Internships

About Foundwaves

Foundwaves is a rapidly growing online rock & indie music magazine based in Boston.  We cover a wide range of independent local and touring musicians in Boston (and soon Philly and New York).  In the interest of getting people off their butts and into local clubs, every week we hunt down the best independent live music and highlight it with written content, videos, and photography.

Our focus is mainly on indie, rock, electronic, and alternative music, although we occasionally mix it up with artists from other genres.  Since our primary mission is to support the independent music scene, we only write about artists to whom we can give good reviews.  To get a better idea of the types of bands we cover, you can look through and listen to current and past Foundwaves Weekly Picks.

Seeking Interns

We are currently looking for interns who are passionate about live music and love writing.  We’re an all-volunteer endeavor so there isn’t any monetary compensation, but we’re usually able to get writers into the shows they’ve previewed.

Presently we are offering two kinds of internships of different lengths:

1. Writing Workshop Internship (3-4 weeks, offered monthly)

This internship focuses exclusively on writing about music.  Interns will spend time outside of the office going to shows, writing, and revising 2-3 concert previews and recaps each week.  There will be one to two in-person meetings per week where the editors and interns will workshop each intern’s writing.  After the internship ends, writers will have the option of continuing to contribute to Foundwaves remotely.

Time Commitment: Flexible, on average about 6-10 hours per week.

Currently we are accepting applications for August and September sessions.

2. Writing and Operations Internship (2-4 months, offered in the Fall, Spring, and Summer)

This internship focuses on writing, but also is an opportunity to gain a behind-the-scenes perspective on Foundwaves’ operations.  Interns will spend time outside of the office going to shows and writing and revising 2-3 concert previews and recaps each week.  Interns will also have the opportunity to write a long-form journalistic piece over the course of the internship.

There will be two in-person meetings per week where the editors and interns will workshop each intern’s writing.  In addition to the writing workshops, intern tasks may include but are not limited to the following: preparing Foundwaves content for publication, conducting market research, updating concert calendars, and promoting Foundwaves and Foundwaves concerts.  After the internship ends, writers will have the option of continuing to contribute to Foundwaves remotely.

Time Commitment: Flexible, on average about 6-10 hours per week.

We will begin accepting applications for the Fall session after August 15th.

Application Details

To apply, please send an email to editor@foundwaves.com with “Foundwaves Writing Workshop Intern” or “Foundwaves Fall Intern” in the subject.  Feel free to attach a resume, cover letter, or list of your favorite foods.

We’ll need you to write a sample preview (100-150 words) of a favorite band, or even better, one of the bands listed in our Foundwaves Weekly Picks that we haven’t yet written about.  Foundwaves has a distinctive style of previewing bands, so before writing your sample preview, please use previous Foundwaves concert previews as a reference and consider the following:

The Foundwaves Show Preview Style

• Our primary goal is to motivate people to go to the show.
• Try to describe the music using the senses, metaphors, analogies, and/or the experience of listening and watching.
• Keep references to lyrics to a minimum.  Focus on the sound.
• Please don’t assume that our readers are of the music-literati.  In other words, avoid music theory, music history lessons, esoteric genre references, or scene jargon.
• Avoid using personal pronouns : I, my, and me
• Important: do not compare a band to any other bands!
• Please don’t refer to coverage of the band by other media outlets or the “buzz” a band is generating.  We want our readers to have their own opinions and not just follow the herd.
• Do your best to avoid generic “Mad-libs” style descriptives. You know, the kind where you could substitute pretty much any band: ”__(insert band name)__ is an exciting band. They play with passion and high-energy.”

Here is an example of a post that ignores all of the above:

The Obscuratia formed from the ashes of Fundolectric and Boshmatic. Building on the work of other French flow-wave bands (Blundateque and La Femme. L’Homme. Les Etoiles) as well as the original Western-Alabama navel-gazer movement from the early 80s (Iotica, Ponderipple and The Sleepermen), The Obscuratia add in a touch of high-blend stop-hop and crunch electro to create their own unique style.  Based on my music theory background, I think a key part of their sound is their use of parallel fifths in the guitars and constant rubato that sometimes makes an odd pairing with the paradiddle-diddle drum patterns.  Despite all these innovations, Obscuratia never fully leave their roots, so you will hear plenty of hendosky and pallani in every song. Pitchspoon Magazine and Rolling Square Magazine have both raved about the band’s latest record and their seems to be a lot of buzz about them in the blogosphere. I haven’t seen them live and I’m not sure how well their intricate contrapuntal melodies would work in a club, but if you have nothing to do check them out in Boston. Maybe it will be a great show.

And here are some links to Foundwaves posts that illustrate the Foundwaves style:

Show preview for Delorean
Show preview for Islands
Show preview for Beat Circus

Thanks for your interest!