlier. This time, as a group we discussed some of the goals we want to hit before our internship ends at the end of the year. Goal sharing with your people is dope, I would highly recommend doing it. If you need some inspiration, here are some of the goals I shared:
Get a business/journalist mentor
Develop multiple income streams
Create a “Network Document”
Which will consist of Artists, Producers, and Publications that I’d like to work with
As well as a list of people who I think would support me financially should I choose to sell merchandise/content.
Incorporate myself as a Freelance Writer
Receive steady income
I spent most of the next day with my family. I had to take care of some stuff for my dad and also make sure I was available to pick up my mom from work. But while I was out, running around, I received the payment for the invoice I had sent out. It wasn’t the first time I was paid to write, but it was the first time I got paid for an Invoice that had a Fragment Radio logo on it. It was a big moment for me, and I had to share it with my guys, because they’re the reason it happened.
I know I haven’t discussed any music in this post, but I’m sure that won’t always be the case. This was just an exciting week lol. But if you were wondering, all I’ve really been listening to is the Big Sean album and a couple singles that I shared on last week’s episode of Fragment Radio.
This upcoming week though, I’ll be listening to Blxst’s new project, No Love Lost. It’s incredible and will discussed when we record Fragment Radio later today.
Hope you have a strong start.
Catch up soon,
Bhaven