Using Instagram as its medium, Shaad Magazine makes an argument for the sustained vitality of good music and culture journalism, no matter what form it takes. Created by the Australian-born, London-based journalist Shaad D'Souza, the zine has interviewed everyone from up-and-coming pop star Audrey Hobert to twee legend Calvin Johnson (the magazine asks him about his favorite candy shops). For this edition of Digging, we talked to D'Souza about the magazine, listening habits, and what his ideal interview with a musician looks like. Read our interview with the writer below, and be sure to listen to his Nina Hub.

What and who is Shaad Magazine? 

Shaad D'Souza: Shaad Magazine is my magazine, which is what I call my Instagram. It’s a magazine on Instagram that isn’t a bit—I consider it a real magazine, with editorial standards and a point of view and stuff like that, but I also kind of want it to be looser and more fun than a “normal” magazine. It won’t ever be on Substack and the plan isn’t to eventually move platform or upscale. 

What was your entryway into becoming a music obsessive? 

There were kind of obvious early entry points: I was big into Tumblr and loved the Hype Machine, and through the Hype Machine I found out about Stereogum (because they used to host free MP3s) and from there I found out about Pitchfork, and the depth and breadth of the writing Pitchfork kind of changed my life. I’d say that Lindsay Zoladz’s review of Julia Holter’s classic Loud City Song kind of alerted me to this world of more underground or experimental music, and from there it was just this rabbit hole of discovering sounds that totally amazed and enchanted me. 

Could you describe your taste and listening habits?

I love indie rock music and indie pop music, always have and probably always will. I listen to a lot of pop music because it forms the bulk of what I write about, and that’s probably rotted my brain a fair amount, but I guess you could say that’s just me responding to the market. I like my work being read widely, and a lot of people want to read about pop music, and as the writing about pop music has gotten increasingly stupid and inane, I’ve almost felt dutybound to contribute something to the broader discourse that I think is not totally crap. I’m from Melbourne, and I think the artists in Melbourne are some of the most incredible, interesting and talented in the world—I try to keep tabs on what’s going on in the scene, but it’s pretty haphazard. 

As for listening habits: I try really hard not to become desensitized to music. When you’re listening to so much of it every day, constantly being sent MP3s and horrible PromoJukebox and Disco links, you can get cynical really fast. That’s kind of good, because most music is pretty bog, but I think there’s a fine line between discernment and outright contempt for art. When everything starts to feel flat to me, I tend to go through a more podcast-y or Youtubey phase. 

What is your preferred way to surf around the internet and look for new music?

I really like stalking peoples’ profiles on Bandcamp and I try to listen to everything people recommend on Instagram or whatever, but it’s honestly all quite sporadic. I’m in dire need of a better methodology. My friend Colin Joyce once did this thing where he listened to an album he hadn’t heard every day for a year, and I’m always wanting to do that. Maybe in 2026! 

Do you like to listen to music when you read? If so, what music works and what music doesn’t work?

I do, but probably only if I’m already familiar with it to some degree. Like, I’m listening to Debi Tirar Mas Fotos by Bad Bunny as I write this, but I’m not finding it distracting because I know the beats of it really intimately. I would say anything works except stuff that’s particularly spare/quiet, because then you’re just zoning out of the reading/writing when something crazy happens, if that makes sense. 

What does the ideal interview with a musician look and feel like to you?

I think there’s a lot of ego and hubris in music journalism: It’s so obvious that a lot of writers just want to be liked by whoever they’re interviewing, and entertain some bizarre idiot fantasy that being fawning and glazing the subject will get them there. I truly believe that when you sit down with an artist, you’re both kind of playing a game, or at least both have a specific goal in mind and any idea of intimacy you have is basically false. (This opinion is skewed, slightly, by the kind of musician I’m mostly writing long profiles of.) 

From there, you have to consider: Why am I writing this? I find that the answer most of the time is entertainment. So I want profiles to feel juicy and exciting, like you’re in the room with the artist or gathering so so so much new information about them with every line. You can get to amazing places when you go into an interview with that point of view, because sometimes (hopefully) the artist will be excited to follow those lines of communication too. There’s a lot of churnalism on the internet, so, realistically, an interview that’s hugely fun to read or which is very revealing (even on a tidbit-y level) provides a point of difference. 

It’s easier to draw that out of a subject if you don’t care about conjuring some bogus connection. I don’t mind slightly offending a subject with a question that feels a little close to home, or whatever—within reason, obviously. The other side of this is that sometimes you do have a really genuine emotional interview with someone and that can be amazing. But I think a lot of profile writers maybe are seeking out something that’s not there a lot of the time. Basically, I think you need to be able to read the room. 

Is there a release on your Nina hub that is particularly close to your heart?

They all kind of are! A lot of these are by my dear friends, some of the most talented people I’ve ever met. The Liam Parsons In Hell track is his first solo release—I made him upload it—and I’m really excited for him to release more music, because it’s all amazing. 

A lot of the music in this hub fits in this loose theme of really bulletproof-but-homemade pop music: Fantasy of a Broken Heart, my friends Bailey and Al, are just two insanely good pop songwriters who are also interested in stuff that’s really proggy. The Worldpeace DMT album is probably my favourite record of the year, it reminds me of so much stuff I was listening to in those Hypem days. I’m in total awe of Cameron Picton’s (My New Band Believe) ability to swing between something pop and something totally avant garde — I saw him play solo at Genghis Cohen earlier this year and it was really remarkable. Olivia Rodrigo needs to cover “Commie BF” by Forty Winks asap.  

What is exciting you the most about music in 2025?

I like that people seem to be just doing whatever the fuck they want a little bit more on both ends of the spectrum … I think something like The Velvet Underground and Rowan would have been seen as a little passe even a few years ago, because maybe underground music was a little more wary of things that seemed light or silly, even though I think that album has so much depth to it. But I like that that album can come out this year and be celebrated and not considered overly ironic or anything. And then on the other side of things, my other favourite record of the year is probably Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter, which is played almost entirely with live instruments and draws from a couple really specific 70s references and is tightly stitched in a way mainstream pop kind of isn’t supposed to be anymore—to me, that’s a little gutsy, and the mark of someone who’s maybe craving a sense of craft and idiosyncrasy. I know people say it all the time, but I think auteurism is actually back, and that feels amazing.