We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jon D’Auria. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jon below.
Hi Jon, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
While it wasn’t exactly a wild a-ha moment or a journey leading into uncharted territory, finding the name for my company was an extremely important step in the development of my business. My publication is called Bass Magazine, which is as on the nose and literal as it gets, but that’s also what makes it so ideal for us. The process that led us to it was filled with enough kismet and purpose for it to be truly meaningful to me and I couldn’t be more appreciative for the opportunity to land that name.
In 2019, I had been a writer and editor for Bass Player Magazine for 8 years. As one of the leading music instrument publications, we had been the top resource for bass guitarists for a total of 30 years, with much of the original staff still contributing. One fateful day I received a text from a close friend and fellow editor there sharing that they found out from a Wall Street Journal article that our parent company had been purchased by a UK-based corporation that would be taking our beloved publication over.
In the course of six months we learned that it was true, and the integration had begun. The new company started by downsizing our staff and firing key people both on the editorial and administrative side of our roster. These were people I had worked with for years and we were all very upset with the unfortunate decisions being made. The company asked if I would stay on, as I held multiple integral positions (staff writer, web editor, gear editor, event organizer), but I spoke with the core members of our U.S.-based team, and we decided to take the risk in resigning and branching off to create a new venture of our own.
With most of the 30-year staff onboard, we decided to start our own bass guitar publication and continue the editorial tradition that we had upheld for so long. With the writing on the wall for some time that print was quickly dying, we chose to move all of our operations to the web-only format. We got to work on developing our aesthetic and hiring web designers to carry out our vision. The most difficult thing that we knew we faced was coming up with a brand name.
We met for weeks and threw out countless ideas that encapsulated bass guitar, bass players, music journalism, along with recognizable terms that would appeal to our very devout niche audience. Of course, Bass Magazine was the ideal name–especially for brand familiarity and SEO purposes, but we believed that there was no way that would be available. Once we narrowed our choices down to about 5 (including names like The Low End, Bass Corner, Bass Daily), I set off to check which domains were currently available.
Out of curiosity, I first searched “Bass Magazine” just to see if any variations were possible. In moment of sheer luck or serendipity, I learned that the domain for bassmagazine.com had just become available that very week. I believe it had previous been occupied by an outlet for bass fishing, which is a constant joke in our industry, but I couldn’t believe our luck. Despite its somewhat hefty price tag ( or at least for a personally funded startup venture), I couldn’t click the buy button fast enough. I then got to work designing the logo and the rest is history. I couldn’t be happier with that course of events that led us to our brand name.
Jon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
For almost 20 years I have been a journalist, editor, photographer, designer, event organizer, artist relations rep, publicist, and copy writer in the music industry. In that span I have completed over 450 interviews and my work has been published in 17 publications where it has been read by millions of people all over the world. I am a member of the Recording Academy and several boards both locally and nationally that help benefit both artists and music education.
I first got into music journalism back in 2005. I was just finishing college and had been investing most of my time and energy into my band that at the time was negotiating with record labels to sign a contract. I was about to achieve all of my wildest hopes and dreams, and I couldn’t believe the opportunity that I was about to be given. Well…that plan imploded when my singer surprised us by announcing that he was quitting the band to pursue priesthood. My whole world crumbled around me. Unsure what to do with my life moving forward and stuck in the first of many existential crises, I was a wreck mentally and emotionally.
I decided to work to improve myself, so I started doing yoga, running, and studying upright bass with an amazing teacher named Ed Friedland. He was a writer for Bass Guitar Magazine, and he served as a mentor for me in many ways. One day after a lesson he asked me what I was going to do now that my band had dissolved. Just winging it, I told him I’d like to be a music journalist like him, and he suggested interviewing a bass player and writing out an article so he could give me notes on how I could improve and develop my writing. I somehow got ahold of the bass player of a band I liked called Circa Survive and interviewed the bassist and wrote something up. I had never taken a single journalism class but had spent many years reading music magazines and pretty much anything regarding bass that I could get my hands on.
I gave my article to Ed and was surprised when he emailed me back saying that it was really good. He even went as far as saying he would send it to his current editor in chief to have him check it out. A week later I received a call from a New York number and on the other end was Elton Bradman, the man currently running the magazine. He said he needed new blood and asked if I wanted the job, and I immediately said yes. Suddenly I had a three-article deadline for that month with absolutely zero experience in journalism. I embraced the “fake it til you make it” mentality and put all of myself into those articles.
Within a few months I became a staff writer and shortly after that I became their web editor. By showing my tireless work ethic and remaining entirely malleable, I became an asset to the company. I left my ego out of the learning curve and that allowed me to develop and improve at a fast rate. When I was asked to take on new tasks–even if I had no experience in them–I jumped at the opportunity and learned along the way. Can you take pictures? Yep! Now I’m a photographer. Can you make a visual editorial spread? Yep! Now I’m an art designer. Can you run our website feed? Yep! Now I’m a web editor. That’s really been the nature of my trajectory in this field. Now I’m proud to be an editor in chief. I’m equally proud that both Elton Bradman and Ed Friedland are big parts of my magazine.
After 5 years of existence, Bass Magazine is the top publication for bass in the world. We have a readership of 150,000 per month and a social media reach of over 30 million monthly impressions. We feature the top artists in the world including legends and newcomers of all genres and walks of life. We recently had our first ever Bass Magazine Awards, where we gave Lifetime Achievement awards to Sting, Justin Chancellor of Tool and John Patitucci, as well as Future of Bass awards to Thundercat, MonoNeon, and Mohini Dey.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
As a journalist, my goal is always to remain transparent in my writing and to keep the spotlight on the artist. The article isn’t about me or my prowess as a writer, it’s about dissolving into the piece so the reader focuses on the subject and not the author. So many writers flex their impressive vocabularies or unique writing styles, and in the current days of web content everyone wants to have their face front and center. I’ve always been old school in simply putting my name in the byline and allowing my work to exist on its own.
The biggest goal of my interviewing process is making the subject as comfortable as possible. Regardless of whether I’m talking to Gene Simmons, Sir Paul McCartney, Colin Greenwood of Radiohead, or an up-and-coming prodigy from Brazil, I like to keep the interviews conversational, comfortable, and flowing. Then when it comes to writing the article, I always focus on what the main messages are from the conversation, and what the reader would truly want to know. I hate clickbait pull quotes and using moments from interviews that will surely draw attention to lure readers. That’s the main currency for journalism nowadays, but I like to keep things as genuine and authentic as possible.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding part of being a music journalist is being able to bring rockstars and music legends directly to their fans in a way where they will feel like they know them personally after reading the article. When artists get candid and vulnerable it translates authentically in the article that can really touch the readers who feel an emotional and creative connection with them. In doing hundreds of interviews, I take so much comfort in knowing that despite any level of fame or popularity or wealth, we’re all stressed out, we’re all insecure, we all get depressed, and we all have anxieties in our lives. Everyone is simply human regardless of social status or success. Being able to show the human side of those viewed as superhuman is very rewarding.
As a musician it is very similar, where when you can touch someone with your playing, even in a trivial moment of danceable enjoyment, that makes everything you do worth it. For me, it’s all about connection. We are all connected in so many ways, and every possible opportunity of expressing and celebrating that connection brings me so much happiness.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bassmagazine.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jondauria/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jon.dauria/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-d-auria-2a7b5089
- Twitter: https://x.com/jondauria
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3RVCDw5H-0EGEtKQA8Y_kQ
