Around this same time four years ago, I was interviewing for my first internship position. I dressed in the trendiest outfit I could had and took the Chinatown bus from Boston to NYC, a whole 5 hours. I didnt even know anyone in NYC! My law professor got me an interview at Virgin Records (the label, not the cd store ha!) and I was on my way into the music business. On my way I had to stop on the 7th floor (if I remember correctly..) for an interview for another internship, EMI Radio Promotions. My law professor’s daughter at Virgin had recommended I apply for the internship  Radio Promotions had open and it was scheduled earlier than the Virgin one. I remember how hard my heart was racing as I stepped up to the Security desk to get my day pass. Riding up the elevator was equally as nervewrecking. I didn’t know what to expect or what to think or what to say! I was 18 and had no clue! The person who greeted me at the glass door was Lisa Graham.

I don’t really remember what questions she asked or how I answered them, but she seemed to like me and I loved the department so I ended up there that first summer in NYC..and then the next, until EMI slowly started making their department cuts. I spent two summers at EMI and truly loved every minute of it. The promotions department was really small, I was the only intern and there were 5 people in the NYC office, so I had a lot of hands on experience. Lisa and the rest of the EMI Promotions staffs were some of the greatest bosses I’ve ever had. They really nurtured me and answered all the questions I had and I honestly learned so much from my two summers there (I also got A LOT of perks like tickets to rad shows and great bday gifts!!). Because they were so great, they actually ruined every other internship I’ve ever had afterwards (except for the time when I interned for Lisa’s bf haha)! Most of the valuable things I know, I learned from that internship. I learned how to make cold calls! I learned about dealing with people, how to deal with them and how to adapt to their personality.  It was single handedly the best internship I’ve ever done and I know a LOT of people who can’t say the same about their internships.

One of the coolest gals I am now blessed to know. She is my guest blogger for today! Enjoy her post about what her music collection says about her!

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As long as I can remember my mom has been giving me music… She would let me pick out the music in the car, help her pick out records in the store, give me a fist full of quarters for the jukebox in my grandfathers bar and allow me full access to her giant record collection in the living room. It made me feel like a grownup when I sang along to the music and made up my very own interpretive dances- while my friends fell in love with a New Kid on the Block, I was batting my lashes at a gaint Mick Jagger poster that was taped up next to my bed. As I grew up my mom let me go to concerts, purchase new music every Sunday and eventually travel the country with my friends bands in the summertime. Long story short, she supported and encouraged my love of music at all times… And I eventually landed a job working at Capitol Records. The day after I was hired my mom sent me a card and our favorite record from when I was very small (The Monkee’s Greatest Hits – in which my mom, as a teenager, had drawn an ID bracelet on Davey Jones with her name on it)… The card read “Congratulations, you can have the rest of my record collection now”. It is impossible for me to pick my “favorite” 5 records… I’d have to hand you my entire iPod and hard drive… But I think to tell a quick story of my life:

- Michael Jackson: Thriller

- Led Zeppelin: III

- Black Sabbath: Paranoid

- Janis Joplin: Greatest Hits

- Nirvana: In Utero

- Refused: The Shape of Punk to Come

- Almost Famous Soundtrack

-Sunny Day Relestate- Rising Tide

-As for my guilty pleasure… Kelly Clarkson: Breakaway!