Nate Jackson Signing Off As Music Editor For OC Weekly

After seven years, thousands of stories and countless adventures, I’m finally giving up the throne as Music Editor of OC Weekly. I’ll be moving on to a new title of  News Editor at TheWrap, where I’ll be aiming my talents toward Hollywood–covering TV, film, culture, tech and (of course) music. I wish I could say that the nice salary boost, bougie LA lifestyle, and great position at a respected entertainment news outlet would make this an easier move to make. But truthfully, it was a hard decision. As one of the longest serving Music Editors in the Weekly’s history, the years of sleepless nights and endless balancing acts along with a deep knowledge of our ever-changing music scene has been a big part of my identity.

Since I took the job in 2012, I’ve covered just about every aspect of the community I served. Together with my awesome colleagues and a  team of valued freelance writers and photographers–a diehard crew who will forever be the best of the best in my book–we covered the moments that shaped and defined  the OC music scene during my tenure. We wrote about some of its greatest weirdos, triumphs, colossal fuck-ups, deaths, rebirths…did I mention the weirdos? It’s all going to make for one hell of a book when I actually get the chance to sit down and write it one day.

Through it all, I savored the sights, the sounds, the sweat, the smells, the skullduggery, the spirituality and the saving power of a community that outshines many others.

I had a lot of adventures, I saw a lot of things, I pissed off a lot of people, and along the way I helped out more than a few talented artists in this community when it was finally their turn to get some well-deserved ink. Regardless of genre, I did my best to make the Weekly’s pages accessible to all artists and behind-the-scenes heroes who had something to contribute to the scene–a good portion of them even managed to go on to do some really amazing things. Whether an artist or band were  barely emerging from their garage or selling out stadiums, it was always important to treat everyone the same and give everyone a shot (whether you liked what we wrote about you or not). Even though I’ll be taking my talents elsewhere for the time being, the seven years I spent serving the post faithfully through all the ups and downs at the Weekly along with our talented editorial staffers past and present will forever be one of the highlights of my life.

As a journalist, you learn to take life and employment as it comes. And though I’m not sure where I’ll be in another seven years, I do know that the lessons learned from working at this infernal rag will always be a part of my pen, my mind and my heart.  If you know me, you know that regardless of where I am in the world, when it comes to Orange County music–I’ll always be watching. As always, thanks for reading–and in case you didn’t, here’s a few (of many) stories you should catch up on while you wait for the next bad muthafucka to take the hot seat.

See ya later!

–Nate

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Hokey Forever: Steve Soto Was OC’s Punk Hero From Adolescent to the Afterlife

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