Zack Holden
Co-Founder
University of Virginia
As a kid, I grew up primarily listening to your typical dad rock: Billy Joel, Genesis, R.E.M., Elton John, Supertramp, and U2. Then, one day I was combing through my dad’s extensive CD collection, I came across the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ seminal Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Intrigued by nothing more than the album art, I decided to play it, and my world forever changed. It was a sound so similar to everything I had heard before, yet simultaneously so different. I wanted more.
I began exploring all the similar artists iTunes recommended (I know I’m dating myself here) and eventually began listening to all kinds of alternative rock, from the Arctic Monkeys to the Strokes to Cage the Elephant to even the White Stripes. Shortly thereafter, I began running competitively and shifted towards hardcore, punk, metal, and grunge, exploring the discographies of Rage Against the Machine, the Offspring, PUP, the Melvins, Primus, the Pixies, and Queens of the Stone Age, to name a few notables.
Today, my music taste stands largely in the same place, albeit that I have started delving more into the indie and punk circles. A huge music history buff, I am constantly trying to find different books and articles that explain the story behind everything from chart-topping hits to the '90s indie underground scene.