Hello!

I’m a reporter, editor, copywriter, and audio producer based in Brooklyn with 10 years of media experience.

I recently left my role as an Associate Editor at The FADER, where I worked for four years. I started there as a news writer and soon became the Associate Producer of The FADER Interview podcast before being promoted to Associate Editor of the magazine. I wrote profiles, reviews, essays, and scene reports, as well as managing news writers, overseeing social and advertorial projects, and editing staff and freelance articles. I love writing about music, and you can find me at a show most nights of the week.

I’m especially interested in the intersection of culture and the realities that surround it — political, economic, and otherwise. I’ve reported on the criminal trials of major recording artists, the strange world of New York’s DIY scene, the survival strategies of New Orleans cultural economy workers during slow summers, Jazz Fest’s bizarre and byzantine financial apparatus, and the challenges that faced artists, independent venue owners, tenants, landlords, and census takers at the height of COVID. Check out a small sample of my best work here, and a more comprehensive selection here.

Now that I’ve left The FADER, I’m open to all kinds of writing and editing work: editorial, artist bios, PR, copywriting, etc. If you’d like to work together, please reach out at raphael@raphaelhelfand.me. And if you see me at a show, come say hey!