Property Of Zack - Sound In The Signals Interview
What’s a day in your life like?
I typically wake up around 8AM to make sure the first few hours of the day are taken care of. I'm always posting news throughout the day, but I typically start focussing on emails/content creation around noon once the day gets going a bit and the west coast rises. I have a calendar of reminders for when tasks need to be accomplished, and I stick closely to it. Some days are slow, some days are too busy.
Your website has been growing steadily and becoming one of the more popular sites on internet for alternative music. What made you decide to start a site?
Thank you. I didn't start PropertyOfZack on purpose, actually. I think we're somewhat successful at this point because of that. We've never had strict rules about how to operate which enables us to change things on the fly and to continue innovating in our own way. I started a blog on Tumblr in early-2009 as a way to talk about music. As I gathered up some followers, a friend (now staff member) of mine asked me to interview his bad pop-punk band. I did so and then decided I could try doing it with real bands. POZ's first two interviews were with The Dangerous Summer and Moving Mountains in early-November of 2009, and that's when I officially believe the site started.
What do you think has been the most difficult thing about starting the site? What do you think has been the most rewarding thing about starting the site?
The most difficult thing about the website has been the hours we all put into it. I spent from 8/9AM in the morning until midnight working on it in some shape or form. I wouldn't trade that for the world though. The most rewarding aspect has been all of the great relationships made with staff members, publicists, and some of my favorite bands.
You have tons of exclusive content. One thing in particular you do is a lot of exclusive video. A particular video series I liked is when your site filmed the Glamour Kills holiday shows. What was the experience like filming that series of videos? How do you choose what shows or performances you’d like to film?
A Very GK! Holiday was a hell of an experience for PropertyOfZack. We've always held a certain amount of pride for our video work, but we saw the GK show coming up and decided to go all out. We're lucky enough to have some friends at Glamour Kills that like our work and were all for us doing something special. It was the most stressful filming experience for us yet, but it's put us in a great position for the future.
We shoot shows and do exclusive content based on what we'd like to do and what we think would be best for the site.
You also do interviews. What have been a couple of your favorite interviews and why?
Man, that's difficult. Recently I figured out that I've done nearly 350 interviews that have taken 3 days of my life to conduct, which means I've spent double that typing them up. Looking through the list...I'd say our top interviews have been with: Manchester Orchestra, Thrice, Circa Survive, Run For Cover Records, Kevin Lyman, mewithoutYou, The Wonder Years, and too many more.
When I think about music sites for the style you cover for the longest time Absolutepunk.net had little to no competition with being the best site. Over the last couple years I’ve seen your site steadily grow and really compete and often times out-do sites like Ap.net in content and exclusives. When you first started the site did you see it getting as big as it is now?
No. I absolutely did not imagine the site to ever be what it has become today. Of course now I do plan for the future and have expectations and goals, but there was truly no hope or pipe dream of PropertyOfZack becoming what it is today. On another note, the people at AbsolutePunk are some of my closest friends in the industry and have had a large hand in helping the site grow to the point it has. We owe a lot to them.
How do you stay competitive with sites like Ap.net when you are both trying to draw in the same crowd?
I don't view POZ and AP.net as competitors. I like to think of AP.net has the Google for our scene, but we have an incredible amount or offer too. We've got a certain viewership that comes to us for content and news, and we will continue doing the best to provide for them and new faces.
You recently launched a webstore that has exclusive PropertyOfZack merchandise. What made you decide to make merchandise with your logo on it?
Our editor and I view branding as something that is incredibly important. The have our logo on people's chests, cell phones, tour posters, or anything else is great. We know that a lot of people know the site in the web-based world, but it's important to breakthrough into the actual physical world as well.
From the merchandising standpoint how much of that will you continue to grow as the site grows and are there any items you are currently working on for the store?
We're launching our summer line this week with great new tank tops, soda/beer koozies, and new stickers.
I guess that about wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have any closing comments you’d like to make?
Thanks for the interview! In addition to merch, we are stoked to announce that we are sponsoring Man Overboard's Warped Tour tent that will include us selling merch in their booth. So stop buy and check it out! New website design might be coming soon as well...
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