Interview with a Graduate

Andy has just graduated from journalism and has been involved in RGU's student radio over the past few years.

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Name: Andy Davidson

Age: 21

Hometown: Blairgowrie

Studied: Journalism

I met Andy in his third year of university when I was just a little first year. We were both part of RGU’s student radio station and over the next year became good friends. So I recently caught up with him now that he’s graduated to find out what he’s been up to since leaving RGU and about his experiences at university. We also chatted about a very big part of his life, rock!

What made you decide to study journalism at RGU?

Half way through 5th year in High School because I was listening to a lot of Rock bands that nobody was talking about I started my own blog called “Ramblings of a Rock fan”. People from my school said it was well written and I thought maybe there was something in this and that I could go develop. Journalism seemed like the natural path.

So you’ve been in to writing about rock but you also did RGU Radio’s Rock Show. What made you decide to do a radio show in your 3rd year?

When Bobbi and Vicky (classmates) started talking about starting the radio, at first I wasn’t interested but whenever they talked about it, it seemed like it was going to build in to something big. Sometimes it’s quite nice to attach a personality to music so you can be really in to writing but I’m quite a quirky character so I thought doing a radio show could show this off.

 

Andy with RGU Radio’s award after the radio won the Media Group of the year 2016.

Now for something outside of university chat. One of my favourite stories you’ve told me is when you met Fall Out Boy, so I’m going to have to ask you to tell the lovely RGU students about it too.

I was convinced by one of my friends from school to do a meet and greet when they came to Aberdeen and it had just been my birthday so I thought it might be a nice present for myself. They’ve played a huge role in my development of music taste. You only got a very short amount of time to meet the band but it was enough time to tell them how important their music was for me. They were generally humbled by it, which was great to see. The photo… if you’ve ever seen me at a gig you see me jumping and head banging so I wanted to bring them in to that energy. However, Joe Truman was going through some back injuries so said that wouldn’t be good for him. So I then said could we have it look like you’re really sad because you’re missing out and Pete Wentz found that hysterical. Andy Hurley looks like he’s floating up to heaven.

Now sadly back to reality, I remember asking you just before you were graduating what your plans were and you told me you were going to be “Keeping it real and rocking hard AKA no idea what I’m doing”. So have you been keeping it real and rocking hard since graduating?

I think so! The reality of graduation that no one wants to think about is that is does take its time before you’ll find any solid career unless you’re extremely lucky, so I guess I still have no idea what I’m properly doing. So in the meantime, I’ve been doing a lot of writing for different websites and sending my CV to lots of different magazines, sites and PR companies. But I love writing and promoting bands, so when I get a chance to promote a group I like and see that it gains attraction and turns more people onto that music, that can be as rewarding as any financial gain. Wish me luck!

We wish you all the luck Andy and keep rocking!

You can listen back to Andy’s radio show, RGU Rocks, on Mixcloud here.

 

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