Mark Redfern

Mark Redfern is a music writer, publisher, and senior editor at Under the Radar, focusing on indie and alternative artists through a mix of news, curated song roundups, and interview features built on a long view of the scene. His coverage stands out for how it connects new releases to decades of independent music, drawing on the magazine’s deep archive and his role in shaping it. He writes as both a working journalist and the co-founder of the masthead, so his pieces often serve as entry points into a broader ecosystem of interviews, photo shoots, and print issues dedicated to the artists he covers.

Indie music news and release coverage

Redfern’s day-to-day writing centers on concise news stories about new albums, singles, and videos from indie and alternative musicians. His work includes pieces such as a report on Julia Holter announcing a new album and sharing a video for the song “Fantasy,” tracking both the record and the visual component for readers who follow experimental and art-pop artists. He covers album announcements and release campaigns for artists like PJ Harvey, where his reporting highlights new records and situates them within ongoing tours and creative phases. These articles deliver the essential details—titles, release dates, and key collaborators—while pointing readers back toward the artist’s broader body of work through Under the Radar’s continuing coverage.

Across these news items, Redfern consistently foregrounds artists working in the indie and alternative space, reflecting the magazine’s focus on that corner of the music world. His choice of subjects leans toward musicians with strong creative identities and dedicated followings rather than mainstream pop, aligning his beat with the kind of independent music the masthead was created to cover. By keeping the tone direct and informational, he leaves room for the music itself and the magazine’s interviews and features to carry the personality, while the news posts keep readers up to date on what is coming next.

Recurring features and interview series

Redfern also works in more structured feature formats, notably the “My Firsts” email interview series, where he asks musicians to talk through their formative “first” experiences in life and music. In his “My Firsts: Wilma Archer” feature, for example, he uses emailed questions to draw out stories about early milestones—first records, first shows, first creative breakthroughs—and presents them in a way that reveals how an artist’s background shapes their current work. This format gives him room to move beyond surface promotion and into narrative, using simple prompts to elicit detailed, personal answers.

Beyond single interviews, Redfern contributes to features that revisit and reframe Under the Radar’s long-running coverage of key artists. In one piece tied to Issue 69, he writes about including layouts from original interviews in a new issue, connecting current readers to first-page spreads from the magazine’s earliest work. Features like this underline his habit of treating the magazine’s archive as a living resource, using past interviews and photography to add depth to contemporary stories about the same artists.

Curated song lists and taste-making

A recurring element of Redfern’s output is curated listening guides, particularly the “Best Songs of the Week” series. In a recent installment titled “14 Best Songs of the Week: Cheekface, Wild Pink, Boards of Canada, Gilla Band, and More,” he pulls together tracks from a mix of established names and newer acts, framing them as a snapshot of what matters in indie music that week. The combination of bands like Boards of Canada with groups such as Cheekface and Gilla Band shows a taste that spans legacy artists and emerging projects, positioning the list as both a discovery tool and a way to keep up with long-running favorites.

These roundups give Redfern a different kind of voice than his straight news pieces: he is not just reporting that a song exists, but selecting and ranking it, which signals a clear editorial point of view. The focus stays on independent and alternative sounds, reinforcing Under the Radar’s remit while providing readers with a concise, regularly updated recommendation engine. For communications teams, this strand of his work is where campaign songs and lead singles intersect most directly with his judgment about what is noteworthy in a given week.

Editorial leadership and the shape of Under the Radar

Redfern’s writing sits inside a larger editorial role that shapes how Under the Radar covers music. He co-founded the magazine in 2001 with photographer Wendy Lynch Redfern, initially as a black-and-white zine, and has developed it into an indie music magazine that prints two to three issues a year, distributed across North America and internationally. The masthead specializes in interviews accompanied by photo shoots, along with commentary on the indie music scene and coverage of albums and other media, and Redfern’s dual position as publisher and senior editor anchors that focus.

In staff listings and public profiles he is identified as co-publisher and senior editor, underscoring that he is responsible not only for individual articles but for the overall editorial direction. Social posts and subscription notes he authors emphasize independence, print culture, and the value of long-form music journalism, linking the magazine’s business model and its editorial mission. He often references past covers and major interviews—such as issues built around Canadian indie rock or cover shoots with bands like The Decemberists and Modest Mouse—using those stories to remind readers of Under the Radar’s history and to frame new material within that lineage.

Because of this vantage point, Redfern’s coverage tends to treat each new release or feature as part of a wider narrative about indie music rather than as an isolated event. His news pieces, interviews, and curated lists all feed into a publication he helped build, which in turn supports ongoing relationships with artists over many years. For anyone looking at fit, he is a journalist whose work combines timely coverage of new music with a consistent emphasis on independent artists and a strong editorial identity rooted in the history of Under the Radar.