Zine teen Savana Ogburn is making music media more accessible

18-year-old photographer launched Sonic Blume zine to encourage more fans to share their work.

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While shopping at Criminal Records on a recent afternoon, Atlanta-based artist Savana Ogburn lamented the fact that she was considering going to prom instead of Record Store Day. She rolled her eyes at how cliché it would be — but at the same time, she didn’t want to look back one day and regret missing out on an important high school experience. Ogburn has practically already graduated, as she only attends classes for about an hour a day, splitting the rest of her time between joint enrollment courses at a community college and working on her own projects.


18-year-old Ogburn is a regular contributor at online magazine Rookie, where she shares photography and DIY tutorials. She also recently launched her own digital publication, Sonic Blume zine, earlier this month. The site aims to cover music in a more experimental, approachable manner than other outlets, with features like interviews with Microsoft Paint portraitists and explainers on how to get into concert photography. Ogburn serves as editor-in-chief, working closely with a circle of talented young contributors from around the world. Next fall, she’ll join the freshman class at Savannah College of Art and Design to pursue a degree in photography. Ogburn took a few minutes to dig through crates and chat with CL about breaking down barriers in music media, kickstarting a professional career as a teen, and keeping up with Hayley Williams’ ever-changing coiffure.


What is Sonic Blume all about?


Sonic Blume is an online publication, focused on music and art. It’s meant to give fans a platform that’s more than a comment or a tweet or something to share their own work and talk about music in a way that they’re not pressured to be perfect or technically well-trained.


What inspired you to start the zine?


I’ve been shooting live music for a bunch of publications, just looking around and shooting for whoever I could the past few years. And I found that none of the sites I was shooting for really offered an outlet to be more creative with my work. So I just wanted somewhere where I could be more experimental with my photography and not feel like I needed to fit into what the other zines wanted specifically from me.


Could you describe the overall aesthetic of Sonic Blume?


I’m trying not to limit it, because I want everybody to be able to bring their own individual voice and style into things and not feel pressured to fit into our look. I want it to be fun and, like we say in our tagline, “not-too-serious.” I want everything to be really bright and happy-feeling and not sterile. I feel like so many music sites can go really easily in that direction.


Your editorial team is about 15 strong now, made up of mostly females. Was that intentional?


Well, actually we have one guy now. It’s grown a couple people over the past week, which is crazy. Honestly, it wasn’t intentional, but I know that my reach on social media is mostly young girls, so I figured that’s sort of the way it would be. It wasn’t intentional, but I’m happy about it.


Is your staff mostly local?


No, they’re from everywhere. We’ve got a girl from Singapore. A girl reached out who’s from India a few weeks ago, and we’re bringing her on board. All over the place, but mostly in the U.S.


And you met them through Instagram?

Yeah, and they shoot me emails. It’s crazy. I would love to have more local people. I just have to figure out how to reach them.

How long did it take you to plan and build up the content before launching?


I had the idea for it in February and immediately started brainstorming and writing things down and planning. And then a month had passed, and I put the word out on Instagram and asked for contributors, and we got a pretty good response from just that post. I really didn’t expect anything. So it was about a month of content creation from me and our staff to get everything done.


What kind of pitches are you looking for?


I like things that are sort of out of the box and not just, like, “Can I review this album?” or, “Can I shoot this show?” We’re just looking for people who want to do things that wouldn’t necessarily be able to go up on other music sites.


Tell me about some of the features coming up.


We had a girl submit a couple of playlists yesterday that are inspired by the characters from Palo Alto. I’ve never watched it, but this girl submitted playlists inspired specifically by each of the characters, which I think is really cool.


One of our photographers, Lauren, pitched to do an editorial kind of photo shoot with one of her friends inspired by cool ladies in music, like Stevie Nicks and Joan Jett, which I think will be really cool. I’m really excited for those.


What’s your wildest dream for Sonic Blume?


I really just want it to be accessible to everyone who wants to get their work out through a site, like I said, where they’re not going to feel a lot of pressure. I’d like for musicians to be a bigger part of it, like bigger bands. I’m a huge fan of bands like Paramore — Hayley Williams does not just music, but she’s doing a hair dye line right now and stuff. So I’d like to have somebody like that come in and talk to readers about doing more than one thing. I’d like to have more musicians involved and people who are higher up in the industry telling fans how to do things and offering advice and guidance.


What advice would you give to other teens who are interested in starting a zine or getting into photography but don’t know where to start?


For a zine specifically, I would say brainstorm. Get a journal devoted to the zine, and brainstorm and give yourself a good amount of time. I gave myself a month to think through everything and write it down and get advice from, like, my mom or my friend Alyson in California who runs a zine. And just get things nailed down and figure out what you want it to be, and then start reaching out to people. Don’t get ahead of yourself.


And for photography, just start shooting a lot. Get a friend who will model for you and shoot tons of pictures of them.



Ogburn’s advice rings true for aspiring artists at any age. And her DIY method seems to be working. With everything she’s accomplished — from creating her own online community to braving the banality of prom — it’s unlikely she’ll look back with regrets.