It’s Something You Said’s 1st Birthday!
Exactly one year ago today, somethingyousaid.com hit the worldwideweb for the first time. With a dedicated, talented team of contributors based around the globe, our remit was to throw interesting stuff at your eyes on a daily basis. We wanted to be a music/art/film/fashion/culture website that approached things from a different angle, rather than just copy-and-pasting the latest press releases. We didn’t care about celebrity, we only cared about talent and we wanted to share our words, our photos, our videos and our art with you, as well as pointing you in the direction of music that we thought you might dig. We hope that, over the past 12-months, we have successfully delivered what we set out to do.
Over the year, our team has grown to the point where we now have over 50 contributors from Sydney to LA via Berlin, London and heaps of other places in between. We’ve covered countless gigs and festivals, including SXSW, The Great Escape and The Berlin Festival (where we saw Grimes, pictured below). We’ve been to Fashion Weeks, walked red carpets in Sydney and New York, We’ve DJed across the globe and promoted our own gig in Brighton. We interviewed immensely talented people (like Caitlin Park, pictured above left). We’ve been welcomed into the Vice bloggers’ network, we’ve written about burgers, vaginas, drugs, books and guns and our story about how to order drinks while retaining some manners went mega-viral and has 4k Likes and counting.
All in all, we’ve had an absolute blast over this past year, and we sincerely hope you have as well. Here are some of our contributors’ personal highlights:
Oliver Heath: I like the story where Tenley talks about cocks, and the one where Bianca flips the bird at Coachella. And the Cunts Vs Sluts one by Elfy Scott because it’s totes relevant to my lyf: A bartender recently accused me of calling his girlfriend a dumb slut. That’s something I would never do, but I didn’t correct him because I doubt pointing out that I called her a cunt would have improved the situation.
Jack Colwell: My favourite article I’ve done was the Vale Bridezilla show, or the Julia & The Deep Sea Sirens album review. I love Julia.
25ThC: I think my highlight was chatting to and interviewing Craig Charles.
Sonia Clarke: My pick is ‘How to buy a drink and not be an idiot‘ which made me wince with recogntion (flashbacks to working in the Epsom Wetherspoons, aka my glory years) and laugh like a drain. Anyway, happy birthday SYS! You don’t look a day over nine months.
Tammy Potakh: Something You Said giving me the opportunity to interview High Highs. Not-so-secretly obsessed with these guys, I somehow kept my cool during the phone conversation and spat out all the questions I’ve been dying to ask them for ages. Pretty sure I was panting a little from excitement. Meep meep, creeper Tammy alert. My favourite article is “How to completely fail at detoxing” by Sonia Clarke. I have read it a few times and it makes me cackle. I empathise 100%, as I too have been guilty of attempting those “sworn by” detoxes. Happy birthday SYS! You’ve been too good to me and whilst you’re [founder/editor] Bobby’s baby, I feel we’ve all become one big happy family. Are we then all babies? Does it take a baby to form a family? Damn it, this is not the time for an existential crisis. It’s been unreal guys, to many more years to come!
Elaina Ransford: Alcohol And The Wonderful Decline by Elfy Scott is what made me want to be a contributor. One of the funniest essays I’ve ever read.
Tenley Nordstrom: Being a part of the site is my highlight!
Carol Bowditch: Having a record company that I admire praise my review of Grizzly Bear’s album was quite humbling. Something You Said has led me to meet and work with lots of lovely writers/photographers and illustrators too.
Elfy Scott: I liked Olly’s Weed story, Bianca’s Coachella whine, Bobby’s failure to be a man. It feels a bit strange to say which of my own articles I liked the best, but I guess the alcohol one because I was a bit proud of being really honest with myself or maybe ‘On Being a Terrible Woman‘ for the same reason.
Sophie Metcalfe: Something You Said sending me to Falls Festival made for an experience I’ll never forget. I got into an interesting, half-hour conversation with bearded heart-throb Angus Stone (photographed by Sophie, left) about the history of contraception. The best part was when I explained in detail the hook that women can get as contraception and he cringed and crossed his legs. “Now Angus,” (I wag my finger at him). “Remember to always wear a hat. If its not on, it’s not on.” He was spotted some hours later making friends with some pretty young starry eyed things. I raise my glass to him and off I go. That was a pretty memorable SYS moment.
Harriet Cheney: My highlights have been covering SXSW and Barunga Festival, and interviewing MS MR rocked pretty hard too! Fave Something You Said article was Oliver’s weed one.
Bobby Townsend: As editor, my highlight is the fact that, every day, my inbox is brimming with brilliant articles and pictures from the site’s contributors, who do what they do for no money, but simply for the love of being creative. Oh, and I also like that being editor of the site makes me appear about 400% cooler than I actually am and therefore allows me to hang out with loads of really hot people. Yes, I am a deeply shallow person.
Thanks for your support over the last year everyone. We really appreciate it and we plan on getting even bigger and better over the next 12 months. Be sure to keep up to date with everything we’ve got going on in the future by following us on Facebook. And thanks to Caitlin Park for the selfie at the top of the article. She’s a genius. You should follow her too.
