I’m sitting on an airplane somewhere between New York City and Houston. I’m headed there on business with several people from my company for a conference called AdTech. It’s supposed to be the largest advertising conference in the world, and I’m thrilled to be going, but mostly I’m excited to simply be headed to NYC, since I’ve never been there before. Well, I’ve been there, but it was on a layover on my way to Copenhagen for another conference, and I didn’t get to do very much. This time, I’ll be seeing everything there is to see — Statue Of Liberty, Ground Zero, etc.

Last night Jon told me that he didn’t need the Soundgruve website anymore, since he’s dissolving the company and selling off most of his studio gear. I asked him if he wanted to keep the name, and he told me no — which is great, because that means I can re-launch Soundgruve as a music blog again. Last time around, Soundgruve was my baby only, but I’m going to take a different approach this time. I’m using a magazine-style format for the site, and even though I’m going to be using WordPress to power it, it will look nothing like your traditional blog. I’m also going to have a small staff of writers who will be able to submit reviews, news and other content, and I’ll be serving as an editor. They’ll submit the content to me and I’ll go over it with a fine-tooth comb before scheduling it for posting at the appropriate moment.

I’m going to grab a few writers from other sites. They probably won’t be exclusive, but I want to get some good content going. My main focus for the site has always been to provide good quality writing and to spotlight independent artists, which is what I’ll be doing this time around as well. My first Spotlight Artist will be One Republic, a band that is no longer considered indie but all the same is one of those groups that I really want to expose to a much larger audience.

I’m going to review as much music as humanly possible, but I won’t be able to get to everything — which is why it’ll be good to have other writers on board as well. I’m also planning a series called “In Studio” that will take you through the writing, recording and release stages of an album from an indie band. The first In Studio series will focus on my band, The Favorites, as we prepare to release our third album in early 2008.