About a year ago, I took a walk through an ecological park in Mexico City with a bird expert, who told me in passing about the "birding gender gap" - the lack of research into female birds. Since then, I've been working on an audio doc about it, now out on the BBC:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

Spotify called me a Cyclops, so I get back it by looking at two (!) competing visions of what its rise has meant for music (spoiler: they both end in disappointment).

www.danielsemo.com/writing/ever...

Drummers are often the most unsung members in rock bands. Lo Zun Long is one of my favourites, and the best I've ever seen up close. I write about what makes him, and the drums, so special.

Oh and pants. I write about pants.

www.danielsemo.com/writing/anat...

Can we at least use AI to add a cable to this damn stock photo that annoys me every time I see it?

I wrote a thing about drawing and Melbourne www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

In which I go to a noise gig in the hip part of Melbourne with all the vintage shops and I'm reminded of noise gigs in the hip part of Tokyo with all the vintage shops... except for the footy on the pub screen
www.danielsemo.com/writing/live...

Given that I've never played Halo (and the last console I owned was probably a PS1), it might seem odd that I would help write and produce this Twenty Thousand Hertz episode. But when it's such a moving story, so incredibly well told, my job is pretty easy.

www.20k.org/episodes/the...

I returned to an old haunt in Taipei, listened to the full catalogue of the world's most hated band, and lived to write about it
www.danielsemo.com/writing/no-c...

How much of Claude's classy allure is simply about the serif font?

I profiled the Balinese electronic-gamelan duo Kadapat, whom I saw in an experimental music festival in Taipei last month. After hours of glitchy computer noise and black-box electronics, hearing two guys hitting bits of wood and metal with sticks was refreshing www.danielsemo.com/writing/ligh...

While in Taiwan recently, I interviewed Freddy Lim, frontman of death metal band Chthonic and two-term legislator. We discussed neither metal nor politics, instead focusing on Taiwanese identity, the history of the independent music scene, and, well… baseball.

www.danielsemo.com/writing/inte...

If it's possible for England to get demoted through demerit points, I'm willing to entertain this two-tiered Test cricket system

The Western mind cannot comprehend a riotous punk band from Wuhan having their Wednesday night gig in Taipei shut down by the police. (Gig Review)

www.danielsemo.com/writing/live...

I'm about half way through Meet Me In The Bathroom, and I now wish the whole book was hot sartorial takes from the singer of the Hives

For my inaugural post, I was wondering whether to go deep, snide, trivial, whimsical, or just write "Ed Balls". Instead, here's a link to some liner notes I wrote to an imagined compilation of not-greatest non-hits from the early career of a cult recording artist
www.danielsemo.com/writing/line...