I’ve been a big fan of Alternative Press since the 90s, and it’s been really cool to see it not only survive the increasingly-difficult publishing industry, but thrive. The magazine is now in its 30th year, going from a little fanzine that Mike Shea made in his spare time to the #2 music publication in North America with distribution at mainstream outlets like Barnes & Noble and Target.
The newest addition to their empire is the Alt Press Music Awards, which I went to a couple weeks ago in Cleveland. Featuring performances by bands like Weezer, Panic At The Disco, Black Veil Brides, and Pvris, it drew over 9000 people (!!), trended #1 on Twitter and #4 on Facebook. The brains behind the APMAs is AP’s Director of Sales & Business Development, Josh Bernstein, who you may know as the guy who ran Revolver’s Golden Gods show for 5 years.
“The Art Of Songwriting” panel I hosted at the APMAs with Senses Fail, The Wonder Years, Set It Off and Halestorm
I was kind of blown away with how polished, slick and bigtime the APMAs felt, so I sat down with Josh and my cohost Eyal Levi to talk about the show, making the transition from the metal world to AP, learning how to be a “salesman,” and how he took the APMAs from nothing to filling Quicken Arena in just two years.
[powerpress]
