By Zac Taylor

One of the perks of the editor gig is that I get to meet Australian pop stars named Lenka. After I spoke with her, I had a longer chat with her backing band, a bunch of hired guns from LA. The guitar player John actually went to Berklee for a couple years. “Don’t graduate,” he told me. “Everyone I know that graduated is not working in music.” He could tell I was young, impressionable, and pretty naïve as to how the biz really worked. “Don’t go around slinging your business card around, or giving everyone you meet your demo. That’s the fastest way to alienate yourself,” he warned. “The best thing you can do when you’re out of Berklee, is go be part of a scene somewhere, and accept that nothing’s going to happen for you, at first. Go to as many shows as you can, and get really drunk with people. That’s how you get to know them, and that’s how you get hired by people. It’s all about connections.” The rest of the band nodded in agreement as they unpacked their instruments and gear in front of the stage at Great Scott.

This ‘early alumnus’ went to Berklee from ’01-’04, and things have changed immensely since then, so the stigma around graduating is probably a moot point. But I thought long and hard about the advice towards ‘networking,’ and not coming across too business-minded and rubbing people the wrong way. I’m glad they told me that, because I was moments away from handing them my card, which reads ‘my name is zac taylor. i play the guitar’ (note the all lowercase font that denotes an immense yet nonchalant level of hipness).

Enjoy this issue, and we’re still reformatting a bunch of Groove sections and what-nots, so if you have any feedback or want to come high five us, we’ll be the ones in the office near the loft, making fun of your myspace page.