Support Max Quinn at his music writing blog

Being a finalist in a national competition to find Australia’s most promising young music journalists has boosted Max Quinn’s dreams of carving out his career in the music industry.

A Southern Cross University Bachelor of Arts student, Max has just been selected from thousands of Australia-wide entries as a finalist in the Optus Sound Scribe competition, a music journalism contest for budding music writers in regional areas.

For the competition, all of the finalists must produce a blog about local music in their area and the music industry in general, complete with things like reviews and interviews. Members of the public get to vote on which blog they think is best.

The winner gets a paid job writing for an Australian music magazine and a trip to Los Angeles for an ‘international perspective’ on the industry.

“I'll need all the support I can get,” said Max, who comes from Ballina and is now in his second year of studies at SCU. “I would appreciate it if the Southern Cross University community of students and staff and other people living in this area could get behind me by visiting my music blog and voting for me if they think I am good enough.

“This is a really significant opportunity for me to get a start in the industry and it is also good for the University to help promote its courses to young people.

“The competition runs over the next three months, so if people can visit and vote regularly over that time, it would be greatly appreciated.”

Follow the blog link (below) to ‘Sign My Petition’, and cast your vote.

As part of the competition, the region where the winning ‘Scribe’ lives gets to host a gig played by a major artist. “So if I win, Lismore or Ballina gets a big concert to celebrate,” Max said.

“People voting for me can also ask a question of the feature artist of the month. This month’s artist is Birds of Tokyo. If one of my supporter’s questions is the one that is submitted to the band, I get to fly to Sydney for a one-on-one interview AND the person who asked the question gets a $500 iTunes music voucher, which is a great incentive for people to get amongst it, I reckon!”

Max, 19, said music had always been his main passion in life. “So I decided to combine my existing musical knowledge and experience with majors in writing and media for my Bachelor of Arts, as well as adding electives like song writing and music theory,” he said.

Having won a prestigious Vice Chancellor’s scholarship – as part of the University’s Rising Stars Scholarship program – for his high academic achievement in the Higher School certificate (a UAI of 97.95 achieved while at Xavier Catholic College, Lennox Head), Max said he was thrilled to be able to study at a quality University while still enjoying the support of living at home.

“So far the subjects I have studied have proven really useful,” Max said. “To enter the Sound Scribe competition I had to submit many different examples of my writing, like reviews of music videos, songs I had written and personal writing about myself. I felt quite confident that these were well written and interesting.”

Max works in a number of music shops part-time to help fund his studies. You will find him at various times at All Music and Vision stores in Byron Bay, Ballina and Lismore. He also plays guitar and writes songs and is establishing a band of his own.

“I have worked for this company since I was 14 and it is great that I can get part-time work relevant to my degree in the local area,” he said.

“It gives me great exposure to the music scene and an understanding from the retail side of things what people are buying and listening to.

“I plan for my career to focus on writing – both song writing and writing about contemporary music in general.”

Photo: Max Quinn – enjoying his studies as well as his work in a Lismore music store. Max wants people to visit his music blog and vote for him in the Optus Sound Scribe competition.