Rock and Roll All Night

Name: Steve HartsoePosition: Senior editor, Office of News and CommunicationsYears at Duke: 8

What I do at Duke: I lead our media outreach, connecting faculty with reporters and write and edit news releases. I also cover political science, work on our Campaign Stop 2016 election resource website and put together The Week at Duke newsletter for employees.

If I had $5 million, I would: Give to various ministries, save for retirement, pay off bills, travel with my family and turn my attic into a recording studio. I’ve been a songwriter for many years and I’ve got a friend with a studio in his house, but I can’t always get there. Whenever the mood strikes, I’d have a quiet place dedicated to recording and working on songs. I play acoustic and electric guitar and sing, too, so I’ll switch between the two when I play. I put out a four-song EP a couple years ago and I’m working on a 10-song album right now, and playing local venues with a backing band that includes my 15-year-old son Eli on drums. (An EP is available at stevehartsoe.com)

Favorite memories from playing in a band: I put out a couple records in the ’80s and ’90s with my brother and friends. We grew up playing guitar and drums and always played Rolling Stones and Beatles songs in our garage. I connected with a guy I worked with in college and another friend to play bass. We wrote our own songs and recorded a couple vinyl albums in San Francisco. We played together from 1985 to 1992, but got burned out from touring the West Coast. We opened for people like Chris Isaak and made the radio charts in the U.S. and France. When we started out, we were called London Down because we played a lot of British Invasion songs, but we got a little cooler and changed our name to The Raging Marys later on.

My first ever job: When I was 14, I babysat my three younger cousins, which means I got paid to play WIFFLE ball all day, which was a great gig. I was the oldest cousin nearby in the Bay Area where we grew up and we always got along great, like brothers. 

My dream job: Professional songwriter. I’d rather not go on tour and leave home, but it’d be pretty cool to make money selling songs. It’s always been exciting to strum a guitar and a melody or lyric idea comes, then it builds from there. I usually draw inspiration from my family or relationship stories.

What I love about Duke: Everybody here is at the top of their game. There are no attitudes because we have a lot of very creative, team players, which makes it a fun place to be. 

Something most people don’t know about me: When I was 10, I pitched a perfect game against my best friend’s team in Little League. I didn’t even know what it was, but after the game people kept giving me snack bar tickets and quarters while they congratulated me. I remember striking out my best friend when I had three balls on him. I was so afraid to walk him. If I had known what a perfect game was, I would have been more nervous.

An interesting/memorable day at work for me: When my office won a CASE Gold Award in 2010 for The Week at Duke newsletter. We won in the “Web Based or Electronic HTML Internal Audience Periodical” category. That meant a lot because our peers chose us in a contest with other schools.