2010 in Review: Memorable Interviews
This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.
Since journalism became my day job, I did my fair share of interviews. While this is my favorite part of the job, transcribing, which is how you get those words into text, is probably my least favorite part of the job. It's too time consuming and requires a lot of individual attention my short attention span can't handle.
One day, someone will invent that helpful software that transcribes word for word for me so I don't have to spend another minute in that grueling process, but in the meantime that's what interns are for. ;)
Here are some of my more memorable interviews from 2010.
Wakey!Wakey!
Ian always assigns me the indie pop bands for Red River Noise and this one was no exception. Michael Grubbs, the man behind Wakey!Wakey!, won me over with not only a great album filled with adorable crush-inducing lyrics, but also with our interview. He was very approachable and easy to talk to.
The album he had just released "Almost Everything I Wish I'd Said The Last Time I Saw You" is filled with so many great lyrics that make the girls swoon. Taylor Muse has some competition. My favorite? "Sometimes I wonder how you stay so sad when you're so beautiful." Aww. Doesn't that just make you think he belongs on a CW TV show? Oh wait, he was.
Zoe Cordes Selbin
I've known of Zoe for a very long time. A high school teenager deeply involved in the business aspect of the Austin music scene? It's only natural that every journalist and blogger in this town wants to write her story.
I was trying to find a band to cover for my next College Sound feature for Accent Newspaper and while I was hanging out before the music started at Fun Fun Fun Fest, I noticed Zoe running around with her festival credentials hanging around her neck and a walkie-talkie in one hand. Then it dawned on me. Why don't I feature her? I knew she went to ACC because I had seen her around campus. It was a perfect fit.
We did our interview on the outside patio of the Rio Grande Campus where we talked on and off the record for almost an hour about the Austin music scene and let me tell you something, this girl knows her stuff. I'm extremely jealous that this girl has it more together than I ever did at her age and she's gonna put us all to shame as she gets older.
Smile Smile
Man, when this band was on the list of bands to interview for Red River Noise, I jumped on it. I was pretty familiar with the background of Smile Smile and had so many questions about how this couple, who used to be engaged, still managed to write and perform music together. It wasn't even a "happy" break-up (do they even have those?).
So my first interview of SXSW was with Smile Smile and it really set the bar high for the rest of the week. Because I was so knowledgeable with the history (turns out I know the third party personally that came between the then-engaged couple), I felt like I was the counselor of this therapy session with the band. I was really surprised with how open they were about the whole situation. None of my questions were out of bounds and there wasn't as much awkwardness you would expect.
I really do think this was one of my best interviews of 2010.
Rocky Votolato
This was assigned to me by Spinner for the SXSW interviews. We conducted this interview on the phone while Votolato was on his way to a show. Since he and his wife were driving through empty fields in some podunk town, the signal kept cutting off. Luckily, we all had good senses of humor about it so the moment one of us would call each other back, we would just laugh and keep going.
What made this interview memorable though was that one time Votolato called me back, he asked me how old I was. If you've met me, you would understand why this question always comes up. I look and sound a lot younger than I really am.
When I told him my age, he of course laughed and said, "Wow, you sound a lot younger. Do you get that a lot?" Oh yeah.
Roky Erickson
I was intimidated to interview Roky for a SXSW interview for Spinner. It's Roky Erickson for crying out loud. It was another phone interview and joining us was Will Sheff from Okkervil who ended up serving as a catalyst which put us both at ease.
The guys from The Dig cracked me up throughout the entire interview. I think my favorite part has to be:
So for those who haven't heard of The Dig, what would you tell someone who's like...
Emile: Who hasn't heard of The Dig? Do those people exist?
David: Well by that, you mean everyone?
Emile: Yeah, every single person.
When I interviewed Ross Dubois, he had recently decided to become a solo artist so his story was pretty new. I didn't know what to expect. I had never met him before. I didn't know anything about him. There wasn't much to research, but this was easily one of the most informative interviews I've ever done in 2010.
Dubois had a lot of say about his musical background and his solo music without repeating himself or going on never-ending tangents. I felt like I was having a conversation with him instead of just going with a question and then an answer. The article came quickly together after that.
Here are some memorable interviews that were never published but happened during 2010. Don't worry, they'll see the light of day eventually and when they do, I'll explain why they are awesome in my eyes. Just by reading the names though, you'll probably guess why.
New Politics
Tyler Hilton
Prayer for Animals
Ghostland Observatory
Eisley
- Login to post comments
