10 Things I’ve learned from interviewing musicians.
I’ve conducted 10 interviews so far, but have already picked up on a few insights!
It was July 6, 2026, and I was doing my best to hide my nervousness as the seconds ticked down to 4 pm local time. In just a few moments, I’d be speaking to a musician about his music and, well, his life's work and passions. I had no clue what to expect.
What if my questions are stupid? What if he’s a snob? What if he ends the Zoom call early in disgust for some reason?
It didn’t matter who I was about to interview; I would have had the same fears pulsating through my mind no matter who was on the other end. Though I was calm and collected on the outside.
I don’t think I could have picked a nicer first interview. Matthew S. and I slowly gained confidence as I chugged along, moving from question to question, sometimes feeling on the ball as I instantly formed a follow-up in the moment. Our Zoom call lasted for just under 40 minutes, and I ended it with a gigantic sigh of relief, the huge pulsating burden clearly washed away.
It was far from perfect, but I think even in that first interview, I did a few things right that I continue to do to this day. I won’t pretend to be an expert, not even close. But now, 10 interviews in, I’d like to think I’ve learned a few things. Here are 10 that stand out.
- Always have a backup!
This is, perhaps, my proudest detail in my personal performance, and I did it from my very first interview that super hot afternoon on July 6th. I asked my lovely GF if I could borrow her computer and recorded the interview on that, as well as on my own. I didn’t need it that day, or for my next two interviews. But eventually, having a secondary recording on another device helped a great deal. At one point, her laptop captured a specific moment that glitched out on my laptop. At another point, I carried on recording after I had accidentally hit stop on my own laptop, a potentially disastrous situation saved by the backup!
2. Prepare but don’t over-prepare
When I got my first assignment, I studied the artist like I was cramming for a Chemistry exam. It got to the point where any extra preparation I did was unlikely to make a noticeable difference in my performance during the interview. That’s not to say to do the opposite and skip or overlook preparation. But, at this point, as I prepare for interview 11, I’ve fallen into a nice routine of putting on the upcoming record while reading the artist's website and poking around, checking out their Wikipedia and Spotify bio, and diving into, or, in the case of Laura or The Church, reacquainting myself with past works. The questions, at least for me, naturally start to come in this process.
But I don’t stress myself with how many questions like I did while preparing for the first three or four. Sure, I’d like to have, bare minimum, 10, if not a dozen, but any more than 15 starts to feel like overkill. Furthermore, I’m not always married to every single question, so to speak. I might bold about 5, or half a dozen, must-asks, but I give myself some leeway and plenty of room for follow-ups and a more free-flowing conversation; in a perfect world, that's ideal. I don’t typically order my questions in a specific way and feel comfortable bouncing around. If I don’t get to a question or two, it’s not a huge deal. Plus, if there was a significant oversight, sometimes PR is open to passing along one or two questions, but that's something to get a feel for on a case-by-case basis.
3. Try to avoid asking questions regarding well-known information, but don’t overdo it when trying to avoid doing that.
Sounds like a contradiction. But when I was interviewing Steve, from The Church, I personally didn’t want to go down that “Under the Milky Way” trodden path (granted, it’s a brilliant song; I just watched Donnie Darko for Halloween a few days ago). For almost every artist, there were maybe a question or two that I figured had been asked ad nauseam, but I didn’t want to over-obsess over the potential of asking a question that’s already been covered and, in some cases, I’ve learned to look at questions in other interviews to look for potentials to dive into something even deeper or approach it from a different angle.
4. Don’t be afraid of silence
I’ve been super lucky with my first ten interviews; everyone has been super talkative. I remember worrying, before my first interview, about possible awkward silence, but in my most recent interview, I don’t recall even giving that a second thought. I think it helps a great deal that musicians are going to be, naturally, very eloquent about what they’ve created.
5. Listen, don’t think!
This is one thing I didn’t do in the first few interviews that well but feel like I’m getting better. I’d ask a question, get it out, and breathe a sigh of relief as I heard the artist starting to respond before starting to think of my next question. The issue is, I wasn’t in the moment. I think, especially because of point 4, and aided by my next point, I’ve learned to relax, rather than always looking ahead in the interview too much, at the detriment of what is being said in the here and now.
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6. Water is the essence of life!
Taking a sip of water gives me that extra second or so to regain composure if I ever feel like I’m slipping up or getting lost in my train of thought or what I’m trying to convey. I always have a gigantic glass of water by my side, and for whatever reason, it’s so soothing and comforting.
7. Be thankful for all the people behind the scenes!
First and foremost, the most important thing is the artist talking about a labor of love, something they’ve enjoyed creating and want to share with the world. I’m not a musician, but my goal in the world of music is to treat it as my personal gospel, so to speak, and help spread the word, to tell the world about all the amazing artists and musicians and why it’s so worthwhile to tune in and listen.
But my point is, the interview, in my eyes, is about the person on the other end of my Zoom call, or in the case of my 3rd interview, phone. But beyond that, there is the PR that helps to set that meeting up and the editor who cleans up all the excess in the finished article I hand in. I might not be married to a specific question on my questions list, but I tend to have a hard time letting go of anything in the final draft I send the editor. Just the same, I’m open to all changes they make.
As a side note, I learned to be clearer with PR as I went along. I’m very open to the day of the week and time of day. At one point I interviewed an artist at midnight my time (Central European Time), so in that respect, I’m happy to work around the artist’s schedule. However, I strongly prefer Zoom; it doesn’t have to be video, but in my exchange I might say something like, “Hi, I’m able to work around the artist’s schedule; do let me know a time and I’ll send a Zoom link,” or something to that effect. Since I’m in Central Europe, I should be flexible time-wise, but I think Zoom makes it easiest to connect with musicians in Europe, the US, Australia, and beyond.
Finally, I truly am thankful to PR and editors and always find ways to thank them for their efforts, as well as trying to remember to send the finished interview to the PR agent once it's published.
8. But really, listen!
By and large, I think I’ve done a fantastic job of NOT interrupting when artists speak. In fact, I’ve now reached the point where I’d rather have a second or two of silence to make sure they’ve said all they want, rather than risk speaking too soon myself. Years ago, as a teacher, we were trained about TTT and STT, or teacher talk time and student talk time. I don’t recall the exact ratio, but I think the goal was to drop TTT to below 10%, and I approach an interview the same way. Readers are not going to an article for me, nor should they be; 90% of what is written should be from the artist. My questions are the 10% that serve as the vehicle to get that 90% out there.
9. Those damn filler words!
This is something I’ve been working on for years, but it has become more pronounced since July. They aren’t, for lack of a better word, verbal poison, per se, but I believe avoiding them helps with confidence levels. At least for me, while helping you to get your points across better. When getting rid of filler words in transcription, I learned this in my Sociology classes nearly two decades ago: it's important to walk that fine line of preserving the message and helping it to flow better. In fact, one of my teachers was a huge fan of verbatim transcription, recording everything exactly as spoken; nothing is cleaned up or removed, all false starts, unfinished sentences, repetitions, and filler words.
10. Less is more!
With questions, I’ve learned I don’t always need some elaborate backstory as to why I’m asking the question. My key, current fault is feeling like every question needs way too much context! Keep it simple, stupid (to myself)!
I want to reiterate what I said in my introduction: in no way am I making myself out to be any kind of expert or even someone with so much experience. This is merely what I’ve learned and come to realize after giving my first ten interviews. If this can help someone in the future, I’ll be more than thrilled. I reached my first goal: 10 interviews, and my next is to hit 25 by May, at which point I’ll revisit this and either have a laugh at how naive I was back in November, or pat myself on the back for how much foresight I actually had, likely the former!
These are the interviews I’ve done so far, from these two sites:
the tonearm — 5 of my interviews are here; a 6th will be published on November 12 and 7th in early December
Glide Magazine — 3 of my interviews are here, with (fingers crossed), a 4th hopefully coming very soon (which would be interview 11).
3rd and 4th publication: May 2027 goals!
