Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alli Dempsey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alli, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I like to identify as a self-taught blogger. Even though I eventually went and got two degrees in Journalism, I think a good amount of DIY bloggers or journalists would agree that a good chunk of your origin in the field is just figuring it out. I read a lot of music magazines and sites when I was younger, like NME from across the Atlantic and the essentials like Pitchfork, Billboard and Rolling Stone, and was fascinated by the idea that talking to musicians and writing about them could be a job. I would watch interviews of my favorite artists and write down what questions I would have asked if I was in the interviewer’s place. When I met my best friend Liah at 16 and we threw around the idea of starting own music blog, I brought this interest and my tactics to interviewing local musicians in my hometown of Staten Island. Along with those articles and the occasional pop culture thinkpiece, we ended up reaching out to and publishing interviews with Peter Bjorn & John, ex-guitarist of Franz Ferdinand Nick McCarthy, and Alfie Templeman. It was a learn-as-you-went project, and there was lot I was still figuring out about writing, editing, and asking questions, but this was all very essential to developing my interest in doing this as a career.

I actually kept this blog a secret, since I was still in high school and very hesitant about sharing my writing to anyone. I think that was a huge obstacle; I do wish I shared my work widely at an earlier age, but I try not to dwell on it too much since I’m very happy with where this all got me regardless.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a born-and-raised Staten Islander, although I am currently an Editorial Assistant at Westchester Magazine in New York. On the side, I am a freelance journalist covering music, arts, culture, local businesses and people. I’ve had an interest in journalism since I was eight years old, writing newsletters for my vacation town on the Jersey Shore using computer paper and ballpoint pens. when I was a teen I started my own music blog with my best friend, and we called it Twilight Collective–an experience that solidified in me that I wanted to pursue a career as a music journalist. In 2023 I graduated with my bachelor’s in journalism from SUNY New Paltz, a town that taught me how to fall in love with and report on a local DIY music scene. My title as the Arts & Entertainment editor on their student paper, The Oracle, pushed me to pursue a master’s degree at New York University, where I concentrated on Magazine & Digital Storytelling.

During my time at NYU, which came to a close when I graduated this past December, I interned at a local paper in Rockaway Beach called The Wave covering news, and Paste Magazine as a music editorial intern. Even though the subject matter of these two publications were vastly different, it struck me that I loved covering more than just music, like my origins suggested. I found as much joy covering a Jello Wrestling tournament that took place under the A Train than I did profiling a budding indie musician. I knew that in this industry I had to adapt to change and build a range of topics I could report on, so becoming a malleable journalist gave me the motivation to keep on going, despite the naysayers telling me that working in this field is useless.

I am now working full-time at Westchester, and so far I have covered local businesses, people and music. I am still freelancing on the side and am excited for the expanded world of journalism that I am just now tapping into.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

This may seem a little pessimistic, but a lot of my career choices have been fueled by spite. Of course, the passion I have for music and storytelling is at the center of all I do, but there were a lot of things that I set out to achieve in my life inspired by the sole idea that someone-or something-told me I shouldn’t. I was told studying journalism and trying to find a career in it was useless, so I told myself that I would do it anyway and figure it out. I was told that going to grad school was a waste of time and money, so I got my master’s and made connections at NYU that will last longer than that comment will. I was told that music writing was a doomed field, so I pursued internships and got bylines at some of my dream publications anyway. I never considered pursuing anything else. My path was always going to be this, and I was ready for any struggles or adversity that I was going to inevitably face. I’m aware that I’m still so young and have so much left to experience and overcome, but my brain has never allowed me to see an alternative and I doubt that it will start now.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When I was in college, enamored by the live music I was getting to enjoy in New Paltz, I relished in the fact that I could write about these bands on my blog or in the student paper, spreading the word about them. I thought about how I would discover new music in the pages of NME, and I was inspired by the fact that I could be that point of discovery for someone reading my work. I felt the same way when I wrote my first article for my local paper, the Staten Island Advance, about an old classmate that opened a tattoo shop, and was told that new customers saw my piece and were inspired to stop by. Words have power, especially when they are published in print, and that’s a fact I’ve always respected about the craft of journalism. Seeing that play out in my own work has been both humbling and very enlightening. It only makes me want to write and explore even more.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @alliidempsey
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alli-dempsey-ma-7190a81b8/
• Twitter: @alli_dempsey