Our Curators & Journalists

The Voices Documenting the Far West Texas Underground

Santa Rosa Records keeps a close ear on the rooms where the floorboards talk: desert rehearsal spaces, late-night cassette trades, hard-won releases, and small labels making work before anyone has named the scene.

Our curators and journalists do not treat underground music like a mood board. They trace who played what, where the track was cut, how the release moved, and why a rough edge sometimes matters more than a clean one. The work starts with listening, then it moves into notes, credits, flyers, interviews, archives, and the long patience of asking one more plain question.

Lead Investigative Reporter

Cera usually starts with the sound of a room. A dry snare, a swallowed vocal, the particular hum of a cheap amp in a rented space; those details point her toward the human choices behind a recording.

Cera McTavish

Lead Investigative Reporter

Cera McTavish uncovers hidden recording processes in Far West Texas scenes.

Editorial & Archival Leadership

This group keeps the paper trail from turning into dust. They compare credits, rebuild session timelines, and keep the archive useful for readers who care about more than release-day noise.

Ava Ivy

Career Path Journalist

Ava Ivy traces documented career milestones through primary sources.

Jonah Primo

Features Editor

Jonah Primo maps psychedelic influences through careful source checking.

Kristal Bean

Senior Label Archivist

Kristal Bean compares catalog strategies with formal precision.

Jesse Gilmore

Process Documentation Editor

Jesse Gilmore reconstructs studio sessions from surviving documentation.

Investigative Journalists & Critics

Some writers chase chronology. Some chase texture. The best criticism here does both.

Natalie follows a release from demo to distribution, which keeps the story grounded in actual decisions. Coco reads regional imprint choices against one another, useful when two records share a sound but not a strategy. Gil listens with his eyes open, pairing sleeve design with the grain of the music. I trust that range because different readers arrive through different doors: the collector, the singer, the label hand, the person who just wants to know why a record feels haunted.

Natalie Landecker

Case Study Journalist

Natalie Landecker follows real release outcomes from demo to distribution.

Coco Alexandra

Comparative Music Critic

Coco Alexandra contrasts release strategies across regional imprints.

Gil Davis

Aesthetic Comparison Writer

Gil Davis pairs artwork choices with sonic palettes across releases.

Sound & Audience Analysts

The technical side can get cold fast, so this desk keeps one rule close: numbers and spectra should send us back to the record, not away from it.

Christine reads the waveform and the frequency spread when a mix needs real explanation. Ellis Walker studies playlist reach from one angle and audience discovery from another, which helps separate a passing spike from a listener who comes back. Kedric weighs timing against response, especially when an underground release has to choose between patience and heat.

Christine Celis

Technical Sound Analyst

Christine Celis decodes audio spectra with dense technical precision.

Ellis Walker

Data-Driven Playlist Curator

Ellis Walker benchmarks underground reach through listener data.

Ellis Walker

Audience Researcher

Ellis Walker charts how audiences discover and stay with underground releases.

Kedric Ross

Strategic Release Analyst

Kedric Ross weighs release timing against audience response data.

Editorial Scope & Verification Standards

Before we publish, we ask what kind of claim we are making. A listening impression can stand as a listening impression. A career milestone needs a source. A recording-process claim needs a credit, a document, or a direct account from someone close enough to know.

That standard shapes our Indie Reviews, interviews, playlists, and resources. The scene is small enough for memory to matter, and large enough for memory to get things wrong. We write for that gap.