How Damien Joyce uses Buttondown

– Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.

After 25 years, I found myself closing a long chapter in my corporate IT career. I went back to further education, or what my wife calls micro-retirement! I started a college community radio show in Galway City, Ireland, called The Human Recommendation on Flirt FM.  

Music is something I have always been passionate about, and I’ve been blogging inconsistently over the last 10 years on a whole range of music-related subjects over on my music blog at Medium.com. But the more music I listened to and the more I wrote, I felt compelled to talk to some of these underground bands that I felt deserved a proper chance to be listened to. So, I started reaching out to them and interviewing these artists for my podcast. Since starting, 23 radio shows have aired, and I have posted 33 music interviews over on Mixcloud, with a whole host of amazing independent artists. 

– What do you write about in your newsletter?

I'm trying to slowly build a community of music listeners around my college community radio show and interview podcast. In my newsletter, I try to add more context for the listener to the music being played, music recommendations to check out, and more information about the podcast guests. 

The Human Recommendation name came from the most common theme in my blog posts, which was music discovery by humans. This is even more topical now in 2025 with the increased influence of algorithms and "A.I. DJs."

There is also a vibrant wave of emerging indie artists from a bunch of genres and different pockets of the country and from around the globe, that just don’t get surfaced by algorithms. 

– Where did you first learn of Buttondown, and what made you decide to give it a try?

There are lots of writing, blogging platforms, and other newsletter providers out there, but two writers I admire have newsletters on Buttondown. Sasha Frere-Jones has "S/FJ," and Clive Thompson has "LinkFest.” They are very different from each other. Both have very unique styles of writing in their newsletters and their work across books and magazines. 

I have actually gotten to know Clive over the years, and he is a great example of a modern journalist/author. He was very accommodating when I asked to interview him, and he graciously shared tips about his writing and research habits.

– What are some ways Buttondown has helped you run your email?

I think Buttondown has helped me to improve my writing cadence and to think about it more, because my blogging tended to be in bursts and then more sporadic. 

– What are some things you’d be excited to see Buttondown build in the next few months?

That's the thing, Buttondown is great at communicating what it's rolling out. The team is regularly looking for feedback and posting a changelog, which is super helpful. They are constantly trying to make the writing experience better. 

But I do like the new test mode feature that allows you to send all newsletter emails to yourself instead of your actual subscribers.

– Anything else you’d like to add?

I've been experimenting with other platforms, posting my writing on Mixcloud.com, to see if it is a viable alternative for a blogging platform. I thought it would be kind of a neat idea having posts, my radio shows, and my interviews together...having everything in one place. But obviously, not anyway as nice as Buttondown, and far fewer formatting options, if any! (They don't provide a roadmap from their product team. They bury the posts in the UI, and you can't edit the drafts on mobile.)

Even though I have this tiny newsletter, I still get the same level of support when I encounter a bug. If I do file a bug with Buttondown, I get to have the behavior confirmed, if it is indeed unexpected. I get a notification when a fix is applied. This is really what has kept me on here. 

The Buttondown team wants to help writers succeed, and they are extremely supportive. They also check in periodically, to see how you are getting on and, sort of.. prompt you if you haven't posted in a while, but in a nice, friendly reminder kind of way.