The first musician Jill Hughes Kirtland ever interviewed was Edgar Meyer, the GRAMMY award winning classical upright bass player, when she was a freshman at Ithaca College. She knew then she wanted to be a music journalist.  In 2007, she started an online magazine for progressive rock & metal (USA Progressive Music), which allowed her to interview many of her favorite musicians and learn the art of concert photography.   Around that time, she also became the manager for New Jersey-based progressive metal band Suspyre, and then she donned the hat of tour manager for Shadow Gallery, the progressive metal band based in Pennsylvania, all of this allowing her to immerse herself behind the scenes into the metal music industry. After selling USA Progressive Music in 2010, she traveled all over the world conducting interviews with female metalheads—musicians, fans, promoters, and other behind-the-scenes women—all the while fending for her life in the photo pits at metal concerts.