Name Alex Maiolo | ||
Alex Maiolo is an American musician, writer, and health care reform advocate who lives in the Chapel Hill / Carrboro area of Orange County, North Carolina.
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Activism
Maiolo is an advocate for health care reform in the United States, particularly the issue of health insurance access for musicians and other creative professionals.
He has presented on the need for affordable health insurance options for musicians at conferences including South by Southwest, CMJ Music Marathon, the SF MusicTech Summit, the Creative Chicago Expo, and the Pitchfork Music Festival. He has been interviewed on the subject for publications including Pitchfork Media, Spin Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and Crawdaddy!, TIME, and contributed op-eds to the Chicago Tribune and Billboard Magazine.
Since 2001, Maiolo has worked with the national non-profit organization Future of Music Coalition. In 2005, Maiolo and the Future of Music Coalition received a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation to develop the Health Insurance Navigation Tool (HINT), a free service offering musicians advice and information about their health insurance options.
On May 28, 2010, Maiolo and other Carrboro-area musicians performed in a tribute concert remembering recently deceased Big Star lead singer Alex Chilton. Because Chilton was uninsured at the time of his death, Chilton's widow opted to donate the proceeds of the concert to HINT.
In 2016 he had a featured role in the film "Boycott Band," a mockumentary produced by McKinney (advertising agency) to call attention to the futility of North Carolina's House Bill 2, also known as Bathroom Bill, which discriminates against Transgender people. It received high praise from trade journals such as Adweek.
Music
Maiolo plays guitar in the pop band Fan Modine. He has also played bass guitar for the Chapel Hill neo-psychedelic band Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies, and guitar with Tim Sommer's ambient pop band Hi Fi Sky. He is currently the guitarist in the Garage Rock / Psychedelic Rock band Lacy Jags.
In 2010 he was asked by Chris Stamey to aid in organizing a live performance of Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers record with guest musicians including Jody Stephens, the only surviving member of the band, Mitch Easter, Will Rigby, and Mike Mills of R.E.M.. The Performance was repeated at Webster Hall, in New York City, on March 26, 2011, again with Stephens, Easter, Rigby, and Mills, and also included Michael Stipe, Matthew Sweet, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, Ira Kaplan, Tift Merritt, and many other guest musicians.
He writes about music and recording as a senior contributor to Tape Op magazine and, since 2012, has contributed to Premier Guitar magazine. In 2015 he became a regular contributor to Reverb.com's interviews and tutorial pages.
Maiolo is also a recordist whose work has been featured on he John Peel show. In 2010 he opened Seriously Adequate Studio, a small, two room facility, where notables such as Brian Paulson, Lost In The Trees, The Kingsbury Manx, Schooner, Demon Eye, and Merge Records recording artists Polvo and The Love Language have worked.
In 2015 he became a voting member of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (aka The Grammys ), Producers & Engineers Wing. He also serves South by Southwest Music Festival in an advisory capacity.