About this blog

Welcomee to Dogtown.press, my newsletter where breaking-edge culture ) meets up with memory, and storytelling converge. The blog posts I’ve been  sharing here twice a week since March of 2024 are rooted in an appreciation for life in Venice, California, but often reach well beyond.

I’m Fred Schruers, a longtime journalist and author devoted to chronicling music, film, streaming, and the people who shape our cultural landscape, whether `pop’ or otherwise. Over several decades, I’ve written for publications including Rolling Stone, Premiere,  The Washington Post , Los Angeles Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal (boomer submarines and Navy SEALs),  IndieWire, Billboard and more.  I’ve profiled legends and iconoclasts—from Springsteen to Marley to Tom Petty to Fleetwood Mac, as well as Letterman, Pitt, Jeff Bridges,  DeNiro , Frank Gehry, David Hockney and many others. I’ve reported on everything from stadium-rock tours to intimate film sets (Morocco, Mozambique, Montana, etc.) to life on an aircraft carrier, and local news from gang territory in L.A. to the rise of Silicon Beach in my hood. 

My 2014 book, Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography, was written from travels spanning a hundred hours of interview time with Joel, and called “funny, revealing and poignant” by The Boston Globe. I’ve also appeared in music and film documentaries and podcasts, and served as senior editor at Premiere.

This blog reflects the full scope of my curiosity: stories from the vault, of the moment cultural and political commentary, dispatches from the changing streets of Dogtown, and the occasional road trip into the highlights and happenings of a life spent gaining life lessons up close from some of the most talented artists and characters of our times. 

Thanks for reading, and do keep coming back—I promise there’s always another story to tell.