Rolling Music Writers' Thread

I used to take "That's a great question" at face value and feel really flattered until I realised it was a hedging tactic and often meant nothing of the sort.

I was, however, chuffed beyond measure when Lemmy said, "I enjoyed that. Good questions. Not like most of these idiots." Thing is, they were the kind of fairly basic questions that most people would ask Lemmy so maybe it was the Jack Daniel's talking.

has anyone ever had a musician record a song dissing them after giving a negative review?

Lemmy's a straight shooter. I think you can take him at face value.

Lex: Isn't it the case that it depends quite a lot on the other person. Like you, I see a good interview as being more like a conversation. If you get stuck with some passive aggressive/hates doing interviews idiot, no ammount of 'skill' at your job is going to rescue the piece.

That said there are some notable exceptions where this becomes part of the game. Lou Reed. J Mascis. Kevin Shields etc.

interviewed Mascis twice - the first time was a nightmare, for-reals five minute gaps of silence between question and monosyllabic answer. interviewed him again a few years later, with really specific questions, for a MOJO piece on Dinosaur, and he was great, talked at length about stuff, was endearingly un-self-conscious (and certainly didn't strive to make himself look like a nice guy re: how he treated Lous bitd). i now wonder if, a la Andrew WK, it was actually an impostor J.

people, especially creative types like musicians, are ALWAYS the same in every single situation. even if they've been drinking, if they're high, if they're jet lagged, if they're having a bad day or a shitty soundcheck has just blasted out their hearing or if their girlfriend has just dumped them. every experience of that same musician will always be the same. always

not being challops, but if interviewee is the same every time i'd suggest that's the robot imposter not the dude who's grumpy and monosyllabic one time and chatty and friendly another time

sorry i hould have typed LOL at the end of my sentence to signify i wasn't being entirely serious i guess

no i know yr joking

but maybe there should be a special rolling musicians hating on being interviewed/critiqued thread

so we can bitch and be all 'omg i just stepped off a plane in vancouver jet lagged out of my mind and couldn't find any weed and some interviewer dude asking me really obvious questions straight out of the press kit and i can't keep my eyes open yet he gives me beef coz i'm monosyllabic' as a companion thread to this one

i haven't done an interview in a couple of years and always prefer email over f2f but sheesh this thread. brings back bad memories ya know

XP: There are ways and means of getting shit out of monosyllabic people in most situations but not all.

I had the lack of humility to presume that I'd be the one to break Lou Reed. That I was so well researched he'd just take to me. He'd break down in tears and end up sobbing on my shoulder and tell me everything. I had the fucking chops to get anyone talking. Fucking bawling. Spilling the fucking beans.

There, there Lou. You can tell me.

On listening back to the tape it wasn't as transcendentally unpleasant as it seemed during the actual experience - when I wanted a black hole to suck me out of existence to safety beyond the event horizon - and we even had a pretty funny exchange about tinitus and listening to music in the bath but it was still useless and the piece got spiked.

That was my only one where I felt like I'd failed to get 'the piece' or 'the story' however.

There are ways and means of making sure that even with people that act like they hate you, you can come away with enough to cover the basis of a feature/news story.

But the people we're talking about on this thread have longstanding reputations for being difficult. Interviewees who are monosyllabic or outright hostile year after year, with interviewer after interviewer, can't really pull the stupid-questions/jetlag excuse.

Email interviews are usually horrible - dry and stilted and too easy to evade or fudge questions. What's so hard about a face-to-face conversation?

i like it when you click with someone and have a legitimately pleasant conversation. it's more enjoyable and you get better quotes. but i also just try to keep in mind that it doesn't matter whether or not they like me or think i'm smart or clever or any of that shit -- as long as i can get some reasonably interesting things from them on the record, that's all i need. in most cases i'll never talk to them again, and if i do they almost certainly won't remember me. we're both just doing our jobs.

That's very admirable. But if I found out that, say, David Bowie, liked me, I'd be made up, despite it being a silly thing to worry about.

Part and parcel of me being a music fan. Although this would only really count with about six or seven people.

i'd definitely love to hear about what it's like from the other perspective, not least because it'd probably help me be better at doing the interviewing...

i'm generally pretty respectful and well-researched, even though i know i might be able to get better results froma different approach. winning their trust is often my aim, though, and i never want it to be a destructive experience. "difficult" subjects often mellow if you show 'em you know nearly as much about their group as they do, and you're genuinely curious about the rest.

xp yeah lou seems like the exception to pretty much every rule, john!

But if I found out that, say, David Bowie, liked me, I'd be made up, despite it being a silly thing to worry about.

i fall into this trap far too often, i fear.

XP: to Mothra. What I mean is: you're creating a false binary about professionalism and enjoyment. They're not mutually exclusive.

I'm having flashbacks to my horrendous interview with Eric B. and Rakim years ago where they wouldn't respond at all with full sentences, and Rakim just kept saying in a montone voice "I want to encourage our fans not to do drugs," while he looked glassy-eyed and on something himself.

yeah point taken dorian but for those people why bother doing interviews at all? it's not like lou reed needs to do interviews at this point why go through the motions?

obv i can't speak for all interviewees but i'm not a verbal person. if i had good conversational skills i probably wouldn't make music at all but that's another story. i often feel very put on the spot if i'm f2f. if i'd had media training maybe i'd know how to field questions and have prepared answers for those dog-and-pony-show interviews but i put that shit in the press release coz i don't wanna talk about it any more

what's a worse interview for you guys? monosyllabic coz someone hasn't prepared & doesn't wanna be there or dog-and-pony media training standard answers?

xp to Doran - The problem with coming away from an interview with the idea that the artist personally likes you is that you're set up for the disappointment of meeting them again somewhere down the line and realising they have no idea who you are and having to remind them that you've met and then they go, "oh yeah" and smile weakly and then you wish you'd never said anything. Goddam these celebrities. You open yourself up and then they break your heart.

For this reason I've always liked the prostitute comparison - you meet in a hotel room for an hour and pretend you know each other better than you do. Although obviously with a prostitute nobody's expected to transcribe the tape afterwards.

xp to curmudgeon - Rappers are the best for this kind of stuff. Prince Paul once fell asleep on me during a Gravediggaz interview (but was lovely on the phone years later so maybe it was just lethal jetlag) and Jay-Z conducted a whole interview (fluent, friendly) while watching TV over my shoulder.

xp to Karen - That's Hobson's Choice. I guess I'd still rather someone showed the courtesy of coming up with some kind of answer, however generic, rather than making the interviewer feel like a prick. It's basic politeness. I think artists sometimes forget that the journalist could be doing other things with their time, and might have flown some distance themselves, and merits a little civility. But tbh, this is kind of the reason I was glad to leave the dance press - no more interviews with people who plainly didn't want to talk about their music.

xp to curmudgeon - Rappers are the best for this kind of stuff. Prince Paul once fell asleep on me during a Gravediggaz interview (but was lovely on the phone years later so maybe it was just lethal jetlag) and Jay-Z conducted a whole interview (fluent, friendly) while watching TV over my shoulder.

i had a memorable interview with can ox's vast aire where he kept up a fascinating spiel while flicking through a copy of the bible, a copy of the sunday mirror and a copy of Hustler's Hottest Teens (page open to a tres graphic blowjob scene), while keeping one eye trained on a TV news bulletin covering the opening salvo of the Iraq war

XP: I know what you're saying Dorian and it always feels like you're doing the wrong thing by either ignoring the person again or bounding up to them enthusiastically. I made the executive decision never to go backstage at a gig or a festival or to go to an awards ceremony or an aftershow party or to any kind of event where I know that these sorts hang out unless I was doing paid work and now the problem never raises it's ugly head.

I've got a signed copy of Raining Blood and my photo with Chuck D and that is enough for me. As much as I detest Almost Famous, the "they're not your friends" line should be tattooed on all aspirant music writers.

"Media training" is ok, because most of the time it's easy to get people out of that mode. Alright, they might not answer 'that question' but I feel you should be going in with multiple angles or possible objectives.

If someone is a passive aggressive, hates-the-press-but-doesn't-have-the-fucking-balls-to-tell-his (because it's always a bloke) record-label-that-they're-not-doing-any-more-interviews wanker, then there's little you can do.

I've tried the tactic of saying this straight out to people: "You haven't got the fucking nerve to tell your label's PR dept. that you're not doing press and now I've come here all the way from X to talk to you and you've just wasted everyone's time. You cunt."

And it has had a wide range of results. Some of them unpleasant. However it's always given me something to write about.

xp to Karen - I should say that, not being a musician, I have no idea how bad some interviewers can be. I'm sure some of them can drive you to distraction.

Doran, who have you actually said that to? I've often wanted to but never quite found the right moment.

it's usually the publicist who forces you to do interviews and they're almost always wimmins

Reign In Blood I mean.

Mainly metal bands. Killswitch Engage - they suddenly became very charming. Machinehead. One of them punched me. Then we got on really well. Mogwai. But I said it as a joke and they took it as a joke and we got on pretty well after that. Minus. One of them later attacked me with a pair of scissors. Something a bit more toned down to Editors. No discernible change whatsoever. (I was so desperate not to let this band make me turn in a boring feature I reinterviewed them twice and ended up saying off record: Look, you're putting me in a position where I will have to make you look like a fucking cunt and I really don't want to but you're refusing to answer any of my questions properly. Again with no change whatsoever. There's something almost psychopathic and sado masochistic in the way their front man deals with the press.)

The two guys from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. My first band interview as an adult. They made me feel like fucking shit. They were fucking horrible. And I came out of it thinking 'What have I done? I'm terrible at this.' But then I heard the interviewer after me punched one of them so I think they were having a not-getting-on-with-the-press day.

I said it to them and then walked out. It was like a year or two later than I realised that by saying it earlier in the interview I might shake the 'dynamic' of the meeting a bit in order to get some better results. I'm a slow thinker like that.

I should say that a lot of people I know are appalled by this story (including some who post here) and say that I must have got them on a bad day as they're generally really nice people.

I saw Reign In Blood on that Quietus flyer last Friday and had to be reminded who it was by heh

One of them later attacked me with a pair of scissors.

Holy shit.

I can't believe shit like that really happens in the context of a music interview.

I should say that a lot of people I know are appalled by this story (including some who post here) and say that I must have got them on a bad day as they're generally really nice people.

appalled on your behalf though john!

friend of mine and sometime ilx lurker has just reminded me of the following: http://thequietus.com/articles/00104-black-sky-thinking-kanye-west-sensitive-soul

XD

john can you please be installed as ilm's official uncle and tell more stories

I made the executive decision never to go backstage at a gig or a festival or to go to an awards ceremony or an aftershow party or to any kind of event where I know that these sorts hang out unless I was doing paid work ... I've got a signed copy of Raining Blood and my photo with Chuck D and that is enough for me.

I admit it; I've had my picture taken with three artists: Lemmy, Rob Halford and Ozzy. Oh, and a couple of the guys from Amon Amarth, but that was actually for a story in Metal Edge, not out of gushing fanboyism.

XP: Kshighway. I was on tour with a small band who have or had well documented drink and drug problems. I'm talking the story up a little. We ended up wrestling. Then fighting. He was holding a pair of scissors. I got cut. It was only a small cut but I bled quite a lot so it probably looked worse than it was.

Unperson: do I know you? I've got Kerry King, Frank Black, Chuck D, Julian Cope and Sonic Youth which is pretty good I reckon!

Oh man. Still!

First of all I have to sign forms saying I will mention various mobile phones in whatever I write about it.

delete kanye west

Unperson: do I know you? I've got Kerry King, Frank Black, Chuck D, Julian Cope and Sonic Youth which is pretty good I reckon!

We've never met so far as I know. My real name is Phil Freeman and I'm the former EIC of Metal Edge and I write and have written a whole bunch of other stuff for a whole bunch of other outlets. I blog here.

Ah, I was wondering who you were! There aren't too many metallers writing for WIRE. Pleased to virtually meet you.

Is there a reliable alternative to doing phone interviews on anything besides a landline? I'm currently paying appx $40 a month to keep a landline (which, to be fair, is actually really cheap compared to, say, five years ago) so I can continue to do phone interviews at my house.

so getting back to the nerdy tools talk, t-mobile has a wifi calling service now, which means if you have a wifi connection in your apartment (or anywhere else), you can make phone calls over it. quality is crystal clear, and a bonus is that it counts as a local call even if you are phoning mongolia to interview kongar-ool ondar.

verizon is signal king, it's not just marketing hype.

Lex: Isn't it the case that it depends quite a lot on the other person. Like you, I see a good interview as being more like a conversation. If you get stuck with some passive aggressive/hates doing interviews idiot, no ammount of 'skill' at your job is going to rescue the piece.

oh yeah, i'm fairly confident that most interviews i've done have been pretty good in the sense that, you know, they worked and i got my quotes and a decent angle and weren't horribly awkward experiences, it's just that odd sensation of having done these things for years without any formal training and with no idea of what my peers think of as the basics in interviewing.

what's a worse interview for you guys? monosyllabic coz someone hasn't prepared & doesn't wanna be there or dog-and-pony media training standard answers?

the first one by SO much. (though it's rarely the interviewee who need to "prepare"!) at the end of the day i don't care how unpleasant or fake or unhelpful or bitchy the musician is - just GIMME MY QUOTES and i can do the rest. anyone with a bit of imagination should be able to deal with the most media-trained, give-nothing away pop star tbh: i actually enjoy this ones for several reasons. a) no pressure on you whatsoever, b) a challenge to see what individuality you can prod out of them - and you ALWAYS CAN, c) thinking about it those super-positive i-am-blessed media-trained pop stars aren't actually boring at all, they're completely mental.

the absolute worst are the interviewees who are super-nice, super-friendly, charming and polite - and monosyllabic. if they're brats or cunts, that's the story even if they just grunt at you. if they smile and nod and then just say "yes!", AAARGH.

lex...have you ever done any guerilla type interviewing where they didn't know you were conducting one. 'hit and run', say the stupidest shit perhaps as an obsessive fanboy to get a quote ?

nope, though i have remembered and used quotes/info from conversations surrounding an interview

has anyone ever had a musician record a song dissing them after giving a negative review?

The John Leland/"Don't Believe the Hype" gold standard!

Sadly, not to my knowledge, though a Queens/Minneapolis rapper, Trama, had a line in one track, "stop askin' if I got beef with Pete Scholtes."

But then I heard the interviewer after me punched one of them

Speaking of guerilla criticism!

many many xposts, but ...

What I mean is: you're creating a false binary about professionalism and enjoyment. They're not mutually exclusive.

yeah no, i much prefer an enjoyable conversation. those are by far my favorite interviews. but i just mean that i try not to get hung up on that, or on having them "like" me, because like lex says ...

i don't care how unpleasant or fake or unhelpful or bitchy the musician is - just GIMME MY QUOTES and i can do the rest.

that's why second-favorite type of interview -- after the actually-enjoyable-conversation type -- is the quote-machine type, people who you barely have to nudge and they just start telling you all sorts of entertaining things. david byrne was one of those. robyn hitchcock. robbie fulks.

dâm-funk was just like that! and i was so torn because i had such limited time but he was so interesting :(

"x-post -- I am eternally glad for the typing class I took in high school."

Absolutely the most valuable class I had in high school. I got lucky because for most it was a Freshman class. I opted to take it my Sophomore year so I didn't know or care about the kids around me. While they chatted and passed notes and goofed off, I learned to type 75+ wpm. Has kept me out of food service and manual labor my entire life.

"There aren't too many metallers writing for WIRE."

Too true! Help a brother out. That would be my first choice of outlets to break into. :)

My business/typing teacher also advised me to meditate. I wish I'd taken more of his advice.

My typing teacher was a sports coach who was forced to also teach easy classes like Keyboarding and Personal Finance. He had married his high school sweetheart, divorced her, married an old woman, divorced her, and was going for round 3 with a former student he'd gotten pregnant. Total winner.

And there was a betting pool for whether the kid would be a boy or a girl that resulted in extra credit. I figured that was beyond ridiculous so I made him promise to give me an A if it was born with 666 on his forehead. It wasn't :(

robyn hitchcock

FANTASTIC interviewee. so very charming and friendly, and very funny too.