Personally Speaking: On Interviews
Interviewing tips, as requested
Pre-Ramble
Last week, a friend asked me for some tips and I wrote the following text during my lunch break in our Discord server. I’ve copy/pasted everything below. There’s more I could add, and I could probably edit some things, but I’m embracing the spontaneity, much like I do in any interview. I’ve done something like 130 interviews since 2020, mostly for Tone Glow, but also for other publications (The Wire, Bandcamp Daily, Stereogum, MUBI Notebook, etc.). The overwhelming majority of these interview features have been raw transcriptions of 60-120 minute conversations. I consider interviewing one of the few things I can do well, which probably explains why I’m even sharing this information. I’m definitely a better interviewer than writer (on the Pitchfork scale… maybe a 6.8 writer, 8.4 BNM interviewer). I don’t go too deep into my philosophy of interviewing here—that’s for another time—but I would like to say that most interviews I read nowadays are disappointing, and that everyone should read Studs Terkel.
Definitely treat everything I’ve written as suggestions. Find out what works for you. And I will say that I don’t necessarily follow all this advice all the time. In fact, the majority of my interviews have been done with close to zero prep, but that’s because I usually already know about an artist if I’m interested in interviewing them, and have consequently read/thought about them in the past. I also think having zero prep ensures the conversation stays low-key.
If you have any questions, comments, complaints, anything—feel free to DM me in Twitter or IG at misterminsoo. Email is also fine. I’m at toneglow@gmail.com.
Before the Interview
Frankly, I think the best way to “prepare” for an interview is to just live your life. You should be confident in knowing that in simply being who you are, you will be interesting. If you’re a music nerd, or just a curious person in general, it will come in handy. Think about the famous Marchese interview with Quincy Jones. The conversation is able to flow because he just knows about things (e.g. that “Paul Allen is the Microsoft guy,” that “the mob helped win Illinois for Kennedy in 1960,” about Jorge Ben and Gilberto Gil). When I think about my interview with Jim O’Rourke, the things I already knew helped the conversation flow, too (e.g. knowing George Lewis, listening to albums that weren’t just the Drag City ones, which people only love to ask about for some reason). And obviously if you don’t know things, be honest—it can even lead to them explaining whatever it is you don’t know.
I highly recommend looking into as many interviews that an artist has done prior to your own. This is obviously important for learning the basic facts about an artist and so you don’t repeat yourself. You will read many interviews where you find yourself asking, “Wait, I want to know more about that!” This often happens because an artist will go off on a tangent and then will want to steer back to the original question, or because the original interviewer does not press them further. Do not make that mistake—press them further in your own interview if you think it’s interesting. Write down these random asides and unexplored lines of thought.
I like to map out the presumed, overall arc of my interview in a Google Doc. I'll make bullet points that start from what I already know about the artist from when they were young, and then I’ll move on up to the present day. This often means just having a bullet point for each album and then having a list of specific things I wanna ask about each album/era/topic underneath. This process isn’t so different from writing an album review for me. If you’re doing the interview over Zoom, I think it can be helpful to have these notes up in a separate window on your monitor. If you’re doing the interview in person, print them out. No shame in bringing your notes to an interview. However, I would suggest that you avoid looking at these notes much at all; you want to stay focused on the conversation. If this interview is happening IRL and you do want to look at your notes, it’s okay to just say what’s happening (e.g. “Let me make sure I quote you correctly, I wrote it down.”)
If you’re interviewing an older artist, absolutely ask the press person (if there is one) if they or the label have access to old reviews and interviews from magazines. Reviews can be helpful because you can get a better understanding of how press thought about the band in decades past. There are various magazines with archives online if you search for them, too. There’s also information you can find from simply looking through liner notes for LPs (which you can look for on Discogs or eBay listings). Definitely just be a nerd and trace things in the credits—think about labels, studios, mixing engineers, additional musicians who’ve come in. Might be good to ask about those things. I’ve also just straight-up asked press and label people, or people who’ve previously interviewed the same artist, if there’s anything I should know going into the interview, though usually you can figure that out from reading past interviews.
If an artist has not had any interviews prior, that’s totally fine. Don’t be nervous, and understand that you have a completely blank slate to start with and can ask about literally anything. You are in the best possible position.
This is probably obvious but all the normal things that apply to any sort of “important meeting” apply here. Use a time zone converter for artists in different countries to make sure everything’s good, and make sure you’re not scheduling an interview that comes after daylight saving changes take place without recognizing how the time will change. The US and Europe have different weekends when they make these changes. Make sure your Zoom is updated, that you have batteries in your voice recorder (or charge your phone if you’re recording on your phone—they’re great for recording tbh!). Make sure you get enough sleep, drink water, be mindful of your stomach. I once ate incredibly spicy food the night before an interview that I had in the morning. I was fighting for my life.
During the Interview
The most important advice I can give about doing an interview is understanding that both you and the artist are entering into this conversation with an unspoken contract. This is a space for accelerated intimacy. Because of this, it is important that you don’t come off standoffish, that you don’t appear as if you’re just another journalist asking banal questions and trying to write a piece. Treat the artist as a person, because really, they’re not too different from you and me. If you don’t understand this then tbh I don’t know if I trust you with interviews lol.
I find it helpful to start all my interviews by asking just normal things. You know, like “How’s your day going?” If you know they’re on tour, just ask how a show went. And if you feel like you can actually ask a follow-up question to these things, go for it. (This is, yea, what any normal conversation with a person is like). I have found it beneficial to set a more casual tone with a lot of artists. Some are more strictly business and that’ll be evident, too, right from the beginning, which is helpful so you know how you should proceed.
I often start my interviews by asking am artist about their childhood. A lot of people do this. I think it’s great because it does three things. 1) It forces them to be in a state of mind where they’re being reflective, and specifically reflecting on things they rarely do in their everyday. 2) It allows for an important starting point so you can then have a chronological trajectory of their life, which I find can be helpful because it’s often easiest for people to think about their life when they just walk through these events from when they were young to where they are now. 3) When you eventually talk about things that are happening in the present day, you may find that stories they’ve shared about their childhood/teenage years/early adulthood have shed light on the sort of person they are today. It’s fun to even bring that up -- they don’t even recognize it sometimes.
I highly recommend allowing an artist to talk as much as they want about a specific topic. Give them space, let them share about whatever they want even if it’s not pertinent to the question you asked. Ask follow-ups, even. Not only will you find out more about the artist than you realize, you may then tap into a specific part of their music that no one else knows about because people don’t often ask about things outside typical talking points. These artists are more than just musicians! Learning about the other things they care/think about will help you appreciate them and their work more. And it will also be great for written-through features.
Speaking of written-through features (i.e. not Q&As), the most important advice a friend told me is to try to get as much background information about an artist as possible. You’re trying to get a narrative here, and the stuff that’s specific to the music won’t always be so helpful. Like, how much of that can you already do on your own, as if you were just writing an album review? Of course you can ask about individual songs and whatnot but it’s often the case that these songs are birthed from something larger. Try to get to those ideas, either directly or sideways. I’ll regularly be talking about something with an artist and I’ll be like, “Oh, that reminds me of something you sing about in X song, is that relevant?” If it is, great! If not, also great because they may share how it isn’t. Either way, you’re learning more about them, and the goal is further understanding. It’s first date vibes, kind of.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions you already know the answer to. Even if you’ve read tons of interviews where they’ve talked about a certain topic, it can be helpful to ask about it if 1) you feel like it can be a springboard for another question you’ll ask later, 2) it provides background info for the readers [in the case of this being a Q&A interview], and 3) they still might have ways to answer that will expand upon what’s previously been said. Ask open-ended questions when you can!
When you’re conducting interviews, there are actually a few things that you’re probably gonna be thinking about, though this is probably very subtle/passive. You’re 1) thinking of the question you’re going to ask next, 2) you’re thinking about a question that you may have as a bigger/more serious “target” question later on, and using the current questions as lead-ups to that, and 3) you’re thinking of things an artist is saying in the moment that you will want to touch on later. That’s a lot to be thinking about lol, but the key thing from my experience is to make it feel as casual as possible. It’s totally fine to be like, “You mentioned this earlier, can you expand on that?” even if it was from 20 minutes earlier. Frankly, most of my interviews feel no different from a regular convo with a friend and I think that’s because the convos aim to be pretty comprehensive (so there’s no real “target” beyond just talking about as much as possible).
On the topic of artists saying things you wanna touch on later (without ruining the flow of conversation), if you’re conducting an interview on Zoom or via phone call, it may be a good idea to just write down individual words to help jog your memory about topics you wanna bring up. I’ll do this sometimes, but only very rarely and only to make sure to bring something up later (note that my interviews, especially lately, have gone into the 2-hour zone). If the interview is in person I do not write down anything, but sometimes I’ll just be like “oh wow, [a word or phrase they just said that’ll help me remember to bring it up later simply by saying it loud]” lol. Saying something out loud makes it easy to remember it later.
As interviewers, we obviously love it when we hear something like, “wow, that’s a really good question.” The reverse is true too—definitely be open to telling artists “Wow, I love what you just said.” I do this literally all the time. I’m not being fake though obviously, but definitely get into the habit of expressing how much you appreciate the sort of insight they give, or reflecting on the stories they share (“That’s so funny!”). This seems obvious because it’s what we probably all want out of any friend we’re talking with. Imagine telling a cool story and your friend’s response is just an irrelevant question lmao.
It’s ok to repeat questions that you’ve already said but in a slightly different way if you feel like an artist does not provide an answer. For example, let’s say you ask something that requires them to recall a past event. They may not remember, but if you rephrase it, that simple act of rephrasing can trigger their memory. Obviously there’s a fine line between coming off nosey and being genuinely curious and working together to remember something. This is what I do with my students as a teacher, of rephrasing to help with recall.
You’ll need to have a good sense of whether or not the artist is willing to share about more personal things. And you can express that they don’t need to (“If you don’t feel comfortable sharing about this then that’s okay!”). Sometimes, though, it could just be them needing time to think and process, so don’t be afraid to give that time to artists. You can even say, if you notice they’ve paused for a bit, “Take your time if you need to think.” Totally cool.
I find it helpful to end each interview by asking the artist if there’s anything they wanted to talk about or mention that we didn’t get to. Most of the time the answer is no, but when they do have something to share, they’re doing so because they feel it is important. Offer them the space to talk. This is true throughout the interview. Sometimes an artist will say “Sorry, I’m rambling again, what was the question?” Yes, you can recite the question again (or continue down this tangent if you find it appropriate), but it’s good to assure them that it’s okay to talk about whatever! (“Don’t worry about it! I’m actually interested in hearing more!”)
If you have a very limited time to talk with an artist (let’s say, a press junket situation with 15 minutes in a hotel lobby), you’ll have to find a delicate way to barrel through questions without coming off insensitive. Still, they know the situation, so it’ll ultimately be fine. Your first question has definitely gotta stand out and show that you both know stuff and are interested. Definitely have your questions planned out but again, don’t be afraid to diverge if it feels right.
If you have an artist who talks at length and will not give you space to ask questions, you just have to get in there and interject. Doing so early on will set a precedent, but also be careful not to assume that you need to actually do this. You’ll have to figure out a good way to interject with each artist, but it may be good to start off by doing something simple. Like, in the middle of their answer, just riff on something they say that’s more substantial than “that makes sense!” or “that’s funny!” (such as, “wait, does that mean that you feel X about Y?” and see if they respond to that actual question). You’ll get a sense of whether or not they’ll give you space. But yeah, tbh with a lot of older artists especially, I just let them talk because they have really rich lives! Your interjections should guide the convo, not interrupt their thinking.
When I’m working with an interpreter, I’ll always let them know that they can ask questions, too if they come up with anything that makes sense based off the ones I’ve asked (and the answers they give). You can sort of tell a good interpreter right away (biggest and most obvious give away: they’ll be writing stuff down). Also, it might be good to ask people who’ve interviewed a lot of artists from X country to know if there’s anything you should know. For example, the late Kato David Hopkins (who translated and wrote a ton of Japanese books on Japanese music) informed me that Japanese artists typically don’t go into depth about the emotional backstories that informed art, and that more cold hard facts and background info is easier to get out of them. I’ve found that to be generally true for my experiences too, though there have been exceptions.
If you have an artist who does’t answer your questions much at all and gives one-word answers… idk it just becomes a trial-and-error situation of figuring out what they will talk about. Sometimes it’s a matter of matching their vibe.
After the Interview
Always say thanks to the artist when you’re done. If the interview was done via Zoom or phone call, feel free to follow up and say thanks again (you can decide when, but don’t take more than 24 hours imo). This includes the press person. I just tell them, “Just finished the interview. It went great!” and maybe I’ll also share a few things that we talked about. If you’re excited about the interview then the artist probably was too and then the press person will be hearing this back from multiple people! Which gets them excited, too!
If the interview ends before you can ask all the questions you want to, you can ask the artist, “Hey, can I email you some questions? There are a couple things I wanted to ask that we didn’t get to.” The worst they can say is no, which is fine! But if they do say yes (and for me they’ve often always said yes unless they’re like Huge artists), then make sure to send those within 24 hours to the artist/press person. You don’t want the artist to forget about the things you’ve talked about in the interview if they’re relevant to previous questions. And also, they’ll probably move on to other things and not be in an interviewing mode headspace within a couple days.
I think auto-transcription software is good if you’re doing written-through interview features. I think they’re absolutely garbage if you’re doing Q&As, because you’ll end up having to listen to everything anyway to make sure you get every single word down. Find out works for you. I simply listen on my media player with universal hotkeys set up to play/pause and rewind or fast-forward by 5 seconds, and then type everything in a Google Doc.
When editing your interview, it’s fine to mess around with some of the wording. This doesn’t mean you’re changing what the artist said, but there are things that make sense when said out loud but don’t make sense when written/read. This may sometimes be a matter of inconsistent tense usage. I also suggest transcribing sooner rather than later lol.
Do something nice after you interview... I often nap because they’re draining :+)
Again, all my tips should be seen as suggestions and not like, The Official Way To Do Things. Just be yourself and find out what works for you. If you found any of this helpful, consider donating! And I would love to know if you found any of this useful or bad or anything! Love talking shop about interviewing—again, DM me at misterminsoo on Twitter or IG, or email me at toneglow@gmail.com.