Welcome to Boiler Room!

The heat would hit you first, the air getting hotter and muggier the further you dared walk inside.

Someone with multiple piercings and face tattoos would run up and waft their hands in front of your face, then disappear into the crowd.

Something would drip down the back of your neck and you’d look up and realise it was accumulated sweat dripping on you from the canvas rooftop.

Gross.

I loved the Big Day Out, and I loved the Boiler Room, that circus-themed stage inside the Supertop, a giant tent in a carpark outside Mt Smart Stadium.

I loved it so much that I named this, my Substack newsletter, after it.

Who am I, what is this and why am I here?

I’m Chris Schulz, and I’ve been an entertainment journalist based in New Zealand for the past 20 years, working mostly at Stuff.co.nz and the NZ Herald.

Now I do this!

Boiler Room is a place where I’ll discuss and dissect music, movies, TV shows, video games and other cool things that I like. Or not.

I’ll do regular interviews, put together random listicles, rate and review things, point out stupid shit if stupid shit needs pointing out, and let you in on the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of entertainment journalism in New Zealand.

People seem to like those ones a lot. Here’s one I did one on the time Scarlett Johansson made me wait 10 hours to interview her. Here’s another on the story that was too hot for anyone to publish. And here’s one on the worst interview I ever had to do.

You can see a list of my most popular stories here.

If you like what you see, please sign up for my newsletter. I write two or three times a week, usually on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, sometime around 8am.

And if you want to help me keep this thing going, you can find out how to help a freelance journalist keep doing his thing here.

I’ll only send you good shit, promise!