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Our Story

The History of
Burning Hot Events & Team Kataklizmic

(This is the story of our publication and team development. View team member bios here,
and check out the Burning Hot Events - Live photo album on Facebook.)



2016 - The Beginning

Debbie Malone and Katherine Amy Vega
Debbie & Katherine

April

Katherine Amy Vega & Debbie Malone

The online publication Burning Hot Events was founded by Katherine "Kat" Amy Vega - Owner, Manager, and Media Artist of Kataklizmic Design. Katherine is a multimedia artist & a top concert photographer in Phoenix, with music photography experience that began in 2002.

View Katherine's Photography

She partnered with former design team co-worker and professional copywriter, Debbie Malone, who became the first music journalist for the online publication. With the combination of their expertise and high standard of work, they were an instantaneous power-duo the first time they covered a concert together!

Together, Debbie and Katherine published 12 reviews, including the following artists: Say Anything, Violent Femmes, 9 ELECTRIC, Butcher Babies, Lacuna Coil, The Rocket Summer, Jane N' the Jungle, Haley Reinhart, Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Marilyn Manson, Blink-182, & Garbage.

Read Debbie's Team Write-Ups

It is natural for us to grow different directions - especially promising, talented, and driven individuals! Debbie is continuing education and advancing her career and no longer available to actively serve as a journalist on the team as of early 2017. However, she may occasionally review and edit for us in the future! She returned to review the Garbage concert in October 2018. We will always be EXTREMELY grateful for her support, collaboration, skills, brains, dependability, time, and friendship. It was because of her willingness to get involved with a brand new project that Burning Hot Events got off the ground.

Katherine serves as Manager, Lead Concert Photographer, and Chief Editor for Burning Hot Events. Artists photographed are too many to name — you can scroll through all of the albums here. Her portfolio includes the likes of: P!nk, Taylor Swift, CAKE, Ben Folds, Evanescence, Lindsey Stirling, Marilyn Manson, Jimmy Eat World, Goo Goo Dolls, Blink-182, Amanda Palmer, Death Cab for Cutie, Coheed and Cambria, The Piano Guys, Violent Femmes, and many more.

On rare occasions, Katherine writes reviews for shows, but prefers to leave the writing to the experts and focus on her biggest passion — concert photography. Some artists she has written about in addition to photographing are: Jim Adkins, Rooney, Brand New, The Piano Guys, Lindsey Stirling, Unagi Usagi, Think About It, Dadadoh, The Movielife & The Early November, Greg Holdern & Butch Walker, A Perfect Circle, The Faim, CAKE, Ben Folds, LAZERPUNK, Empathy Test, Aesthetic Perfection, Bat for Lashes and more. She's also written news articles about My Chemical Romance and Amanda Palmer.

Read Katherine's Team Write-Ups (Includes press releases prepared, but not written, by Katherine)

Emily Rudolph and Katherine Amy Vega
Emily & Katherine

Emily Rudolph

Music Journalist

In October 2016, Emily Rudolph was recruited to help increase show coverage and alleviate some work from Debbie. She was promoted to Editor in March 2017. Emily has covered CHVRCHES, Zombie Prom (Jimmy Eat World & Good Charlotte), The Sounds, Dashboard Confessional, Infected Mushroom, Nothing More, In This Moment, Judas Priest, Otep, Def Leppard, Journey, and Justin Courtney Pierre. Due to relocation to San Francisco, Emily is no longer an active member of the team. We wish her the best of luck on her new journey!

Read Emily's Team Write-Ups

"This is so exciting! I have been a part of a good amount of different creative business startups, but I feel like in the short time I've been working with you I have seen so much more progression than with most startups. It's inspiring!!"

Katherine Amy Vega and Rollie Rathburn
Katherine & Rollie

Rollie Rathburn

Music Journalist

Concert junkie Rollie Rathburn, also a former co-worker and professional writer, first worked with Burning Hot Events in April 2016 when he wrote an album review for Say Anything. He unexpectedly returned nearly a year later in February 2017, right when we really needed him because Debbie and Emily were planning on departing from the team to pursue their dreams. Rollie (on hiatus), reviewed AFI, VivaPHX, Graf Orlock, Denzel Curry, Yellowcard, Sleigh Bells, and Underoath concerts for Burning Hot Events.

Read Rollie's Team Write-Ups


2017

Katherine Amy Vega and Katie Silverman
Katherine & Katie

Katie Silverman & Nick Gonzaga

Music Journalists

In March 2017, Katie Silverman and Nick Gonzaga were referred to BHE as potential journalists by Emily. Being more green in their professional writing experience, it was exciting to become a facilitator for them to pursue their dreams; and they were equally excited for such a cool opportunity to review concerts!

Katie is still an active team member and has covered Bayside, Michelle Branch, Halestorm, Evanescence, P!nk, Spice Girls Night (themed nightlife event), & Goo Goo Dolls.

Read Katie's Team Write-Ups

Nick covered Quantum Colossus, A Perfect Circle, Jimmy Eat World, & Incubus. After going on hiatus for about a year to focus on launching his radio show, Nick temporarily rejoined the team with a review of Apache Lake Music Festival 2018, and departed once again after reviewing a show he chose to remain anonymous for due to creative differences.
Read Nick's Team Write-Ups

Katherine Amy Vega and Nick Gonzaga
Katherine & Nick

Jim Hesterman

Portraiture, Videography

Jim Hesterman is a widely renowned fashion photographer in Phoenix, as well as a videographer. Jim and Katherine have known each other for many years, due to the fact that Jim is a photographer AND a drummer for a local punk band, AND they worked together at the same tech company. He has an extremely high standard of quality of work and is very passionate about music, so naturally it was desirable for him to be on the team.

Jim focuses on promo portraits and video interviews for Burning Hot Events. He has photographed EPK portraits for Post Animal, and took the primary footage for our interview with The Maine.

View Jim's Team Photography

Jim Hesterman, Katherine Amy Vega, and Mckayla Hull
Jim, Katherine, & Mckayla

Mckayla Hull

Music Journalist

Journalism student Mckayla Hull met Katherine at the 2016 Music Industry Expo by Green Kite Records. At the time, they'd discussed working together; but it wasn't until Mckayla followed up 4 months later (March) that they started making that happen. Mckayla brought a background in writing & interviewing, the music industry, and marketing to the team.

She interviewed Post Animal - later reviewing their concert when they rolled into town. She also interviewed MRCH & reviewed their concert. She has reviewed The 1975, the band Phoenix, Dreamers, The Wrecks, & New Politics. Mckayla did our first video interview with the band The Maine, and reviewed their concert following the interview! She interviewed Australian band The Faim via e-mail. Due to the pursuit of higher education in journalism and the opportunity to work with The Entertainer!, Mckayla has been on hiatus from the team since March 2018.

Read Mckayla's Team Write-Ups

Steven Kain

Concert Photographer

At the same time the 3 new journalists joined the team, Tucson-based concert photographer Steven Kain also joined in! It was really exciting to find someone in Tucson that Katherine respected the quality of work of. Being a concert photographer herself, she is highly critical, and therefore was apprehensive to have other concert photographers on on board. Steven really fit the bill with crisp shots, action/emoting shots, and colorful images! So now Burning Hot Events was able to start spreading into Tucson! This is how we truly make BHE about ARIZONA, and not only Phoenix! He's contributed photo albums of Tribulance, Dope, Combichrist, September Mourning, Davey Suicide, Sons of Providence, Swindy, and Conor Oberst. Steven is currently on hiatus, as he has relocated out of state.

View Steven's Team Photography

London Snow and Katherine Amy Vega
London & Katherine

London Snow

Event Photographer

London Snow joined the team when she made a connection with Katherine in the workplace when Katherine began a contract job as a front-end web developer. Being in I.T., London helped Katherine get her new computer all set up when she started the position. London's interest was sparked when she noticed Katherine holding a coffee tumbler shaped like a Nikon lens. Being a fantastic photographer herself, with an interest specifically in burlesque photography, she showed great interest in Katherine's work. London and Katherine were besties almost instantly!

Impressed by London's quality of work and recognizing her can-do attitude, willingness to assist, and efficiency, Katherine invited London to join the team! It wasn't long afterward that London was able to run a smooth operation with Katherine and operate a photo booth for an Industrial/Fetish concert and burlesque show called SINister, and later the annualMustache Massacre show (both events by Jonah Foree of Ikonoklast, HARDWIRE, and Goth Brooks). London is now focusing on her own projects.

View London's Team Photography

Brittney Coon and Katherine Amy Vega
Brittney & Katherine

Brittney Coon

Music Journalist

Brittney joined our team in October 2017, when recruiting closed for new photographers and it became clear we needed more journalists to match that. She applied in response to a job posting, and she really stood out. Brittney is an author with many published books, and she works for a concert venue, so she was an obvious choice.

So far she has reviewed Thrice, Circa Survive, Nightwish, Taylor Swift, Scorpions, Queensryche, Christina Aguilera, & Holywood Vampires. She also interviewed Through Fire and My Immortal Enemy via email.

Read Brittney's Team Write-Ups

Katherine Amy Vega and Sean Tingle
Katherine & Sean

Sean Tingle

Senior Music Journalist, Assistant Editor

Sean met Katherine in Japanese language lessons in 2012. Sean, an English Professor at a university, was studying in order to teach English in Japan. It was uncertain whether the two would keep any contact afterward. Thanks to the magic of social media, not only did their connection remain, but they grew to be best friends! Through years of proven communication, work ethic, and music sharing, things progressed to a time that it became obvious to both of them that Sean was a natural fit for the team. He was added to the team in September 2017.

Sean has reviewed Beth Hart, Marina V, Dia De Los ALT festival (featuring Bleachers, Bishop Briggs, New Politics, Sir Sly, Tangerine, Rival Coast), Bonobo, Mutemath, Portugal The Man, Miss Krystle (EP), Lights, Poppy, Vasudeva, HOLY FAWN, & Covet. He moved out of Arizona and occasionally edits reviews for us. We hope to find more chances to work together down the road.

Read Sean's Team Write-Ups

Diana Stevens and Katherine Amy Vega
Diana & Katherine

Diana Stevens

Music Journalist

September 2017 was a big month for new recruits for the team. Another best friend and educator, Diana, joined the team as a journalist that month. Her character had also been proven over the years, starting from when they met at a cultural event in 2009. Knowing her background as an educator, creative accolades, and quality of work, she was another natural choice.

Diana has reviewed Lacuna Coil, Epica, Ben Folds, Arch Enemy, Trivium, Lindsey Stirling, Charly Bliss, & Death Cab for Cutie. Diana is currently on hiatus due to limited time.

Read Diana's Team Write-Ups

Clarice Wziatek and Katherine Amy Vega
Clarice & Katherine

Clarice Wziatek

Music Journalist

Clarice is another long-time vetted friend of Katherine's. She and Katherine met many years ago in line for a Dresden Dolls concert. Katherine didn't know Clarice had professional journalism experience until Clarice came to her after seeing posts about the team for Burning Hot Events! She also happened to be an old friend of Sean's! Clarice has reviewed Stabbing Westward with Swindy, Amnestic, There is No Us, & Paranova; Lita Ford, & Dorothy. Clarice took hiatus until at least January 2018 to focus on her wedding and more!

Read Clarice's Team Write-Ups

Katherine Amy Vega and Mark Greenawalt
Katherine & Mark

Mark Greenawalt

Senior Concert Photographer, Music Journalist, Portraiture

Mark applied to join the team in September 2017 as well! Mark is a very "gifted" multi-talented artist, and he comes with a high standard of work. In addition to suberb quality of photography, he is an excellent musician, fantasy illustrator, journalist, body painter, and has been involved in many film productions. He was a clear choice when he photographed Halestorm as his first gig for us.

Since then, he's also photographed Lita Ford, Judas Priest, Dorothy, Scorpions, Queensryche, Def Leppard, Journey, Minus the Bear, Styx, Hollywood Vampires, & Lindsey Stirling.

View Mark's Team Photograhy

He's done double-duty as both photographer and journalist for Miss Krystle, Shania Twain, Paul McCartney, CMA Songwriters Series, & Ringo Starr; and he reviewed Tech N9ne & the Game of Thromes live concert.

Read Mark's Team Write-Ups

Russ Broty and Katherine Amy Vega
Russ & Katherine

Russ Broty

Concert Photographer

Russ and Katherine met through the Phoenix local music and arts scenes, which blend together so much, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly where! He applied to join the team in September 2017 when Katherine made a job posting for additional photographers in order to increase coverage for Burning Hot Events. For Burning Hot Events, he has photographed Racquet Club, The Early November, The Movielife, Swindy, Amnestic, There Is No Us, Paranova, Stabbing Westward, Ikonoklast, 80*D, Goth Brooks, Camel Enamel, and Family Secret. Russ has moved to a different area of Arizona, and has retired from photography.

View Russ' Team Photography

Mckayla Hull, Katherine Amy Vega, and Dale Hurt
Mckayla Hull, Katherine Amy Vega, & Dale Hurt

Dale Hurt

Concert Photographer

In response to a job posting in September 2017, Dale applied to work as a concert photographer for Burning Hot Events. His enthusiasm for concert photography and new experiences was clear during his interview. Dale has experience photographing high-speed subjects such as race cars and speedboats, so it is exciting to see what kind of action shots he will get with his quick-draw! Dale has photographed MRCH, Trivium, Arch Enemy, While She Sleeps, & Fit for an Autopsy for Burning Hot Events. Dale is currently on hiatus due to limited time.

View Dale's Team Photography


2018

Rodrigo Izquierdo, Katherine Amy Vega, and Sean Tingle
Rodrigo, Katherine, & Sean

Rodrigo Izquierdo

Concert Photographer

The last September '17 photographer recruit was Rodrigo, and he's quite a character. His personability and eagerness shine, and he has been generous enough to share his equipment with team members when needed. We had an on-running joke that he is cursed, because it took some time for us to get any of his assignments approved.

His first assignment that finally came through was for Black Label Society, Corrosion Of Conformity, & EyeHateGod; and he did not disappoint! He has since photographed The Melvins, HOLY FAWN, Vasuveda, Covet, Valley Queen, Justin Townes Earle, Social Distortion, Garbage, Underoath, Dance Gavin Dance, Puddles Pity Party, Queensryche, Postmodern Jukebox, Slayer, Lamb of God, Cannibal Corpse, Amon Amarth, Chase Atlantic, Lauren Sanderson, Black Pistol Fire, Thunderpussy, The Growlers, Rinse & Repeat, Third Eye Blind, Jimmy Eat World, Ra Ra Riot, Angels & Airwaves, The New Regime, Charming Liars, Spark Jack Daddy, Toto, Flogging Molly, the Game of Thrones live concert, Tool, Heather Woods Broderick & The Building, Plain White T's, The Mowgli's, & New Politics, ZeeCeeKelly, Black Mountain Moonshine, Madd Dog Tannen, & Authority Zero, The Venomous Pinks, Toxic Energy, Death By Stereo, & Tsunami Bomb, Horropops, Twin Ponies, Kills Birds, & Hot Snakes.

View Rodrigo's Team Photography

Due to a shortage of available journalists in 2019, Rodrigo expanded his role to inclulde journalism for the team. He has reviewed Bad Religion with Emily Davis and The Murder Police and Dave Hause & The Mermaid, & EyeHateGod; The Faim with Andy Black & KULICK; Chase Atlantic & Laren Sanderson; The Growlers with Rinse & Repeat; Angels & Airwaves, The New Regime, Charming Liars, Social Distortion & Flogging Molly, Bad Religion with Emily Davis and The Murder Police and Dave Hause & The Mermaid.

Read Rodrigo's Team Write-Ups
Andrea Stoica and Katherine Amy Vega
Andrea & Katherine

Andrea Stoica

Concert Photographer

Andrea's first assignment was Nightwish, and then she photographed Tech N9ne for us. She also assisted and shot behind-the-scenes footage for Katherine's EPK photoshoot with Beach Viper! She and Katherine met when they were both photographing Vance Joy, Elle King, and Jaime Lawson in March 2016... One month before this Burning Hot Events was launched! In addition to the first two previously mentioned, for BHE she's photographed The Faim, Rinse & Repeat with The Growlers, AWOLNATION, and Snoop Dogg.

View Andrea's Team Photography

Desirée Izquierdo

Guest Music Journalist

Rodrigo and Katherine were in talks of her joining the team since he was first, and she did an excellent job with her first review for us mid-2018. Ultimately, she found that she was too busy to fully be a team member, but she often writes for us as a guest journalist! She has reviewed The Melvins with All Souls, Social Distortion with Valley Queen & James Townes Earle; Puddles Pity Party, & Spark Jack Daddy.

Read Desirée's Team Write-Ups

Rodrigo and Desiree Izquierdo and Brandon Biallas
Rodrigo, Desiree, & Brandon

Brandon Biallas

Music Journalist

Brandon was referred by a previous journalist of ours, Nick. He has experience writing for Trial & Error Collective in Tucson, Arizona. Brandon has what we would like to see in our journalists, and part of that is attributed to the fact that he is a musician and a music teacher. Brandon told Katherine he took some creative writing classes in college, and beyond that, he just really loves writing his thoughts down about things like music and art because he feels like it's the best way to express himself.

Brandon's first assignment was System of a Down, followed by Underoath & Dance Gavin Dance, Minus the Bear with Tera Melos, Slayer with Lamb Of God, Amon Amarth, & Cannibal Corpse; Thunderpussy with Black Pistol Fire, Third Eye Blind & Jimmy Eat World with Ra Ra Riot, and Tool.

Read Brandon's Team Write-Ups

Katherine Amy Vega and Brianne Dunn
Katherine & Brianne

Brianne Dunn

Content Editor, Quality Assurance

Brianne is the first Content Editor for Burning Hot Events, and her role is to prepare news/press releases to be posted on the website. She has a background in music marketing, promotions, she's a musician, and she's actively working in Los Angeles as an audio technician. She has been an invaluable resource to the team, putting together countless articles for us! She adds the copy and images to the posts, formats them, lays them out, and adds basic search engine optimization.

View Brianne's Team News Posts

She also wrote an album review for Bradley Palermo, and it was so good, Katherine hopes she will offer some of her own original writing in the future when she's not too busy rocking audio tech! Read It Here

Will Bloodworth and Katherine Amy Vega
Will & Katherine

Will Bloodworth

Assistant Editor, Quality Assurance

Will majored in Creative Writing years ago, and he has been a great resource to delegate editing to when Katherine is too busy to do it alone! This was especially the case when Emily and Sean, who both helped edit, were moving away from Arizona! His mastery of the English language is quite apparent, editing comes very naturally to him, and it's very easy to trust his suggestions.


2019



Kimberly Capria

Music Journalist

Both a journalism student and a band member, Kimberly was a strong addition to the team! Unfortunately, we didn't get to benefit from her talents too much, because she's super busy hussling as a musician! She reviewed just 1 show for us: LP at The Van Buren

Ryan Novak and Rodrigo Izquierdo
Ryan & Rodrigo

Ryan Novak

Music Journalist

Ryan is an English & high schoolteacher, and he worked at a record store for 13 years. He joined the team in late September of 2019. It's been his dream to write concert and album reviews... What a perfect fit! Additionally, he was referred by Sean Tingle, one of Burning Hot Events' senior music journalists (above). Sean hasn't been active with the team for a while now because he moved away from Arizona, so it's really cool that he basically found someone to fill the void left by him! Since he was referred by Sean, we had good reason to trust in the referral. Ryan's first review was Toto, followed by Bad Religion with Emily Davis and The Murder Police and Dave Hause & The Mermaid, Snoop Dogg, and Horrorpops. He has reviewed albums for Arizonan Summer & Juliana Hatfield, and wrote a 2019 Top Ten Albums article.

Read Ryan's Team Write-Ups

Nate Wert and Mark Greenawalt
Nate & Mark

Nate Wert

Music Journalist

Nate was brought on not long after Ryan, in October 2019. He was referred to me by our team member Rodrigo at a time sorely needed more volunteers to cover the shows on our agenda. His first review was a Jimmy Eat World show, and it was a trial run not to be published... but the review and working with Nate ended up being so good, that Katherine decided to make him official and publish the review! His first review as an official team member was AWOLNATION, followed by Heather Woods Broderick & The Building, Lindsey Stirling, Plain White T's, The Mowgli's, & New Politics, ZeeCeeKelly, Black Mountain Moonshine, Madd Dog Tannen, & Authority Zero, The Venomous Pinks, Toxic Energy, Death By Stereo, & Tsunami Bomb, Piebald & Dashboard Confessional, Twin Ponies, Kills Birds, & Hot Snakes. He has reviewed albums by Jimmy Eat World and STARSET, and written a news article about The Format.

Read Nate's Team Write-Ups


January - February 2020

Kimberly Carrillo and Katherine Amy Vega
Kimberly & Katherine

Kimberly Carrillo

Concert Photographer

Kimberly previously shot for The Entertainer and College Times. She and Katherine met each other when they were both shooting the P!nk concert at Talking Stick Resort Arena (Kat's first arena shoot!) They connected on social media, and were reunited when shooting Taylor Swift. (Also, at The Entertainer! Kimberly worked alongside our team's former music journalist Mckayla Hull!) In January of 2020, newly self-employed Kimberly contacted Katherine to request to join our team. Desiring more female photographers on the team (with just two at the time), and given Kimberly's excellent quality of work and arena & stadium concert shooting experience, Katherine was excited to immediately accept Kimberly onto the team! Her first assignment was Thrice with mewithoutYou, Drug Church, and Holy Fawn.

View Kimberly's Team Photography


Andrew Marshall

Andrew Marshall

Concert Photographer

Andrew met Rodrigo when they were both photographing the Tool concert. Afterward, he contacted Katherine via the contact form on the Burning Hot Events website. He's a transplant from Los Angeles to Phoenix, and he already had an impressive portfolio, and had freelanced for Phoenix New Times. For us, he has photographed Nothing Left, Stick to Your Guns, Motionless in White, & Beartooth, Piebald & Dashboard Confessional.

View Andrew's Team Photography


March 2020-2022

Pandemic.

To be continued...


2022-Present

This page is outdated & pending updates.

To be added!


Check out the Team Kataklizmic page for team member bios!

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