Okayplayer Music Editor, Michael "ZO" Gonik, Signs Off
Dearest readers, listeners and forward-minded music misfits
It’s been an honor to serve as Music Editor here for the last year and change, its music writer, editorial intern and devout non-affiliated student before that. But my tenure at this institution has run its course. Effective immediately, I am resigning from my post to an admittedly undetermined future.
I’m grateful to be part of this family and to have had the opportunity to speak with so many musicians about their respective processes and passions over the years, to have brought uncommon voices and their respective tales into this shifting world of sounds and sights, to have even attempted connecting dots between generations of those sounds and sights. It’s been the most fulfilling and enriching aspect to my life in music. You’ve all inspired me in one way or another and if nothing else is certain of the time ahead, my commitment to championing those voices and the stories behind them is unflinching. It's the presentation that I've yet to settle on.
Truth is, writing was never a natural thing to me; more a learned medium for conversations I was already having, if anything. And it’s been good to me, no question. But 6,000-plus pieces, dozens of playlists and interviews and all of the mixtapes pitches and late-night subway rides scribbling-down blurry details from the evening's performer have taken their computational toll. The fingers and strings behind them have worn thin.
Not that I’d ever ask for a refund. This team has been a rotating cast of absolutely brilliant and defiantly fearless creatives since I signed on in Summer 2013. Together (and apart when necessary) we've witnessed, contributed to and facilitated historic moments in music. To have shared a frequency with them for even a moment is the seminal blessing of this privileged American Jewish Life.
This won't be my last broadcast, but amongst the final in these pages. In this form, at least. And if you really wanna know where I'm at or what I'm listening to moving forward, you can find me at @zogotsoul on both Twitter and Spotify. I only hope that my time here has filled your ears, eyes and hearts with the same levels of joy, strength and occasionally-necessary pain as its brought me.
Thank you, I love you, and bid you adieu. For now.
Zo, signing off.
