Welcome to Ear Candy the Web site, an expansion of the successful, award-winning music blog Ear Candy that was established in 2006 by music journalist Travis Hay. Like Ear Candy the blog, Ear Candy the Web site focuses heavily on the Seattle music scene.Unlike Ear Candy the blog, this site will occasionally branch out into other areas of Seattle culture. Also unlike its blog counterpart, Ear Candy the Web site is not a one-man show. This is a Web site run by a group of journalists who are passionate about providing quality coverage of the Seattle arts and music scene.

A little less simply put, this Web site is a way to help keep arts journalism alive in Seattle by not only reporting on the arts and music community but by also hopefully becoming a small part of that community. Ear Candy's goal is to encourage discussion about what's happening locally and nationally and we hope members of the Ear Candy community will engage each other in conversation in the process. So if you're interested in learning about Northwest music and arts you've come to the right place. 

Here is a look at some of the people who make Ear Candy tick:

Travis Hay

Travis is the founder and editor of Ear Candy. He fell in love with writing about music while serving as an editor at the University of Washington Daily, where he met most of the Ear Candy crew. Ever since he’s been obsessed with paying close attention to all things music and become an advocate for independent thought, art, film and music. He thinks he is the epitome of rock ‘n’ roll, but in reality Travis is just a guy who landed one of the coolest side jobs ever. He definitely has had one too many rock ‘n’ roll fantasies, one of which came true when he danced on stage with the Flaming Lips dressed as a Teletubby.

 

Steven Friederich

Steven has been taking concert photos since 1999 when upon a complete lurch he applied for a photo pass to a show for his college newspaper and the request was granted. He’s been spit at by Trent Reznor, growled at by Rob Zombie, his hair was almost caught on fire by Rammstein’s flame-throwing guitar and an AC-DC security guard threw him on the ground once because no photo pass was visible. He’s shot in a variety of venues, but his favorites are the Paramount in Seattle, Red Rocks in Denver and the Gorge in George.

Since 2004, Steven has worked full-time as a political reporter for a newspaper in Aberdeen, Wash., which also happens to be the hometown of Kurt Cobain. So, naturally, besides covering politics, he digs up Nirvana-related stories every couple of months. A graduate of Tacoma Community College and the University of Washington, Steven has had a full-time paid job writing for newspapers in the Northwest since 2000. His photo blog is located here. You can also follow Steven on Twitter.

 

Shrie Spangler

 

Shrie is a true Texan taking a break from the sticky weather and even stickier conservatives while livin' it up here in Seattle. She loves the NW but laments the lack of true Mexican food and a good chicken fried steak with southern cream gravy. She crafts like the wind and fancies herself a web writer and blogger. You can usually find her at the dog park with her pit bull/catahoula Leopard dog mix and her Chesapeake Bay Retirever/husky mix, at super divey blue collar karaoke bars or loitering on her Columbia City street with the uber-friendly neighbors. Oh yeah... and she really digs writing about independent music.

Brent Stecker

 Brent is a journalist and small-time musician based in Wenatchee, Wash. Raised in a nondescript Eastern Washington town, he was ingrained with an appreciation for classic rock early on in life. He does not see mountain passes as a threat to his concertgoing, just ask Brent about the time he almost killed Travis on a snowy winter night in 2006 while crossing the Cascades to attend a Queens of the Stone Age show. His true passion for music wasn’t discovered until his teenage years, however, when he first got his hands on a Rage Against the Machine CD. He spent the rest of his adolescence broadening his musical tastes, obsessively learning guitar, and harnessing his writing abilities in journalism classes.

 

Though he didn’t attend his first concert until he was 18, he developed an addiction to live music thanks to a pair of summers working at The Gorge Amphitheatre. While The Moore Theatre is a favored venue, nothing compares to his beloved Gorge. His years revolve around the Sasquatch! Festival, which has helped him embrace indie and alternative music. Brent is the proud owner of three acoustic and two electric guitars, a bass, a banjo, two ukuleles and he is also an accomplished Rock Band drummer.

 

Mike Ramos

Mike is a proud South Seattle native who developed a love for music at a very early age. Hip hop was what really got Mike into music in the first place, although growing up in Seattle during the '90s made it impossible to ignore all of the great rock music coming out of the city at that time. While growing up Mike to listened to various types of music - punk in middle school, metal in high school (which inspired him to start playing guitar), weird experimental indie in college and almost everything else in between. He also developed an interest in writing, joined his high school newspaper and went on to earn a journalism degree in college.

After returning from a four-year stint away from Seattle, Mike came home to find amazing things were happening in the local music scene. He began going to shows regularly and realized that it's not just a scene, but a community here in Seattle. Bands in Seattle are concentrating on what matters: playing great music and having fun. As a holder of a Bachelor's degree in journalism and a job completely unrelated to said degree, Mike took to writing  about music in his spare time which is what eventually led him to a gig as Ear Candy's resident clubs guru so you'll be seeing his Ramos Recs on the site on a regular basis.