By Erin Goss
SDUN Reporter
Known for her meticulous and often uncanny coverage of anything and everything going on in San Diego related to music, Bystrak began blogging as somewhat of an afterthought in November 2006. Unlike many of us who jumped on the blogging bandwagon a few years ago only to discover that the random details of our personal lives merely drew in readers that shared our own DNA (hello, Mom and Dad!), Bystrak discovered otherwise. She was forced to create a completely separate music blog due to the overwhelming amount of unrelated visitors frequenting San Diego: Dialed In.
It all took off when Bystrak began chronicling nearly every live music event in San Diego for each day of the week.
It’s no small feat by any means.
“I realized that everything I did revolved around how I was going to plan for this site,” she said.
However, her work paid off. In addition to gathering a slew of followers, San Diego: Dialed In has earned the bashful blogger several jobs in the industry, including managing the social media at her favorite downtown venue, the infamous Casbah.
Bystrak doesn’t stop there, though. Despite confessing that she is still open to pursuing additional music-related endeavors, she also does PR for local band Zoo Seven, writing for NBC’s Sound San Diego and she recently began booking shows on Thursday nights at West Coast Tavern.
The life of this online rock journalist hasn’t always been so glamorous, though. Back in 2007, Bystrak learned the harsh reality of negative feedback when she had a run-in with Band of Horses singer Ben Bridwell, who flipped her a not-so-appreciative finger when he saw her filming his concert and verbally chastised her from onstage.
Bystrak explained that she was filming along with other fans in the crowd simply to share the show with others online. The catastrophe blew out of proportion when in an interview with Pitchfork, a national music website, Bridwell recalled the incident and proclaimed that Bystrak had been unfairly exploiting the band.
As a result, Bystrak’s blog overfilled with hate mail worthy of a modern-day terrorist.
“It was the first time I had experienced real Internet rage—people were telling me I should die,” Bystrak said. “I have over 1,000 videos on YouTube and only one with a problem.”
On the upside, Bystrak has had her fair share of brushes with the upper echelons of music royalty, not to mention being included in a few tour shenanigans.
When questioned about a post in which she described “running into” a member of MGMT on the street—as if this happens to the rest of us—she said, “I went up and gave him a big hug and I don’t think he had any idea who I was! He was so wasted both times we had met.”
However, booze-fueled encounters have also worked in Bystrak’s favor. She conducted an interview with Tucson band Holy Rolling Empire in the group’s hotel room while both parties were equally inebriated. The result? The band’s top-watched interview on YouTube to date.
Besides rubbing elbows with or giving hugs to MTV’s current golden child or knocking back drinks with Holy Rolling Empire, Bystrak is making the most of the opportunities afforded to her by her blogging success. At the upcoming North Park Music Thing, a festival being held the second weekend of August, the journalist is hosting her own stage.
The bill will include her favorite music acts, although she hesitated to admit that, explaining that her love of local bands is so expansive that she hates to be pinned down for fear of leaving anyone out. Also, ever the impartial reporter Bystrak recognizes that not everyone will agree with her tastes.
“What I like, versus what sells, versus what fills venues is so different,” she said.
Nevertheless, Bystrak is excited to share some of her personal favorite local musicians with festival-goers. Yet that’s not the only thing the music blogger is looking forward to. As our interview came to a close, Bystrak showed a crack in her understatedly cool persona and revealed a glimmering of an inner geek.
“I’m looking forward to Comic-Con and finding all the secret parties!” she laughed.
Even the coolest of local music journalists can relate to the rest of our nerdy obsessions.
For more information, go to Bystrak’s blog at sddialedin.com.
