User:Grass Sword/sandbox

Alex Mace is a 22-year-old freelance arts journalist and social media influencer from Ipswich, Suffolk.

Early Life
"Writing, for me at least, tends to be a barrier from restraints of discourse and manner"

- Alex Mace

Alex Mace grew up in Ipswich (also home town of the celebrated English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran), and spent his secondary school years at Kesgrave High School. It was here that his love of the arts began to flourish. A self-confessed typical nerd, music fanatic, and (intellectual) predator, Mace attributes his penchant for writing about the arts to his education. He acknowledges the significance of the creative writing assignments that were given to him as crucial in his personal, and intellectual development.

Mace completed his A-Level studies in 2018, leaving with an A in English Language. This served as a springboard into him obtaining his First Class Bachelors degree in journalism from Nottingham Trent University in 2021.

Career
Mace began his journalistic career with the publication of a number of articles on his personal WordPress website. One of his earliest, and still most critically-acclaimed works to date was the review of American metal band Metallica's 2016 song, Spit Out the Bone. In his article "Spit out a Masterpiece", Mace gave an overwhelmingly positive appraisal of the band's "relentless bombardment of melody", likening its impact to earlier Metallica songs like Master of Puppets and One.

This review further served to tickle Mace's proverbial metal taint, and he proceeded to write a number of more reviews for bands including Gojira, Slipknot, and perhaps most noteworthily of all, American three-piece metal outfit Okilly Dokilly. It was from this point that Mace's career exploded, leading to a number of respected articles for Platform Magazine, Heavy Music Headquarters, and Distorted Sound Magazine.

One of the pinnacles of Mace's career was his featuring in the long-running local newspaper The Nottingham Post, with him documenting the much-anticipated designs for a playground in Sherwood, Nottingham. This enthralling article delicately danced around the contentions of such a design, offering an unbiased perspective on such a divisive local controversy. "Driven by the fulfilment of client goals through lateral thinking and creative strategies to achieve exciting results."

- Alex Mace

In later years, Mace has turned his attention to the dog-eat-dog world of PR and Marketing. In October 2021, he secured employment at the highly sought-after marketing firm Quite Great PR, and quickly rose through the ranks from Assistant PR Executive to PR Executive. In August 2022, Mace moved on to the Ipswich-based PR agency PLMR Genesis, a place where he remains employed to this day.

Other Interests
As a self-confessed lover of the arts, Mace has not only restricted himself to the criticism of the arts. Indeed, in 2011, he composed and performed the hit-single Believable with the then underground band P.S. Skittles. He has also turned his talents to Trap music, with the release of the Kesgrave Rap, and emotionally-charged song where Mace stayed true to his roots, keeping it real.

Briefly in 2012, Mace dabbled in filmography, landing the leading role in horror film Read the Signs. Delivering a haunting performance, Mace earned himself much respect amongst critics.