A Brief(ish) Introduction

Personal Photo: Machu Picchu, December 2014

My name is Griffin Waterman and I was born in Chicago. When I was five I moved out of the city to the bordering suburb Oak Park. I received my BA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2010 and my MA in American History from Loyola University Chicago in 2012. During graduate school, my concentrations were in cultural and urban history, which basically meant that I was able to twist most of my coursework into research about music. Some of my major research was on Sun Ra and the role of Five Percenters in the development of hip-hop culture. My master's thesis was on the 1970s New York loft jazz scene wherein militant avant-garde jazz musicians formed a vibrant and successful culture and economy within New York City's unregulated loft districts. I am now just beginning my MAT at Dominican University in River Forest, IL. I expect to be a fully licensed K-8 teacher with a social studies endorsement in May of 2017.

Since completing my MA, I worked for the nationally syndicated rock and roll talk show Sound Opinions, which is produced by WBEZ Chicago. While there, I was able to work with the two most prominent Chicago music critics, Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis, and produce my own segments including news and record reviews (including a review of Push the Sky Away, the most recent album by one of my favorite bands, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds). I also got to stand in a performance studio filming live performances by acts as diverse as OFF!, Divine Fits, Aimee Mann, Tame Impala, Deltron 3030, Parquet Courts, Savages, Lucinda Williams, Kurt Vile, Wild Belle, and the dB's. I also got to sit in on an interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the co-creators of South Park and The Book of Mormon.

Since leaving Sound Opinions, I became a contributing producer and the senior rock correspondent at WBEZ's sister station, Vocalo. While my work for Sound Opinions was all behind-the-scenes, I am on-air on Vocalo one to three days a week, discussing music news, upcoming local concerts, and any other topics that the host of The MusicVox, Jesse Menendez, and I come up with. I have also covered the Pitchfork Festival in 2014 and Riot Fest in 2013 and 2014 for the station. Every time I'm on the mic, my voice goes out to an average of ten thousand listeners around the Chicago area and northwest Indiana. My work for this year's Riot Fest involved both on-air reviews as well as written reviews of the Wu-Tang Clan and Weezer's sets. Those can be found here and here. Basically, I've spent much of the last five years making myself feel better about my complete lack of musical ability.

The three best things I have done with Vocalo are moments when I have been able to really stretch out on air. First, when Lou Reed died, nearly 45 minutes of the MusicVox's two hour runtime was devoted to a discussion of his life and music with Jesse and former WBEZ podcaster Leah Pickett. Second, I was able to do an extended review of the best rock album of 2014, Parquet Courts' Sunbathing Animal (no, this is not open for debate). Third, I was able to interview the frontman of Austin psychedelic rock band The Black Angels. This interview was played during the MusicVox and sits in the audio bank for the station which allows it to re-air a few times a year.

Vocalo is just a side gig, however. My day job is with Oak Park School District 97, where I am a paraprofessional in a middle school special education class. Working as I have in public elementary and middle schools has been by far the most rewarding experience of my adult life. Taking the next step and pursuing my MAT and teaching license was a no brainer for me, and I am excited to be starting my work at Dominican.