No genre loyalty required. Sidechain covers everything above the threshold — the records, artists, and moments that clear the bar regardless of where they come from.
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Deep dives, essays, artist portraits. The kind of writing music deserves.
The artists worth knowing, told properly. No PR fluff — real portraits of real people making real music.
"The threshold doesn't care where you came from. Neither do we."
Sidechain exists for listeners whose taste has always outrun the genre label. We cover everything that clears the bar — from stadium EDM to a punk band recording in a Brooklyn basement — because quality is the only filter that matters.
House, techno, ambient, experimental. The signal in all its forms.
Indie, rock, shoegaze, post-punk. The music that never quite fit anywhere else.
Rap, trap, boom bap, drill. The culture and the craft behind the bars.
DIY, loud, honest, fast. The music that never asked permission.
Bedroom producers, tape hiss, and the beauty of imperfection.
The world music lives in. Fashion, film, art, identity — everything that shapes the sound.
A music publication built for listeners whose taste has always outrun the genre label.
Sidechain started with a simple observation: the best music listeners we know don't think in genres. Their playlists move from a Four Tet record to a hardcore set to a Kendrick deep cut to something recorded in a Brooklyn basement last Thursday — not because they're trying to be eclectic, but because they follow the feeling, not the format.
We built Sidechain for those listeners. For the people who get uncomfortable when someone asks "what kind of music do you like?" because the honest answer is "everything that clears the bar."
In audio production, a sidechain is a signal path where one sound controls another — the kick drum ducking the bass, two elements in conversation, neither overpowering the other. That's the kind of relationship we want between genres here. Not competition. Conversation.
We cover electronic, alternative, hip-hop, punk, lo-fi, and the cultural world that surrounds all of it — because the threshold doesn't care where you came from. Neither do we.
We're looking for writers who love music more than they love the sound of their own voice.
Sidechain is a new publication and we're building our contributor network from scratch. We want writers who have a genuine point of view — people who can tell you exactly why a record matters without leaning on press releases or genre clichés.
We're interested in features, reviews, essays, and interviews. We don't care about your follower count. We care whether you can write a sentence that makes someone feel something.
To pitch us, send a brief description of what you want to write and one or two examples of your previous work to cameron@sidechainmagazine.com.
Pitches, partnerships, press, or just want to say something. We read everything.