Another year, another grateful, long-winded post celebrating the third anniversary of my small music blog, which not many people even know exists. In the past year, I have graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism, hoping the degree will help me snatch a desk at Billboard in the future. I currently hold the title of head entertainment writer for Dallas-based, LGBT publication Evoke, not sure for how much longer though, and became a part of the fabulous and extremely talented team at EQ Music Blog. With all that responsibility, making sure every word is spelled correctly and every statement is true, my responsibilities with my own blog are the ones I cherish the most. From my very first track-by-track review of Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster to my most recent of Frankmusik’s phenomenal third album, Between, I hope to continue writing my personal opinions on music I love and hate for years to come.

     Last year, I finished up my second year of blogging with over 36,000 views on Album Confessions, a number I am proud of till this day. Every single view brings a smile to my face because it shows that someone is apparently interested in what I have to say. I could be right or absolutely wrong in my reviews, but that is why they are mine, a biased look at everything I love about pop music. With today marking the end of my third year working on this site, my view count currently stands at 78,560, surpassing the goal I set out for myself a year ago. I think a celebratory drink is in order, don’t you? A tequila sunrise might do the trick!

     I may have left my positions at The Horn and ORANGE Magazine, two UT publications, but thanks to EQ and Evoke, I have had the opportunity to interview artists I admire and preview singles from talented individuals. This year I had the honor to speak with RuPaul’s Drag Race season three winner Raja, former Pussycat Doll Kaya Jones, Canadian heartthrob Blake McGrath, controversial and outspoken rap artist ROB.B, American Idol runner up Blake Lewis, up and coming pop solo artist Chris Wallace, Bravo TV’s Newlyweds: The First Year star Blair Late and the amazing glam rock band Semi Precious Weapons for in-depth interviews (all available on Album Confessions) about their music and upcoming projects. I can know add their names to my interview list which already included XELLE, SIRPAUL, Adam Tyler, Colton Ford, Ryder and BAKER. I owe everything to these amazing artists, for giving a nobody like me the time of day in order to tell their story. Hopefully they will be able to say they knew me when I was just getting started in my music journalism career.

     Besides the one-on-one interviews and long form features, I have had the honor to premiere singles and lyric videos from a vast array of new artists. These individuals impressed me with their sound and image that I had to say yes to a post on my own blog or on EQ. Pop artist Brandon Hilton gave me a first listen of “Dance Til I Die”, a dance track I think is his best work to date. Vibrant up and comer Kenny D allowed me to premiere his catchy single “Outta Nowhere” on Album Confessions. He will be one you hear more of in the future. Dallas-native Boy Epic impressed me with his summer-ready single “Get Wet” so much that it led to a feature on EQ’s emerging artist section, The Green Children’s alternative take on pop won me over, including their single “Feel The Light”, SolRay Records artist Wilson Knight gave me the privilege of premiering the lyric video to his debut single “Stable Ground” and his manager Solomon recently gave me an early listen of his personal new release, “The Way We Were”, available tomorrow. I believe in all these artists. Their names may not be known worldwide yet, but I would bet on their eventual pop takeover any day.

     2012-2013 has brought great amounts of pleasure and pain. Big names such as Christina Aguilera, Tegan and Sara, Lana Del Rey, Frank Ocean, Kesha, The Killers, Rihanna and Pink all released highly anticipated records, some of which landed on my Best of 2012 list. New artists such as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Capital Cities, Parralox and Cassadee Pope impressed me with singles that dominated, or will soon dominate, the charts. But most importantly, the past year saw the return of legendary queen of dance Cher and the release of her uptempo single “Woman’s World”, the first off her first album since 2001. 2013 is not yet over and I am still patiently awaiting new albums from my idol Lady Gaga and other pop artists including Britney Spears and Beyonce Knowles. I’m sure the next few months will be very interesting for the entire music industry. Let’s hope these anticipated efforts will please and not disappoint.

     For the coming fourth year, I hope to keep expanding this music blog, continue to bring the people who care interviews from artists I respect , form more connections with other artists, managers and publicists through the help of EQ, and keep publishing thought out, honest reviews of mainstream albums. I recently changed the layout of my blog, making it a bit easier on the eyes, and I plan to keep messing around with different images and fonts. Just bare with me since I am not the computer genius I wish I was. All of this, every blog post, every magazine article, every single tweet, is to help me pave my way towards the job of my dreams. I want music journalism to be my future career, I want new and established artist to trust me with their latest creations, to want to hear what I think of the music they pour their hearts into. I will continue pushing forward, towards a job at Billboard or any other music publication. Every view on my blog, every comment, every Facebook like and retweet will only push me to work harder.

     My appreciation for anyone who has read something on Album Confessions, who has ever commented on a specific post, who has ever sent me an email with their music attached, who has followed me on Twitter or clicked “Like” on my blog’s Facebook page, cannot be measured. I only continue doing what I do because I know there are a few people who admire my honesty and appreciate my insane ramblings. I just want my connections to keep growing, my number of followers to keep growing and my portfolio and body of work to get better and stronger, nobody is perfect. I am looking forward to another year of blogging and hoping for another 50,000 views. With you, I know this is a goal to be accomplished.

Love, Peace, Glitter & Grease…

Luis Gonzalez