Paul Sullivan - 09 In Review

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09 In Review

Tuesday, 29 December 2009 12:41

Every year has its ups and downs but 09 was particularly bonkers, lurching around psychotically like an amphetamine-fuelled whippet on a rabbit farm. The entire twelve months seemed to oscillate madly between annus mirabilis and annus horibilis, ending in a twisted, confused knot that resembled nothing more than an anus totalis.

Still, it's always difficult to resist a nostalgic glance over the shoulder upon reaching the terminus of any given year. Surprisingly enough, despite it feeling like the Year of Hades in places, "Oh Nein!" did yield some kind of personal success. The "genius plan" I hatched at the end of '08 - to reduce my client base by half while simultaneously doubling my income - didn't work. Obviously. Not only was it absurd to begin with, but I didn't factor in the recession, or at least the audacious extent of it.

No sooner had I smugly kicked some of my lower / late paying clients into touch (there's no better feeling for us "yes-men' freelancers than saying not only "no!" but "no more!") than the Depression Dinosaurs began stalking the workscape, scattering freelance budgets and gobbling up the remains of the Old Media infrastructure.

"Tits," I found myself uttering again and again as a torrent of despondent emails flopped into my Inbox.

"...unfortunately we're not in a position to pay anything right now..."

"...actually we just laid 64 billion people off..."

"...the entire accounts department died of malnutrition last week..."

Not much you can do about a global downturn except hang on for dear life. Which I did. And slowly, incrementally, miraculously, things improved. By the end of the year I'd managed to replace several unsatisfactory freelance positions with much better ones, took on a couple more editorial roles and even freed up enough time to write some fiction / co-edit an anthology of short stories.

My income didn't double of course, but it remained steady which, now I think about it, is the same thing duh. I reduced the amount of frustrating editors and fuckwit publishers / accounts departments I was dealing with too, which is almost as good as more cash. The stressful days of dragging DJ Magazine through the courts to get paid for work carried out in good faith - the incident that begat the whole "client reduction" plan in the first place - finally seem far, far away. Huzzah for that.

But 2009 still felt uphill all the way. It was the year I really started to feel "diversity fatigue" - not the American multicultural malaise but a freelance phenomenon touched upon recently by my journalist compadre Kevin Braddock, namely the difficulties inherent in wearing many different hats to survive and/or having a surfeit of interests to sate. While diversifying is almost a necessity in today's New Media realm, it invariably results in glazed looks and dismayed silences when it becomes painfully apparent your interests and activities can't be summed up in a pithy sentence.

There were also - yet again - way too many late nights and weekends spent bathing in the spectral glow of the laptop screen. Where did my leisure time go? Those luxurious days of yesteryear when I would swan around in my threadbare dressing gown til noon, reading books, quoting poets or just casually licking postage stamps, cheerfully passing it off all off as "research"?

Gone. Gone, like a Christmas scone.

During the year's darker moments I contemplated giving it all up. Getting a "normal" job. Injecting some "routine" into my life. But a few minutes reminiscing over my previous infernal incarnation as a Full Time Employee always put paid to that idea. "Screw the cubicle," I'd think to myself, "and the flatpack, plywood, Ikea-style horsey-trolley thing it (maybe) rode in on."

And I'm glad I did. A quick gander over my 09 output gives me some faith in my future as a freelancer. Not that I should have any doubts after a decade in the thick of it, but then the overlapping industries my work-life inhabits (photography, fiction, travel, music etc.) have changed a lot since I started. I realise I'm fortunate in the current climate to still be solvent and doing what I love. Better still, many things that I love. I've worked damn hard at it but I still feel blessed to be able to spend my days interviewing artists, reviewing albums, taking photographs, writing fiction, travelling, putting together photography courses, writing / shooting guidebooks and all the rest (see below for a selection of the year's online work).

And besides, it's too late to give up. 2K10 is HERE - all up in our grills (as it were), brandishing its lavish promises and cruel taunts. To tell the truth it's looking OK. There's a new book on dub lined up; a travel guide update on Marrakech; the publication (finally) of the Hyperkinetic anthology; the launch of the Matador travel photography school; an exciting plan for a Berlin-based project. And of course lots and lots of lovely music including interviews with / reviews of Nils Frahm, Hot Chip, Gil Scott Heron, Gilles Peterson, Fuck Buttons and more.

And so to another year of surprises and crises, beefs and bonds, rushed deadlines and dead rushed lines. There probably won't be any time for lolling around in a gown and licking stamps. But at least it won't be boring.

Album Reviews

Antony & The Johnsons "The Crying Light" (Wayango)

Mos Def "The Ecstatic" (MIL)

Mum "Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know" (The Quietus)

Arctic Monkeys "Humbug" (MIL)

Jay Haze / Fuck Pony "Let The Love Flow" (MIL)

Notorious B.I.G. "OST" (Wayango)

Basement Jaxx "Scars" (MIL)

Dead Weather "Horehound" (MIL)

Music Interviews & Whatnot

Ambient Threads (Blogpost, The Guardian)

Vladislav Delay (Q&A, The Quietus)