The Report is a bi-annual, hand-bound combination journal/cassette compilation/DVD featuring musings on music, culture and just about everything else. Paying aesthetic tribute to the DIY ‘zines of a punk-yesteryear, creator McGregor (of popular indie music blog Chocolate Bobka) will be assembling each package by hand — even offering to throw in extra goodies for backers like homemade Pepper Jelly, cookies and “probably some Now & Laters.”  Now, with 55 backers and nearly double his original funding goal to contend with, we decided it was a good time to check in and see how McGregor is fielding the workload. What we found was not somebody groaning under the pressure, but an earnest, freshly-inspired creative individual. After all, he explains, even though there’s a lot to do, “… at the end of the day, it’s way too much fun to consider it work.”

Check out what else McGregor had to tell us below. Support his project here.

How has response to the project been so far?

From the evening the idea popped into my head, the response has been rather mind blowing. Everyone, literally everyone, I’ve spoken with about it has either been super eager to conjure something for The Report, or help make it a reality. It was rather startling to hit our fundraising goal as quickly as we did, especially since an extremely high percentage of the people who contributed were folks I’ve yet to meet in person: like-minded folks who could see the vision and wanted to help, despite not even knowing me.

How have you been organizing yourself to respond to demand generated by your backers?

Organization isn’t my strong suit, luckily, somehow, it hasn’t been all that tough. One of my aspirations with the Report was to streamline the publishing process. It always seemed to me that there was too much red tape, too much corporate BS, and entirely too much excess in publishing, as if they could take as much time, use as many materials and spend as much money as they wanted, and all would be fine. Obviously, this sort of business philosophy hasn’t worked out especially well, hence why everyday we read “Newspapers are dying,” etc.

In organizing, I’ve tried to keep everything as simple as possible. When you break it down, all producing a journal is is asking people to contribute, and subsequently, sequencing their work. That’s it. Anytime my head space gets stressed, I try to break it down to the fundamentals and work piece by piece. And slowly, but surely, things have really come together.

How has working on the magazine been?

Putting The Report together has been extremely rewarding, if not mostly because I get to read all the incredible work before anyone else. Scott, the Report intern who reached out to me when The Report was still a sprout (dude is a god-send), and I get all stoked — maybe cause we’re jacked up on coffee — every time a new submission comes in. Instantly, it’s like Christmas and we’re laying out another spread. Watching The Report evolve from a few interviews I had conducted to over 80 pages of critical analysis, philosophical arm chair leanings, mystifying art and explosive conversations has been like having a baby, seeing it take its first steps, then finally knowing they are able to shed the Huggie’s pull-ups and wipe their own butts. It’s pretty rad. A lot of hard work, but at the end of the day, it’s way too much fun to consider it work. Although, there is still a lot to be done.

Particularly exciting developments?

Hmmm. I don’t want to give too much away, but the most exciting parts tend to be when Ray Concepcion and [Chocolate Bobka head videographer] C. Axel Poekel  sit me down and screen footage. The work they did capturing the Chocolate Bobka church show in December with Alex Bleeker, Mountain Man, Liam the Younger, No Demons Here and Lux Perpetua is easily one of the most amazing pieces of concert cinematography I’ve seen in a good while. I was there, but I was sitting in the back working the door and was sort of in a different mind set. Every time I watch a clip from the show it’s like I’m magically transported back to a place I only dreamed of, yet I know it actually happened. It’s like reliving a dream, except the dream isn’t a dream, and it’s being shown on TV.