Hi Steemit! I’m Max Sullivan. I’m a full-time reporter for Seacoastonline in the New Hampshire Seacoast and a singer/guitarist that plays in New England every weekend. I’m new to Steemit and I’m looking to sharpen my digital storytelling and ability to get my blues-funk-rock based music out there to the right audience. I think Steemit seems like a great way to do that.
For the paper, I write about Hampton, New Hampshire, and the towns that surround it. I write about everything that happens in those towns, from covering visits by Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders during campaign season to drug arrests to a recent police brutality trial. It’s a fast-paced, tiring job, but by writing 8-12 stories a week I find myself always learning new, fascinating things about the world.
I’ve also had some opportunities to write about relatively high profile sports and music. As a Fox Sports intern in 2012 I wrote about the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, a Double-A minor league team in Manchester, N.H., in the Toronto Blue Jays’ farm system. Over that summer, I wrote 40 profiles of minor league baseball players, like recent Blue Jays starting pitcher Drew Hutchison and now-Baltimore Orioles infielders Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop. I also did stories on some major leaguers, like when two-time MLB home run champion and Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista hit two home runs during a rehab game in Manchester while recovering from a wrist injury.
As I worked on sports writing, I also wrote interviews with rock musicians touring through New England which ran as previews in the University of New Hampshire’s student paper, The New Hampshire. To get interviews, I sent emails to the publicists for anyone coming within an hour of UNH. I was surprised to find most publicists respond immediately, and that touring profile bands are willing to do interviews with college reporters to promote their show.
I talked to the Pixies’ Joey Santiago, Echo and the Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant and Godsmack frontman Sully Erna among numerous others.
In my other life as a musician, I play rock music both solo and with my band, the Max Sullivan Group, in bars and restaurants around New England. I’m a huge Rolling Stones fanatic, but I’m also obsessed with funk and soul artists like Earth Wind and Fire, Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament and the Staple Singers. I also love punk rock like the Clash, X and the Sex Pistols.
I recently dove into radio by starting a funk and soul radio show on my news organization’s new streaming internet radio station, Edge Radio, which can be found at www.seacoastonline.com orwww.edgestreamingradio.com. The show, Seacoast Soul Sunday, is every Sunday from 6 a.m. to noon. I go by the Rev. Max Sullivan when I’m behind the mic.
I also have a pet parrot named Tangie. He’s a Senegal parrot. I won’t overload my page with Tangie, but he may pop up here and there.
I have a lot going on as far as what media I’m producing content in, and that’s why I think I have lot to share on Steemit. I’m hoping to connect with other like-minded people here and develop my page into something really fascinating, as well as help others by upping their posts to improve the Steemit community.
Most of the news stories I write for the paper have to be exclusively on my company’s website,www.seacoastonline.com. However, there is always news that happens just outside our territory that I could report on exclusively here, whether it be a great feature, an interview with an artist whose closest tour stop is outside the New Hampshire Seacoast or even hard news that our paper isn’t covering but that I still find fascinating.
I’ll also come up with some how-to posts about journalism and music. I’ve only been working for a year and a half at the paper, so I can’t claim to be an expert reporter. I’ve learned a lot in that time, though, and I have a lot to say about getting started as a professional in the industry.
I'm glad to be here, and I hope you like what I have to share! You can find my music page at www.maxsullivanmusic.com and follow me on Twitter.com/maxsullivanlive.