I created Soul Sides 20 years ago because I wanted an outlet to write about my favorite records. The blog era feels bygone — and I clearly stopped regularly updating the site years ago — but the impulse to talk about records has never faded. It’s why I’ve created podcasts and newsletters but to mark the...
One of the few freelance pieces I have taken on over the past year was to interview Thes One for Dust and Grooves. D&G’s creator, Eilon Paz, specifically wanted me to talk about my…uh…history with People Under the Stairs, which I did in the interview’s intro. From there, we launch into a long convo about...
First of all, I haven’t forgotten the fact that 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of Soul Sides. I obviously don’t post here very often at all — it’s been a year and a half since my past post — but I’m not ready to sunset the site just yet (even though, all said, I probably...
(I’ve said this in the past but I don’t want artists dying to be only time I actually write new content. I guess I don’t spend enough time giving flowers to the living; I really need to work on that. –O.W.) I always feel awkward paying tribute to an artist that I initially discovered through...
“Give the flowers to the living” (or, in this case, daisies I suppose). I’m appreciative to URB Magazine for many reasons, not the least of which is that they gave me the opportunity to interview and profile some of my heroes, including De La Soul. I wrote a profile on the group as they were preparing to...
I recently published my first freelance piece for 2023, a Los Angeles Times profile of Thes One and how he put together, Farewell, My Friend, a beautiful elegy for his PUTS partner, Double K, who passed away two years ago. (Listen // Buy) It’s been a long while since I’ve worked on a reported piece...