SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: *Waves a fin* Hello there, music fans! My name is Valerie Polichar — I record music as Huge Shark (https://hugeshark.bandcamp.com). I’m an indie musician and freelance writer — and an IT director at a West Coast university with, of all things, a Ph.D. in experimental psychology (I studied optical illusions). I’ll be coming at you on a regular basis with a voice from the southwest coast. I’ll talk about new music you should get into your ears, what’s new on the music scene in San Diego, my own music recording and of course the all important San Diego weather!
My own explorations in music started out with ten years of parent-imposed piano lessons. I started writing songs when I was 12 or 13. By my 20s, I had a standing twice-a-month folk-music gig at a local coffeehouse, opening for local luminaries like Sam Hinton. In graduate school, I fronted a blues and R&B band, singing in San Diego dive bars (some of them very sketchy indeed). We counted ourselves lucky if the patrons weren’t already passed out at their tables while we played!
These days I collaborate with musicians in Canada, the U.S., and across the world. I do most of my recording in my living room, using equipment that is now affordable that would have rivaled that of professional studios fifty years ago. This shift in availability and accessibility has meant more artists than ever can produce music for your ears. That’s great — there’s bound to be something out there that you will love. But there’s a downside — it’s a lot of music to wade through. In addition to making music, I write music reviews and PR packages for musicians in many different genres, so I’ll be bringing some unusual gems to light that you might not otherwise encounter. I’ll also highlight upcoming major label releases that might be of interest.
More to come in a couple of weeks!
Huge Shark
