José Carlos Santos

José Carlos Santos’ business card says “music curation, consulting and journalism”, which is to say he is a sort of jack of all trades of the underground, and has been so for over twenty years. He likes being at the eye of the artistic storm where performer, press, listener, culture, language and history all fly around, bumping into each other. As a self-professed “word nerd”, a follower of Heschel’s “words create worlds” maxim, his main focus has always been writing, which he has done copiously in both his native languages, English and Portuguese – for instance, he served as a senior writer for Terrorizer magazine for eleven years and chief of staff for LOUD! for what felt like a hundred years. Currently he is part of the writing staff for Decibel and Metalhead magazines. He has pursued other activities such as radio hosting, publishing, DJ, photography, PR, management and more. He loves chatting to music-related people, which is why he hosts a “slow listening” podcast where different guests talk passionately about their favourite songs and other subjects on each episode. This kind of experience has led him to be frequently asked as a moderator and/or curator for panels and other activities associated with events like Roadburn, Arctangent, 2000trees, Amplifest, Inferno, Sonic Blast, Viva Sounds or SWR among others. José maintains his own website, The Devil’s Mouth, a labour of love designed to help spread the word on unconventional music of all genres. Behind all of José’s professional guises, lies essentially a profound love of music and an unshakable will to shine a light on the less exposed artists and help them reach their deserved audience.