Tone Glow

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Tone Glow is a Substack newsletter focused primarily on experimental music. Typical Tone Glow issues feature the following content:

• A longform interview, ranging from 3,000 to 18,000 words each
  • We have interviewed popular musicians such as Jim O'Rourke, David Toop, Shirley Collins, Irmin Schmidt of Can, Annea Lockwood, Carl Stone, Young Marble Giants, Yo La Tengo, Phew, and Tori Kudo
  • We have interviewed largely important figures who deserve more recognition, such as Simone Forti, Catherine Christer Hennix, Philip Corner, Maggi Payne, Charles Curtis, Moniek Darge, and The Hafler Trio
  • We have interviewed younger/newer musicians who we believe are making some of the most exciting music right now, such as DeForrest Brown, Jr., Claire Rousay, Fire-Toolz, Lucy Liyou, Micaela Tobin, Still House Plants, Duma, Derek Baron, and Asha Sheshadri
• Downloads and reviews of three older, obscure albums
• A 'writers panel', which features our staff of writers sharing their thoughts on the same albums

In addition to this, Tone Glow has quarterly issues highlighting favorite albums and songs, as well as occasional special issues focused on various topics (e.g. our 'Song of the Summer' issue, our 'Road Trip' issue, our 'Favorite Non-Canonical Albums of 2000' issue). We also have another publication called Tune Glue, which features interviews with musicians who aren't creating experimental music, as well as artists from all mediums. Interviews have been conducted with artists such as John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, Phil Elverum, and Jay Tholen, the creator of the video game Hypnospace Outlaw.

Joshua Minsoo Kim is the editor of both Tone Glow and Tune Glue and is committed to paying all writers, photographers, banner makers, transcribers, and anyone else who is (or will be) part of our team. In 2020, Kim paid out $10,000 to keep these publications afloat. We are committed to keeping these publications ad-free and for all content to be free-to-read. Nothing will ever be behind a paywall.