About
Tony Ware is the Editor, Commerce & Gear for PopSci.com (and PopPhoto.com). He’s been writing about how to make and break music since the mid-’90s when his college newspaper said they already had a film critic, but maybe he wanted to look through the free promo CDs. Immediately hooked on outlining intangibles, he’s covered everything audio for countless alt. weeklies, international magazines, websites, and heated bar trivia contests ever since. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and an 8-pound Aussie Shepherd-Japanese Chin mix who loves exploring national parks and impressing the thru-hikers.
Experience
Tony joined PopSci full-time in early 2021, following a stint as a contributing writer/contract editor. But he’s been connecting wires and words for nearly 30 years. While dabbling in concert promotion and DJing, Tony kicked off his professional writing career contributing to the Birmingham Weekly in the ’90s. Tired of driving to see shows in and take flights from Atlanta, he moved to Georgia in 1998, joining award-winning alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing as a nightlife editor just as the South got something to say. He spent nearly a decade there alongside the outkasts covering concerts and clubs—from VIP parties to DIY warehouse shows—all while racking up SkyMiles taking assignments from dozens of iconic pop culture, sound design, and participatory journalism outlets across North America and on both sides of the Atlantic.
After years freelancing, a family-motivated move to the Washington, D.C., area led to optimizing workflow, developing stylebooks, and increasing audience engagement as managing editor for a professional recording/broadcasting studio magazine, then a construction & development industry journal, as well as federal workforce, cybersecurity, and battlefield technology publications. While data breaches and drones can be exciting, streamlining the signal chain at Popular Science has reconciled life-long loves of personal audio and emerging technology.
Education
Tony graduated from the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa with a bachelor’s degree in English Language & Literature, including University and English program honors. He was just a few credits shy of minors in Magazine Journalism and Art History, but he aced his studies in postmodern television/watching and discussing Twin Peaks all summer. It was the ’90s, wut?
Highlights
- Editorial talent scout and traffic cop, always looking to connect people and products that can introduce readers to transformative tech
- The first person eliminated from the inaugural Atlanta, Georgia, Air Guitar Championships qualifier
- Once promised free drinks all night if he would swear not to do any more karaoke
- Proudly hangs a platinum record gifted by the Ying Yang Twins over the dining room table
- Past byliner for: Insomniac.com, Wine & Spirits, MusicRadar, Spin, RollingStone.com, Mademoiselle, Remix, Magnet, CMJ, URB, XLR8R, Creative Loafing, MTV.com, Miami New Times, The Stranger, SF Weekly, Fader, Jezebel, and others.
Favorite weird science fact
Ever drifted off to sleep, only to be shocked awake momentarily by a vivid sensation of plummeting that’s hard to differentiate from a dream? Well, that fall into the void has a name—hypnic jerk—and it’s your muscles contracting in a form of myoclonic twitch.
