Variety Act Miami #4: Meet Zach Schlein, Director of The New Tropic.
Writer/editor, Miami music scene champion, El Bagel regular.
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This is your compère, Natalie Guevara, and you’re reading the fourth edition of Variety Act Miami. Today’s show stars Zach Schlein, the director of the daily Miami-centric newsletter The New Tropic. I’m but a novice newsletter-writer spotlighting the maestro behind the Miami newsletter, so let’s make sure we do this with the pomp and circumstance required.
I met Zach a year and a half ago in the days following the Super Bowl LIV in Hard Rock Stadium, a.k.a, the Closing Ceremony for The World As We Knew It starring J.Lo and Shakira (it was February 2020). Thanks to the networking prowess of our mutual friend (and my former Genius teammate) Briana Mendez, we shared laughs, music media anecdotes, and artistic vegan food amid a lovely work event held underneath the stars at the lush Plant Miami.
Originally hailing from New Jersey, with time spent in both Gainesville for school and Washington, D.C. for work, Zach’s story of going from Miami transplant to passionate local champion and writer/editor-about-town struck a chord with me.
Before his current post at The New Tropic, Zach was the arts and music editor of Miami New Times, and before that he was a litigation reporter for the Daily Business Review (versatility, we love it). He’s lived in Miami since June 2017 and has been writing professionally since December 2015, racking up bylines in Billboard, Cultured Magazine, DJ Mag, Mixmag, and NPR, among other places. Zach currently resides right outside of the Bayside Historic District and Belle Meade, directly adjacent to Moonlight landmark Jimmy’s Eastside Diner alongside Biscayne.
He muses:
One of the things I love most about Miami is the intimacy of its creative scene. Despite being a major metropolitan city and global destination, Miami isn’t overwhelming in the same way that a New York or an L.A. is (from what I’m told). If you’re creative and plug yourself into certain spaces and ideas, regardless of your medium, you will meet people who share your sensibilities and values.
If you’ve read all existing editions of this newsletter so far, you get it: I’m inspired by people who follow their noses (and their bliss!) and make the most of their day-to-day in our fair city.
Zach is that kind of gem, so get to know him and make sure to check out his not-at-all-exhaustive but very thorough list of Miami music scene recommendations down below. In fact, for the optimal reading experience, consume this edition of Variety Act Miami on the website. Y’all, he even made a Google Doc. Don’t tell me I don’t give you readers exclusive content!
MEET ZACH SCHLEIN, DIRECTOR OF THE NEW TROPIC.
On discovering his talent for writing and making it his career:
I definitely realized I could write at a young age: From elementary onward I was always part of my school newspaper. But it wasn’t until my junior year at the University of Florida that I realized, “Oh shit, this thing I’ve been doing my whole life as a casual passion is probably going to be how I earn a living.” That’s an exact moment I remember clearly.
Since I wasn’t majoring in journalism (political science, baby!) and knew full well I’d be entering a dying industry with limited prospects, I hustled to make sure all of my extracurriculars were in service of writing. By the time I graduated in 2016, I’d served as the opinions editor for my college newspaper The Independent Florida Alligator, started a blog for Swamp Records—the student-run record label I worked with—and began covering music for Miami New Times.
On pushing through the more torturous moments of the writing process:
This is something I used to really struggle with. Writing a daily newsletter has definitely forced me to work through that, and I’ve found it useful to just get the words out and clean them up later if need be. At this point I just have to trust that I care enough and have been at it long enough that whatever I write will be half-decent.
On his dream assignment:
I am literally in the process of pitching a story about Soulwax, otherwise known as 2manydjs, as I write this. They’re among my favorite living artists, I’ve interviewed them before, and their record label DEEWEE is celebrating five years and 50 projects with a new compilation out in May. If anyone reading this happens to be an assigning editor interested in a thoroughly researched, lovingly written piece about creatives who’ve cleverly subverted expectations at every stage of their career, feel free to drop me a DM.
(Update: My pitch was approved by Cultured Magazine not long after I initially wrote this—you can read my interview with the brothers Dewaele in the mag’s forthcoming summer music issue. With that said, word counts are word counts, and there’s A LOT that has to be left on the cutting room floor. So whether now or in the future, my offer remains open to any editors still interested in longform music journalism. 😉)
More generally, I’ve been very hungry for a long time to do lengthier features and profile pieces. I got to indulge in this a bit last year with my story on The Venture Bros. for NPR, and I’m hoping to do more work in that vein post-pandemic.
On his favorite part of publishing The New Tropic daily newsletter and the hours he maintains to keep the trains running smoothly:
My favorite part generally comes after a given newsletter is finished and I either A) can take comfort or satisfaction in knowing I did my best to do right by Miami and the people who make it worthwhile, or B) hear from someone who was spotlighted or a reader sharing that it genuinely made a difference for them and their relationship with the city.
As for my hours, I generally wake up around 7 am and try to be finished by around 6:45 pm. With that said, there are inevitably some early mornings and late nights involved.
On his cultural diet:
To be perfectly honest with you, the demands of the job and the stress of the pandemic have curbed my appetite a bit for recreational reads. I synthesize a lot of information every day, and truthfully, it’s hard not to be exhausted by the end of it all.
With that said, I recently began digging into the works of James Baldwin in addition to purchasing photographer Dave Swindells’s book IBIZA ‘89, the first volume of Islandia Journal, and Andrew Weatherall - A Jockey Slut Tribute. My very good friend Blake Middleton also has a new book, an actual person in a concrete historical situation, available for pre-order—I’m looking forward to cracking into that. I was “lucky” enough for my drunken antics on New Year’s Eve heading into 2016 to be recounted in his last published work, College Novel.
I generally read Miami New Times, The Miami Herald, WLRN’s online page, as well as the websites of several local TV stations—CBS Miami and WPLG Local 10 come immediately to mind—for news to include with The New Tropic. For food, we have our bi-weekly Miami Food Pug takeover and The Infatuation Miami, which is headed by my former roommate and ex-Miami New Times music editor Ryan Pfeffer.
Culturally—and as, uh, problematic as social media is—Instagram is invaluable for what I do. I try my best to showcase cultural offerings, social justice initiatives, and local businesses who may not garner full-blown news coverage with their every move. There are literally too many accounts to list here, but if I had to pull from a grab-bag of names, I pay attention to posts by documentarian Billy Corben; two of our top-tier records stores, Sweat Records and Technique Records; Coral Morphologic and Coral City Camera; Miami Waterkeeper; Sunrise Movement Miami; Dream Defenders… the list could go on for much, much longer.
On what he’s up to at 7 pm on a Tuesday:
As it so happens, every Tuesday at 7 pm I do this silly stream with my friends Jose Duran and Kat Bein on the latter’s Twitch channel. Both of them have been music journalism mentors to me, and the program’s title is named after our group chat: Cutie Club.
Every week we pick a musical theme and riff on it—both humorously and from a critical, hopefully informative perspective—in-between music videos. Early on I spent each episode pounding back White Claws with the hopes of getting that sweet sponsorship money; I’ve since found that I’m more present and a much better contributor when sober. It’s just a fun little side-project we do, although Kat’s been much more attentive and serious about her channel’s artist interview series “Kat Calls.”
Besides diving into genres like post-punk and electroclash, we’ve also done tributes to Daft Punk and, tragically, SOPHIE. The most popular one by far was our Eurotrash night; given how much fun that music is and these anxious times, I completely understand why.
On permanently moving to—and being wooed by—Miami in 2017 after time spent in New Jersey, Gainesville, and Washington, D.C.:
I moved to the 305 to build off of the work I’d done for Miami New Times, and I was absolutely intimidated when I arrived. With that said, I’d been coming here for concerts and parties—the 2012 and 2015 editions of Art Basel come to mind, as do several mid-2010s shows at Grand Central (RIP)—before I was traveling to formally cover stuff like Ultra 2016, so it wasn’t like I was a complete stranger to things.
I really connected with my aforementioned music journalism mentor, Kat Bein, while we were both covering Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival for New Times in March 2017. She said I'd been doing solid work without actually being in Miami—I was living in Tallahassee after my stint in D.C.—and ought to move here to immerse myself in the culture and see what I was capable of.
I wound up crashing with her for the entirety of that year’s Miami Music Week, formerly known as Winter Music Conference, as a test run. Without going into the particulars, it was a wild, transformative week, and I relocated here just a few months later.
One of the things I love most about Miami is the intimacy of its creative scene. Despite being a major metropolitan city and global destination, Miami isn’t overwhelming in the same way that a New York or an L.A. is (from what I’m told). If you’re creative and plug yourself into certain spaces and ideas, regardless of your medium, you will meet people who share your sensibilities and values.
On his top music recommendations, Miami and non-Miami alike:
Starting with a not-at-all exhaustive account of non-Miami music: Besides Soulwax and artists like Charlotte Adigéry on the DEEWEE record label, I spent large stretches of 2020 listening to pre-ambient Brian Eno; Reflections by Gil Scott-Heron; the Pet Shop Boys’ debut LP Please; basking in the chill of Balearic music; and doing a deep dive into the works of David Berman and his music as the Silver Jews / Purple Mountains.
I also really dug the new records from The Avalanches and Bicep; I had the privilege of interviewing the latter last year, and the duo’s livestreams were far and away the best ones I watched. After their passing, I also finally got around to listening to SOPHIE’s remix album of their full-length Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides—it’s phenomenal, albeit a painful reminder of what the creative world has lost.
Now for the 305 deep dive: I have to give it up for all the homies—both established and up-and-coming—who’ve spent the last few years transforming Miami’s underground electronic scene. Its sphere of influence is spreading across the world, and it’s been exciting to witness firsthand over the last few years.
There’s literally far too many names and artists to shout out, dance music or otherwise. However, I’m going to do my best—since it’s such a long list, I went ahead and made a separate Google Doc naming them all. In alphabetical order, you can find all of the Miami musicians, DJs, record labels, and even collectives that people ought to be keeping an ear on right here.
In the likely event I missed anyone, I’m happy to be raked over the coals for it in a few weeks after I properly emerge from my quarantine cave with Pfizer flowing through my veins. 😜
On one picture from his camera roll:
Islamorada, April 2021, post-vaccination—absolute bliss.
On the first long-haul place he’s visiting post-pandemic:
Literally anywhere—barring two socially distanced, mostly outdoor trips to Georgia, I haven’t strayed too far from my stretch of MiMo over the last year. I’ve been pretty busy so I haven’t planned a massive excursion yet, but the way things are going, I’d love to visit somewhere overseas so I can begin plotting my eventual life as an American expat.
ZACH’S MIAMI FAVORITES.
Miami anthem (current or classic!): There are literally too many to choose from. Painful though it is to go with just one, it’s gotta be “Rock Your Baby” by George McCrae.
Restaurants & bars: I just ate at a restaurant for the first time in over a year at Cafe Kush. Among the many restaurants I’ve been ordering from over the last year—Dogma, Go To Sushi, Pinch Kitchen, Sparky’s Roadside BBQ, Sushi Erika, Steve’s Pizza, Tran An, and UPTOWN 66 Taqueria to name a few—I have to give a special shoutout to El Bagel. The food was a reliable source of comfort in a year that was neither reliable nor comfortable.
As for bars, thankfully I live right next door to The Vagabond, and I’ve been dipping my toes back into society’s waters both literally and figuratively at its outdoor bar Aqua by Sebastian—this hidden gem was a favorite secret spot pre-pandemic, so I’m glad I live even closer to it now. I cannot wait to return to Gramps, Mac’s Club Deuce, Melinda’s, and now that it's reopened, The Corner.
Cafés, diners, bakeries, & ventanitas: Jimmy’s Eastside Diner, naturally. Also gotta give it up for OH MY GOSH!!! Brigadeiros and Panther Coffee.
Cultural centers: I’m planning return visits to ICA Miami and Pérez Art Museum Miami very, very soon. I’m also excited about finally checking out Superblue Miami and Nite Owl Drive-In.
Shopping: My friend Michelle Granado recently co-founded Closed on Monday, a new secondhand store that’s both chic and environmentally friendly—you can check out its selections at its online store.
Small businesses: Books & Books, Sweat Records, Technique Records, T Bag Records, and Miami Audio Solutions.
The Great Outdoors: For a while there, I was getting up early every morning and watching the sunrise at Baywood Park—I need to pick that back up. Also, Haulover was invaluable for socially distanced beach jaunts over the last year.
Local Miami artist, author, or performer: DJs count, right? ‘Cause if so, I’m looking forward to seeing all the peeps—Ashley Venom, Bort, INVT, Nicholas G. Padilla, Nick León, Patrick Walsh, Sister System, and VakDevi among many others—do their thing on the decks for the first time in a long time.
Miami childhood staple: For better or worse, countless childhood visits to Miami were spent at the Aventura Mall and Flanigan’s.
Most delightful Miami discovery made during quarantine: Once again, El Bagel—I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the food was one of the only consistent sources of serotonin I had in 2020.
The recommendation you’ll always give to a first-time Miami visitor: Pre-March 2020, more often than not I made it a mission to take out-of-town friends to Club Space and Electric Pickle (RIP). Not all of them made it to sunrise, but it was always a fun challenge to aspire for. Also, everybody’s gotta see Vizcaya at least once. Oh—last one, I swear—no visit to Miami is complete without a trip to Art By God.
THANKS, ZACH!
Keep up with Zach, his excellent taste, and his latest culture stories at @zachschlein.plz, and subscribe to The New Tropic for a daily rundown of the goings-on across Miami.
Until the next edition of Variety Act Miami, un abrazo!