Elbows Music Blog Community

I don't know how it works with hip hop artists, instead of nice shy indie boys, but I tend to just read a pile of interviews and a couple of histories of the band before I interview anyone.  Then I sketch out a few conversations I'd like to have with them, but the beauty of a face-to-face interview is more the tangents, if you ask me.  So I try and train myself to just let them talk when they start rambling about something, because I think that makes the interview more interesting for them, as well as making it more likely to be a bit unique for my readers (instead of the usual 'what were your main influences' stuff).  Knowing your shit about old interviews and the band's history makes it much more likely you'll be able to nudge them onto a topic they have something to rattle on about for a bit, as well as being a massive relief they aren't talking to all the other billion interviewers who do no research at all.