Alex Maiolo is a musician, writer, and health care reform advocate who lives in the Chapel Hill / Carrboro area of North Carolina.
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Maiolo is an advocate for health care reform in the United States, particularly the issue of health insurance access for musicians and other creative professionals.
He has presented on the need for affordable health insurance options for musicians at conferences including South by Southwest,[1] CMJ Music Marathon,[2] the SF MusicTech Summit,[3] the Creative Chicago Expo,[4] and the Pitchfork Music Festival.[5] He has been interviewed on the subject for publications including Pitchfork Media,[6] Spin Magazine,[7] the Chicago Tribune,[8] and Crawdaddy!,[9] and contributed op-eds to the Chicago Tribune and Billboard Magazine.
Since 2001, Maiolo has worked with the national non-profit organization Future of Music Coalition. In 2005, Maiolo and the Future of Music Coalition received a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation to develop the Health Insurance Navigation Tool (HINT), a free service offering musicians advice and information about their health insurance options.
On May 28, 2010, Maiolo and other Carrboro-area musicians performed in a tribute concert remembering recently deceased Big Star lead singer Alex Chilton. Because Chilton was uninsured at the time of his death,[10] Chilton's widow opted to donate the proceeds of the concert to HINT.[11]
Maiolo plays bass guitar for the Chapel Hill neo-psychedelic band Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies. He also plays guitar in Fan Modine, Soft Company, the side project of Missy Thangs, keyboardist of the Merge Records artists The Love Language, and with Tim Sommer's ambient pop band Hi Fi Sky.
In 2010 he was asked by Chris Stamey to aid in organizing a live performance of Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers record, to take place over two nights at The Cat's Cradle, in Carrboro North Carolina that December. Guest musicians included Jody Stephens, the only surviving member of the band, Mitch Easter, Will Rigby, and Mike Mills of R.E.M.. The Performance was repeated at Webster Hall, in New York City, on March 26th, 2011, again with Stephens, Easter, Rigby, and Mills, and also included Michael Stipe, Matthew Sweet, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, Ira Kaplan, Tift Merritt, and many other guest musicians.
He writes about music and recording as a senior contributor to Tape Op magazine.
He is also a recordist who's work has been featured on independent and college radio, as well as The John Peel show.