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Fletcher, Roving reporter

Where are they now? - Kiel Egging

There is definitely something to be said about two keen and passionate music journalists catching up over coffee. Conversation tends to be dictated by stories of the bands they’ve both seen, comparing festivals and discussing what they’re anticipating from the music industry for the coming months.

This is exactly what happened when I caught up with ex-Youth Central roving reporter Kiel Egging.

We began with a discussion of which Silverchair album is the greatest, moved onto which Groovin the Moo lineup we thought was the best and ended with a discussion about how incredible late 2012 was looking in terms of music releases. (the answer is pretty strong - hellooo new releases from Muse, The Darkness, The Presets and Tame Impala).

As much fun as it was discussing our music taste, though, it was time to move to other pertinent questions.

Kiel applied to be a rover in mid-2009 while he was looking around for outlets to publish his work and expand his folio. It was his experience at Youth Central that allowed Kiel to land a job writing for Shepparton’s local paper and radio station.

Kiel finished up there in mid-2012 and began freelancing with Music Feeds (new window), a social media-based website revolving around - no surprise here - the music industry.

It’s Kiel’s passion for the music industry that allowed him and inspired him him to start SheppSounds (new window), a youth music initiative that gives young artists and bands the opportunity to record original tracks for a CD release, all the while playing shows around their area.

Kiel says that Youth Central really assisted in providing him with a folio of work to approach other writing outlets with. It also gave him the opportunity to write stories he was passionate about and allowed him to choose the direction of his writing. He fondly recalls his first story for Youth Central, which was about the mascot for the Melbourne Tigers, Melbourne Storm and Collingwood Magpies sports teams. He recommends participating in the roving reporter program to everyone.

When talking to Kiel about the best method of breaking into this tough industry, the advice he came up with was solid and clear: volunteer everywhere. It doesn’t matter who you volunteer for, "just write wherever you can and whenever you can until your keyboard breaks." This is the advice Kiel followed himself, and it seems to have worked for him. He is certainly living proof that you can make it in this industry if you want it enough.

Kiel's ambition is to take over Nui Te Koha's position at the Herald Sun - when Nui retires, of course! It doesn't seem unlikely with the way 2013 is looking for Kiel. He’s currently saving money to get himself overseas to cover the festival circuit for a year.

It seems pretty clear that Kiel is one to watch - a perfect example of a Youth Central roving reporter alumni who has broken into the industry.

(By the way, if you were wondering which Silverchair album we thought was the best, we decided upon Diorama.)

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