Dealing with THE ENEMY

Only Joking, the press used to be known as the enemy but for the unsigned acts they will pretty much be your best friend. However you need to go into interviews and press pieces with your eyes open. The amount of acts I have interviewed who mumble, giggle or sit in silence when you interview them is incredible. To be totally honest about 50-75% of the interviews I undertake I simply can’t do anything with. Again, to make it in this business you need to have a certain level of professionalism.

There are 2 core things that you need to keep in your mind every time you do an interview. Firstly and most importantly what do you want to get out of the interview? What is your aim? Secondly you need to think about why the press person is interviewing you and what do they want to get from you? The second part is usually pretty easy, they want readers to be interested in what you say and ultimately push their Magazine, Fanzine, etc. So they want interest and entertainment. The first part is core for you. What do you need to let them know? Are you playing a gig soon, hosting and event, releasing a CD – you simply must get this across and always have something to talk about.

To be totally honest you will always get a set of pretty similar questions but the true pro will do their home work. Read the publications previous interviews and prepare answers (loosely, don’t learn them parrot fashion). Have a few anecdotes to roll out, a few gig stories, a few interesting facts – sure you will end up rolling these out in most interviews but if you keep reinforcing your image people and potential fans will start to become familiar with you.



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Band Practice Tip

Get in Formation

We've all heard the old adage that you perform how you practice and that is certainly true. One thing some bands do to improve their rehearsals and shows is literally practice like you are playing a show. This means setting up the band room how you would be set up on stage. When my band used this technique I found us to be much more efficient on stage at shows because I was used to my surroundings and very comfortable with where everyone was. If you spend two months of rehearsal looking face to face at the drummer for cues to the changes and then you get on stage and you're not facing him anymore, there is a good chance you're going to feel a little disconcerted and possible miss some things. Knowing where everyone is on stage will make you that much more relaxed during shows which can be a big help.