Interviewing a Person via E-mail

I've always had trouble with this ever since I interviewed Maxine and Roxy Petrucci. My questions sound childish. Some of you may remember that thread I created to show you my "interview" with Mrs. Petrucci. Well, now I'm gonna interview Janet Gardner, the lead singer of Vixen. And I have no clue what type of questions to ask. I don't want anything to sound childish and/or immature.

How many questions does a typical interview need? If you go to Neil's Vixen Page (he knows the band personally I think, and he's the one who's helping me to contact Janet Gardner), all of the interviews there are long. Even if you look at some fan sites, the interviews are long, too.

I know some questions I may ask, such as awkward and/or embarrassing moments on-stage.

I need to get an idea of what to ask her.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

a reply to: lazyfortress

Ask how she got into music, what has kept her going, high and lows of career ETC ETC

Good Luck

a reply to: lazyfortress

Hi Lazyfortress. Glad to see you on ATS. A great idea might be to look at other Rolling Stones interviews, or other publications like that where they have interviewed musicians or celebrities. That could give you some great ideas. Just an idea. Hopeful that you will share your interview with us once you've compiled the questions and heard back from Janet. Thanks man.

Would she prefer Bill, or Milania as the First Spouse.

Ask her specifics about equipment, like favorite Mics or guitars, etc.

Childhood hobbies lead to current career?

If offered, would she join stage with GWAR

Most importantly....

Ozzy, or Dio?

As someone who did radio interviews, musicians are the most difficult. Writers have stories to tell, scientists can talk about their interests and discoveries, UFO type people talk about what they've seen, politicians won't shut up... but musicians aren't necessarily verbal.

You may have to revert to letting them take the lead. In other words, ask them what they might want to tell their fans, how they got started in music (childhood memories, in other words) and hope for the best.

A written interview seems difficult; can you Skype it and record it for transcription, if you need the interview to be in written form? You can always edit out the boring parts.

I don't know anything about the music industry or the types of questions you would want to ask her but here is a good baseline for how long / how many questions:

1) Have Ten primary questions, preferably with simple predictable answers.

2) For each of these have Three follow up questions per anticipated answer. These should also have simple predictable answers.

3) Finally, have One or Two follow up questions for each anticipated answers for the above tier of questions. These lowest level questions are going to be the 'dig deep' questions and should be open ended.

4) Other questions should not be prepared, but something obvious may present itself within the open ended questions themselves.

5) Never push for information, if the interview subject does not seem like the are going to be forthcoming on a given question . . . skip it. It is better to miss a question than to lose the interview altogether. Unless you can read the person and they seem to need a little push (and then try to keep it at a nudge).

6) Remember, you don't need to ask EVERY question that you prepare.

7) Always end with the simple question: Is there anything else that you would like to share.

8) Rule of thumb: people want to talk about themselves, so let them.

Hope it helps some.

a reply to: FamCore
Of course I will share my interview! That's if Janet responds to Neil's e-mail inquiry.

You all have brought up some good points and tips.
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To Butterfinger:
"favorite Mics or guitars" That would be something interesting. Wait... Ozzy or Dio? The band itself, or the singer of the band(s)?

Anyone else kind of missing those days when artists had something to say about other topics than themselves?

I have no clue who she/he/it is, but why don't you try to get something that's not mind blowingly uninteresting for everybody?

Like, I don't know:
If you would die tomorrow, what would you want people to know about you?

only thing i want to know is why the bass player and steve vai married their kid fire.
fire vai???????????????//

how lame

that should be question numero uno

a reply to: lazyfortress

One could look for ambiguous lyrics and ask for clarification of the meaning. Or about what, to you, differentiates the band from others in the genre, how did that uniqueness arise.

It shows that you have researched properly and have an interest.

You know, there's one thing I want to know that I'd like to ask. You know the album cover art Vixen used? Such as this one?:

I've always wanted to know why they used it. It doesn't match the theme of the album/music. A motorcycle. Seems random...

a reply to: lazyfortress

Because they're shallow. Empty like a plastic bag. It just seemed "cool"

a reply to: lazyfortress

cause it was the 80's and it was a thing. everyone was using bikes.
halford used to ride to the stage on his bike.
prince had a bitch ass honda in purple rain

i remember lots of music videos with bikes..

just a 'cool' thing at the time