About Me – Mary L. Chang

I am a freelance music and science journalist, editor, and writer based in the Washington, D.C., area. I am available for writing and editing projects, big or small.

I am a professional writer and editor with over 15 years’ experience in music journalism, science communications, and website and social media management. How can I help you today? Below, you can read about my past work experiences. If you’re interested in working with me, fill out the Contact Me form with your inquiry, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

I have over 12 years’ experience in music feature writing, music reviewing, and live event coverage across North America, Europe, and Australia. I am well known in the music industry for my integrity, tireless championing of indie bands and artists, especially those from the UK, and strong work ethic. In 2015, longtime BBC radio presenter Steve Lamacq introduced me to UK industry movers and shakers at SXSW as “our best American champion of British music we have“. I was among the first music journalists to write about the 1975 (Manchester, England), Glass Animals (Oxford, England), Kodaline (Dublin, Ireland), Two Door Cinema Club (Bangor, Northern Ireland), and We Were Promised Jetpacks (Edinburgh, Scotland), just to name a handful of successful bands.

I am the owner and Editor-in-Chief of UK/U.S./Irish music website There Goes the Fear (established in 2006), where I joined as USA editor in August 2009 and became editor and owner in August 2010. The site was nominated 4 years running (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, until they stopped the event) in the Best Blog Category at Record of the Day‘s annual Awards for Music Journalism. I put the site on hiatus in April 2019, only updating in summer 2019 to preview a special show at the Kennedy Space Center starring Duran Duran, part of NASA’s 50th anniversary celebration of the Apollo 11 moon landing on 16 July 2019.

I intended to cover industry events in the UK and Europe in 2020 on TGTF. However, given the unexpected event cancellations and the inability to travel after late February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the only new content in 2020 that was posted to TGTF were a preview and subsequent review coverage of the conference and music festival at Output Belfast 2020. In mid-February 2021, a year on since the first lockdowns began, I wrote this blog post here on how I see the music industry must evolve from its current state, and with swift action at a regional, grassroots level. Without significant funding from governments, major record labels, and streaming services, this evolution seems to me the only way that popular music will survive as a viable business and one that will continue to employ musicians and all manner of technical support positions.

While TGTF brought our readers coverage of established bands already considered mainstream that myself and my writers already loved, the mission of TGTF was simple: to support talented up-and-coming acts and help them get to the stage where being a musician can lead to a sustainable career. In the context of an ever-evolving business where the internet has proven to be a double-edged sword for discovery and compensation for the art, this remains an important to me. While in early 2021 I hope that it will not take too long for the music industry to return to some kind of normalcy, I fear for the newer artists and how they will make a living in what I expect to be a very changed landscape once live music events are allowed to go on once again.

My first big project after putting TGTF on ice in 2019 was a multipart interview feature done in collaboration with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) cofounder Andy McCluskey for his band’s official website. In October 2019, the electronic pioneers from the Wirral released the special 40th anniversary ‘Souvenir’ box set, containing unreleased and previously unheard audio material, rare live tv performances, concerts in full on both audio and video, and all of their 40 singles released over their storied career. Read more in these links: part 1 | part 2 | part 3

I used to write for Click Music (2010) before writing for UK print and online magazine This is Fake DIY (now DIY Mag) exclusively (2010-2012), and for American music website PopWreckoning (2009-2011) before it went on hiatus. I was also a contributor to CALMzine, the magazine of UK suicide prevention organisation Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM).

Outside of music, I previously worked in nonprofit scientific journal publishing and on government contracts in the Washington, D.C. area. In my contracting job, I created and edited content for AIDSinfo.nih.gov and promoted clinical trials funded by different institutes of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Through that work, I have experience with health science writing for health professionals and the general public.

I studied cell biology, molecular biology, and genetics at the University of Maryland, graduating with High Honors. I am also an accredited Editor with the Board of Editors of the Life Sciences. My days looking at Drosophila (fruit flies) under a dissecting microscope in the genetics lab are long behind me, but I’m still what you call a boffin when it comes to anything geeky or scientific. I take pictures like this on my travels.

I’m convinced the stork dropped me off in the wrong country. Although I am American by birth and Chinese by ancestry, I adore England, Scotland, Australia, and Ireland. I have strange, strong connections to Scotland and the North of England, especially with Glasgow, Liverpool, and Yorkshire. My heart aches while being away from my friends abroad and these beautiful places. I fully intend to return to them all as soon as humanly possible.

March 2021

All live music photos on marylchang.com were taken by me, and all rights are reserved.