Karim wrote on the banned Egyptian genre Mahraganat for Musical Rough Gudies.
Olly Barrett is a writer and poet, living in southeast London. His work explores the intricate relationship between humanity and the natural world, capturing the complex systems we find ourselves living within to reveal the feelings of modern life. Oliver is published with The Elegists Collective and Humble Soup.
Suzie is an aspiring documentary filmmaker and DJ based in South London. Her subject choice (MF DOOM) stems from a love of ‘90s hip hop, but was also an excuse to spend more time on Reddit.
Will lives in London and spends his weekdays working for a British perfume house. On weekends he likes to get outside for walking, running and camping. Natural influences are abundant in his chosen musical genre, field recordings.
Stephen is a translator, classical tenor and former journalist. He lived in Brazil for three years in the late 1990s and travelled widely in the country. He loves all kinds of music, sings in choirs and opera, and is now learning the piano.
Singer-songwriter OMAM DAWN (Amy) took a liking to freak music after her father introduced her to Frank Zappa at the age of fifteen. She has performed her original music in London, Cairo and the Netherlands. Her debut single, Purple Flowers, is out on 29th November 2023.
David Dobson is a writer from Bradford, West Yorkshire. He is a co-organiser, alongside poet Tom Branfoot, of More Song, a poetry reading series which has hosted the likes of Fran Lock, Zaffar Kunial, and Hannah Copley.
James Eagle is a writer, editor and amateur performer at several London folk clubs. He edits Folk London magazine, available from www.folklondon.co.uk
Almira Farid is a music educator and multi-instrumentalist based in Singapore, with a background in ethnomusicology and the creative and cultural industries. Her previous work includes hosting London-based radio programme, Songs from Southeast Asia on SOAS Radio. She performs regularly with the Singapore Trad Collective, a group of musicians brought together by a love of folk music.
Frank is a politics and Spanish graduate based in North London. He spends his time climbing, listening to Gillian Welch and putting his guitar in weird tunings to learn Alex G songs.
Founder and designer of Buoy Press, Jo is self-taught with a portfolio that spans charities, arts magazines and literary reviews. An artist of many mediums, she enjoys drawing and painting and is enthusiastic about championing participation in the creative arts.
Oscar Hallman is a software developer and wannabe musician/physicist from South London. He has been making music, both electronic and with l instruments, for a number of years. He recently began creating a website which generates a playlist for the user based on the weather. Links to it and his SoundCloud in IG bio.
Jack Houston is a parent, writer and public librarian from East London whose short fiction has appeared in The Cardiff Review, The Interpreter’s House, Litro, Open Pen, Storgy and has been shortlisted for the Brick Lane Bookshop Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award.
Andrew lives and works in London, is an economist by profession and a music enthusiast. He was taught piano as a child and has sung – badly he says – in some amateur choirs over the years.
Editor and founder of Buoy Press, Elsa is a lover of music and language (duh). She can’t remember how she ended up writing a rough guide to requiems; possibly it’s an elegy to her childhood irreverence.
Samad’s writing revolves around the effort to bring together what he learns about music, art, philosophy and life. He describes himself a novice when it comes to writing but hopes to develop his skills and communicate some interesting ideas.
Nick Maynard is a queer writer and artist living in Manchester. He has had work performed at The Arcola, Chicken & Hen, The White Bear (Kennington) and The Southwark Playhouse. He is Creative Director of Rough Boy MCR and his first novel Cripple is now available.
Jack’s creative energy goes into working with local authorities day to day, but occasionally he’s got enough left in the tank to write about film and art which transports him out of Bermondsey and into another world.
Arturo is a PhD student hailing from Houston, Texas. Fond memories of cooking and cleaning to the genre with their family led them to write a Rough Guide to Mexican Cumbia.
Chloe Murr is an artist and organiser from South East London. Her work maps a bodily reaction to space by merging physical, spatial, and psychological experiences into visual form.
Alice Musgrove is a nonbinary writer and editor who occupies the space(s) between dimensions. Their work has recently been published by The BitterSweet Review, Carrion Press and Modern Queers. When not writing, they can usually be found illicitly making zines on the printers at work, or (unsuccessfully) befriending local cats.
Tracy is a singer-songwriter and freelance musician from Cape Town, South Africa. In between working on cruise ships as a solo musician she is based in London where she performs both solo as well as alongside her band. You can listen to and follow Tracy's musical journey on Insta.
Luke Reilly is a London-based writer whose prose has been published by Ink Sweat & Tears. His screenwriting credits include the feature film Small Gods, which was financed by Sovereign Films (Triangle of Sadness). He also writes essays on Medium under the pretentious but search engine optimisable Eubulus Kane.
Maria Robinson is a poet and fiction writer based in Bath. Before that, they were studying in Chicago. Their work focuses on the physical and the grotesque.
When Pati read the first Musical Rough Guides she had just come back from Colombia and was in her salsa music era, which was the starting point for her guide to the clave de son. She says these songs are meant to make you want to dance, which is the activity she always chooses when people ask “if you could do anything really well what would it be”.
Lily Steve is a writer, poetry workshop facilitator, and SEN educator. They approach writing from a fine art background, blending short fiction, poetry and experimental prose. Recent works include Dead blue lizard (‘my life is big’, Brixton Radio, 2023) and Fejka (‘Elks in the rear window’, AIR Studios, 2023).
James Tilden is a writer from Ottawa, Canada, living in Hackney. He performs humorous poetry at open mic nights across the city and writes short stories in his spare time. He enjoys reading, writing, philosophy, politics, exhibitions, staying active, and traveling.
Harper Walton is a writer, editor and tutor from Bath. Their poetry, fiction and essays have been featured by 1883 Magazine, Whitechapel Gallery, Venice Biennale and more. They achieved third place in the Brick Lane Bookshop short story prize, and have won two Young Poets Network challenges.
Alfie White is an artist born and based in South London. Their primary practice is documentary photography, dedicated to exploring the intricacies of the human condition. Alfie’s writing stems from a similarly personal and abstract space of experience and observation. Their work has been featured in CIRCA, Dazed, Goldsmiths CCA, i-D, Seedlings, Sunspot Lit and others.
Adam has been writing for a very long time but Poetry Will Have to Do is his first collection. He has lived in Winchester, Riyadh, Islamabad, Manila, Auckland, Paris, Malta, Durham, Bristol and Ambleside. He is now settled in London.
Leonardo is a writer and art historian hailing from a small community on the outskirts of Mexico City. A graduate of Latin American Studies, his thesis discussed the Brazilian street art of Pixaçao. His guide is based on his experiences of hearing music on public transport.