Hello, Goodbye, So Long, Welcome In

10/31/2022

Dear Readers, Listeners, Watchers and Feelers,

It was 2012 when three creative buddies (Ann Marie, Paula, and The Artist D) got together on a phone call and birthed Fourculture Magazine. We were refugees from other previous and defunct creative endeavors with ideas of our own. The name (Fourculture) was mine. It was something I had used for many years on attempted “zines”. I had always dreamed of being a photocopied and stapled trashy art piece on the New York City subway, circa 1980. The bad news for me was that it was never 1980 and this, the Internet, is not the New York City subway.

The brilliant graphic artistry and editorial visions were Ann Marie and Paula’s. While I am absolutely an artist and I can write a damn good something, it was our Creative Director and Managing Editor who had the passion to put together a full-fledged digital magazine. As a team we dug deeply into the depths of what we would consider to be the underground. We gathered a larger team of freaks, geeks, and humans obsessed with alternative creations. Together we interviewed many, spilled our opinions, displayed real art, and exposed amazing music to the world.

Over the last ten years we have published 23 high-quality magazine issues featuring some of the best from the underground (or what was left of it). There was IAMX, Amanda Palmer, Peter Murphy, Scooter Laforge, Nobless Oblige, Walt Cessna (RIP), Chuck Wendig and literally hundreds more. On Fourculture.com we have published exactly 1,820 pieces by 31 authors and many more contributors. Many have survived and others left us too soon.

During all this we created Fourculture Radio. Thanks to Producer Mark we were able to broadcast underground alternative music 24/7 around the world for almost our entire ten years! That’s got to be a lot of listening minutes. We also were responsible for dozens of unique radio broadcasts and LIVE talk radio shows. Fourculture has also produced three livestreaming series on YouTube. One of which was FourThought, a scandalous talk show with up to 8 hosts at a time which ended in a lot of hilarious on-camera train wrecks.

Most importantly (to me) we created great friendships and so many important connections. I’ve been a resident creature on the Internet since 1997 and there’s not enough room to explain how important it is for people to cross paths on this strange device. By complete and total accident we end up running into people all over the world who play astonishingly important roles in each other’s story. We become friends, sometimes lovers, and definitely our own family. We travel across country or around the world just to hang out with each other in-person. There are late night calls or texts, endless laughter, and then shared tears for those who have dropped their bodies.

“They” say that you will live forever as long as you are remembered. I know that is very true. Here at Fourculture we have not only connected people for ten years, but have given them something that they may never have discovered without us. We showcased the four pillars of underground culture (Sounds | Visions | Voices | Words) and brought together our community.

Fourculture has been one of the heights of my artistic career. I am beyond honored that something I named and was involved with finally gathered an audience and shined a very deserved spotlight on the true art underground. As one of those artists I know how it feels when someone finally comes to your less-than-popular art show. I’m so glad so many of you out there finally came to our show!

Time moves on and new things come while old things go. Just as there was an inspirational drive in 2012 to start something important there is a similar drive in 2022 to stop it. The world is changing in very interesting ways. Our editors, authors, and contributors have all had life changes in one way or another. We have slowed and now we have stopped.

For now, until later.



The Artist D
Executive Editor of Fourculture