Your name
Emma Warren
Job title
Journalist and broadcaster
Where do you work?
I work three days a week in Brixton, as an editorial mentor at Live Magazine, working with a team of young creatives who put together a quarterly magazine and website. The rest of the time I work at home, which is south east London. I do a weekly radio show from London Bridge. There’s a lot of south London in my life.
What does your daily job involve? (including what are your hours, including after work/weekends?
I do quite a few different things, so it’s quite difficult to break it down. My job at Live is the most structured, and that involves working with our editorial team on ideas, sorting out interviews, bringing in industry professionals, making sure the web editors are up to date and making sure all our social networks are doing what they should do. There’s also a lot of talking to 14 year olds about why they rate this week’s YouTube grime sensation. This job has fairly regular hours, it’s basically 9-5 with various bits of mopping up to do at home, but it requires a lot of thinking on your feet and can be very draining – although I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in a job.
I used to write a lot for newspapers and magazines but I’ve made a bit of a shift to audio and I now do a weekly radio show that goes out on NME. It’s very enjoyable, although it’s a lot of work, so I tend to spend a lot of time listening to new music and playlisting, and I tend to spend Fridays researching and making notes on the acts I’m going to be playing that night. I really like to sound well-informed. The radio show requires maintenance week-round. I download music I’ve been sent, and trawl through record shops like boomkat.com most evenings and I try and get out to Sounds Of The Universe of Rough Trade East on a regular basis.
I’ve also started making radio documentaries and I’ve got three going out on R1 later this year. This new string to my bow helps keep things varied: this week I’ve been to the Chilterns to interview a plastic surgeon and to a Deptford tattoo studio.
I work most evenings and usually at some point over the weekend. I don’t earn huge amounts of money for the work put in, but I enjoy it. I am a fan of the idea that you should think about what you put into the world, and to try not to make it worse.
What did you study?
I did three A Levels then a degree in European Studies and Languages at Manchester Met. Most of my real studying was done in nightclubs.
What was your first job?
I got a job when I was 15 and 3/4 at Manfield Shoes in Bromley. My first journalism job was editing the student magazine, Pulp, and writing for Jockey Slut, which was a magazine my friends John Burgess and Paul Benney started in Manchester.
What do you wish you had know before you started?
Nothing. You learn by not knowing, although I wish someone had taught me grammar properly at school. That would have saved a bit of time.
What has been your most memorable achievement to date?
I was very proud of the Steppas Delight compilations I did for Soul Jazz. Pretty much everything I’ve done professionally has been about sharing my enthusiasms and that’s exactly what the compilation was about: sharing the incredible early days of dubstep with the wider world.
What tips would you give anyone wishing to get into your
area of the creative industries?
You have to enjoy the work, because the glamorous lifestyle is an illusion. Journalism is hard work. Transcribing is boring and time-consuming. Fact-checking is frustratingly long-winded. Actually getting someone to talk to you for your story can be tricky. Journalism requires tenacity, a real desire to tell human stories and an ability to work really hard, usually by yourself, in a role that can see you frequently criticised and will rarely attract praise. But if you’re a natural-born journalist you won’t really need tips… all you need is an outlet. And if you do want a tip, try these: read good journalism, make sure you work out what you think about things, and practice expressing your ideas clearly.
Who or what inspires you?
Life. There are so many interesting things in the world. In terms of writing, I started buying THE FACE and i-D when I was around 16 and quickly found my first favourite writers. Gavin Hills was my first favourite writer.
For more information on Live visit the website.
For more from Emma Warren visit her blog or follow her on Twitter.