Former East student finds success as a freelance music journalist
By Nicole Walters, Current Staff
A music writer with local ties has finally reached the Edge.
Former East graduate Josh Miller’s hard work has paid off, and his brand new piece is the cover story for the current issue of “Guitar World” music magazine. The issue, which has been on newsstands since Nov. 9, is a Special Year-End Legends edition featuring the Edge, celebrated guitarist for the rock band U2.
After a difficult year, Miller finally landed himself an interview with the Edge, and it was very successful.
“I had a really amazing time talking to the Edge over an audio-only zoom call,” Miller said. “We talked for about 40 minutes mostly about (the albums) ‘Achtung Baby’ and ‘October,’ with most of the questions being guitar-related.”
Although he has been writing professionally about music for 12 years, this is Miller’s first career magazine cover.
“That’s really a nice milestone to achieve and hopefully not the last one,” he said.
For Miller, it is important to take these opportunities, because it can always turn out better than expected, and people are often very willing to share their story.
“He was very down to earth and so friendly and answered all my followup questions,” Miller said.
Miller, a former member of the West Bend Current, is now a freelance writer and web designer in Kewaskum who conducts interviews with different publications and publicists, and then tells those stories through his writing. He has written for area outlets such as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, On Wisconsin and Milwaukee Record and also national publications such as Rolling Stone, SPIN, Paste and the Chicago Sun-Times, for which Miller has been writing for five years.
“I really enjoy being able to tell and explore a person’s story through my writing,” Miller said. “It’s why feature and profile writing has appealed to me pretty much since I started writing. I’m always looking for interesting stories to tell.”
After graduating from West Bend East High School in 2004, Miller attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh until 2008, and then proceeded to reach out to Milwaukee publications to start his career. He has since interviewed musicians or entertainers such as Fred Armisen, William Shatner, Alice Cooper, Idina Menzel and Steve Martin.
Other than reaching one of his goals as a writer with the Edge interview, Miller is hard at work in other areas of his career, always setting up for the next project. For example, he is working on creating a music and entertainment coverage website for launch soon.
According to Miller, persistence is a key factor in freelance writing, and with this, he was able to connect with the Edge.
“It’s always good to be persistent with that kind of thing, if you keep trying there is always a chance it’ll work out,” Miller said.
(Photos courtesy of Josh Miller.)
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