Riot Act Media - whoweare

Riot Act Media is a boutique publicity firm that expertly launches creative, communication-based campaigns for clients in the independent music, film and arts worlds—as well as for non-profit and corporate entities—through its offices in Portland, OR and Brooklyn, NY.

Joan Hiller, Owner / Publicity Director

Joan got her start playing house shows and publishing a crappy fanzine called Out of Order in Houston, TX, where she booked and promoted shows for years while street-teaming for Grand Royal and Holiday Matinee. She then moved to Chicago to work at Hopper PR, play in other bands, and write for several publications, including Venus, RollingStone.com, Newcity, UR Chicago, Alternative Press, Punk Planet, Detroit Metro Times, The Stranger, Portland Mercury and others. After relocating to Seattle, she booked the Crocodile Cafe' for a short time before being hired by Sub Pop, where she worked for four years before joining and eventually acquiring Riot Act. She relocated to Portland in 2008.

To date, she has helmed campaigns and worked on projects for The 1900s, Aaron Ruell, A Frames, The Album Leaf, Alina Simone, Alkaline Trio, All Girl Summer Fun Band, All Night Radio, All Smiles, At the Spine, Atom and his Package, Band of Horses, The BellRays, Bird Names, Blechtum from Blechdom, The Brunettes, Burning Airlines, The Catheters, Cave In, Cex, Chad VanGaalen, Challenger, The Coast, Comedians of Comedy, Comets on Fire, Constantines, The Cops, CSS, Cub Country, David Cross, Dead Moon, Denali, Dismemberment Plan, DJ/Rupture, Dntel, Dwayne Sodahberk, The Elected, The Eternals, Erase Errata, Ester Drang, Eugene Mirman, Euphone, Flight of the Conchords, Fences, Frausdots, Fruit Bats, Girls Against Boys, Girls Rock! Chicago, Glorytellers, Gold Chains, The Gossip, Handsome Furs, Helio Sequence, Holopaw, The Interiors, Iron and Wine, Isis, J Church, Jennifer Gentle, Jets To Brazil, Joan Of Arc, Juno, Kaito, Kelley Stoltz, Kid 606, Kinski, Knifeandchop, Leonard Mynx, The Life and Times, Little Pieces, Loch Lomond, Loney, Dear, Low, Maritime, Miighty Flashlight, Milemarker, Misc., Moonrats, Mudhoney, Nedelle, Neurosis, Neva Dinova, Nick Jaina, Noise for the Needy, Numbers, Owls, Origami Ghosts, Oxford Collapse, Patton Oswalt, Pedro The Lion, Pissed Jeans, The Promise Ring, The Rhombus, Rogue Wave, Say Hi, Sea Of Bees, Screaming Females, Sean Na Na, Shiner, Shoplifting, Sleater-Kinney, "Some Days Are Better Than Others" Movie, Songs: Ohia, Stars as Eyes, Statistics, stepsonday, Steve Von Till, Strike Anywhere, The Shins, Tera Melos, The Thermals, These Arms Are Snakes, Tiny Vipers, The Traditionist, Tribes of Neurot, Turing Machine, The Valley Arena, Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival, Weinland, Women, Wolf Eyes,Wolf Parade, Iannis Xenakis, Zeni Geva, Zero Zero, and others.

Nathan Walker, Senior Publicist / Partner

Born in 1976 to one of the Midwest's finest folk musicians, Nathan spent most of his teens failing to piss his father off by playing Body Count, Public Enemy and Run DMC as loudly as possible. Realizing that it was okay to love all different types of music even if you were a 50 year-old folk singer, Nathan began his long career in the music industry starting as a freelance photographer before eventually working as music editor for Seattle's Tablet Magazine (R.I.P., Tablet). A stint as music editor at Resonance Magazine (also R.I.P.!) was followed by working for the esteemed 2:30 Publicity firm for a couple of years before moving to the woods with his lovely wife to open a small, organic cafe.

Even living in a small town of 16,000 couldn't keep Nathan from taking part in the music industry. He booked a weekly Friday night show at his cafe, often hosting touring bands like Ladyhawk, Tiny Vipers and the Immaculate Machine, thus helping to corrupt the musical minds of dozens of teenagers. Two months after opening his cafe in Anacortes, he, along with Beat Happening's Bret Lunsford, resurrected the 20 year-old Knw-Yr-Own record label, releasing six albums in the span of two years. In addition, he helped to book, promote and run sound for the world famous What The Heck festival.

After eating a perfect pizza in Portland, Nathan, his wife and their two cats relocated and joined the amazing team at Riot Act Media. To date, Nathan has well over a decade of experience in the music industry and has helped with PR campaigns for Mt. Eerie, Basia Bulat, Visqueen, Electric 6, Grizzly Bear, Women & Children, Karl Blau, D+, El Capitan, the Lights, the Drones, Sea Of Bees, Whalebones, the Gift Machine, Stuart & Caan, Of Montreal, the Hold Steady and many more.

Kelly McClure, Publicist

Kelly sprouted from the bean fields of Illinois in 1977. She learned about wholesome fundamentals there before being swept away by her parents to Southern California at the age of 7, where those fundamentals forked into a new desire to say “she’s all” with frequency. She spent her formative years in Riverside, California and it was there that a new group of friends (and a few exchanged mixed tapes filled with feminist punk/pop bands like Sleater-Kinney, The Need, and Team Dresch) changed her life forever and sent her on a path towards music servitude in all its many forms.

After high school, she relocated back to Illinois to get her degree in journalism at a college that was literally in the middle of a corn field. Diploma in hand, she freelanced in Chicago for several years, (and ate many hot dogs) then flew the coop for the big crapple itself, New York City – which she will tell you is her favorite city out of all cities ever. While in NYC, Kelly worked as the Associate Music Editor for Bust Magazine.

Aside from being a dedicated, creative, and energetic publicist, Kelly is also an accomplished writer whose work has appeared in Bust Magazine, Vice, The Chicago Reader, New City, Curve, XoJane, Thought Catalog, and The Hairpin.

Kelly comes to us from K Records, where she served as the label’s in-house publicist. While there, she helmed successful campaigns for Chain and the Gang, LAKE, Arrington de Dionyso, The Curious Mystery, Christmas, Angelo Spencer, Nucular Aminals, and The Hive Dwellers. Following her tenure at K, the stanky streets of Brooklyn planted seeds of homesickness in Kelly and called her back to the East Coast, where she will be stationed from here on out. Excelsior!

Annie Ostrowski, Junior Publicist

Annie first began working with music in high school while volunteering for now-defunct music magazine Section M. Soon after, she and a friend started a small production company and brought some of their favorite bands to come play shows around Santa Rosa, California. After a few successful shows she began focusing on music journalism, and became further engrossed in the amazing local music scene right there in her hometown.

While in college, Annie reviewed local bands for The Sonoma State Star, and co-hosted a weekly radio show for the college station KSUN, eventually leading to an internship with San Francisco's legendary Noise Pop Festival. Around that time, she started playing bass in a band, touring the West Coast and playing shows in the Bay Area. It was on a Pacific Northwest tour that Annie first visited Portland, Oregon and decided it was where she wanted to be. A year after interning with Noise Pop, she assumed the roll of Noise Pop and The Treasure Island Festival's program guide editor and writer. After graduating college, Annie helped promote and book art and music events in Sonoma County.

At the end of 2008, she finally relocated to Portland, Oregon and has been loving it ever since. Annie currently writes for Myspoonful.com and Concert Co-op, and edits for the Noise Pop and Treasure Island Music Festivals. In June of 2011, Annie happened upon an internship opening at Riot Act and jumped at the opportunity to learn the PR ropes. After six months of interning, Annie joined the company as a Junior Publicist. She has since worked small campaigns for Big Eyes, Shred Fest, Nucular Aminals, Wow and Flutter, and Sun Angle.

David Lewis, Founder Emeritus

Mr. Lewis founded Riot Act in the fall of 2004. He left the company in 2008 to pursue a career in higher education at Columbia College Chicago. He is now their Creative Industry Liaison and teaches part-time in the music business program. Here he is looking pensive while taking a group of students on a trip to the Onion AV Club offices.