Interview Tips #1: the Backstreet Boys Incident

Whether you are the interviewer or interviewee, online or in any other media, there are a number of ways you can make the (sometimes nerve-wracking) process a whole lot easier.

Let’s begin with you as the interviewer.

Tip #1: Know your equipment

I have been interviewing people for many years, and have been the interviewee a few times too. I have interviewed everyone from famous pop groups to your average person from down the street who has an interesting story to share.  It hasn’t always been plain sailing, believe me!

Now this is a story I have only ever shared with my closest friends up until now, because I feel like such a doofus everytime I remember it. But it illustrates my first tip very well.

I started in radio in 1995, and my first full-time job began in the summer of 1996 at Plymouth Sound. By the time I went there I was already experienced at conducting interviews in the studio but had never recorded away from the studio.

Early in my time there I was just about to leave work in the afternoon when the Head of Programming grabbed me and said he was too snowed under with work to go to Plymouth Pavilions to interview the Backstreet Boys, and would I go for him?

At this point the Backstreet Boys were just releasing Quit Playing Games in the UK, so they were quite well-known but hadn’t quite reached mega stardom.

I agreed to go and was handed their bio sheet (a page of A4 info on the boys from the promotions company – I knew their music but didn’t know much about them and this was pre-Internet days for most people) and I was given a quick lesson in how to use the Marantz.

It amazes me how quickly technology has changed, as just 12 years ago we recorded all off-air interviews onto tape and still did editing on a reel-to-reel, which involved a razor blade, a chinagraph pencil for marking the tape and a lot of patience. Well, a Marantz was essentially a good quality cassette recording machine which you plugged your microphone into, recorded onto cassette, then later recorded that from cassette to reel-to-reel tape in real time for editing. What a palava! Thank the Lord for digital technology.

Anyway, I digress.

I had a quick lesson in using the Marantz, popped home to put on my branded promotional t-shirt and jacket, and headed to Plymouth Pavilions (the local concert venue).

For the very first time I sat in a green room at a pop concert, getting more and more nervous. Thankfully there was a girl there from Smash Hits who was travelling with the guys, charting their rise to stardom, and she told me a little about them and put me more at ease.

When the guys arrived they were all very friendly and were shared out among the interviewers. I started talking with the very lovely Kevin and, in spite of my nerves, got a great interview. When we were done I checked the tape and it had recorded perfectly.

They then sent Howie over and I started recording again. He was really interesting, talking about the different producers they had worked with, and offering a different perspective to Kevin. I was over the moon – I had at least two shows worth of interviews now.

After Howie’s interview, I looked down at my Marantz and my heart just stopped! In the process of checking the previous interview I had unplugged my microphone and forgotten to plug it back in!

I could feel my face go scarlet with embarrassment as I casually plugged it back in and looked around to see if anyone had noticed.

Thankfully they hadn’t but my stress levels had reached an all-time peak and I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

I had to hang around with them a bit longer because we had some listeners coming in for a “meet and greet” that they’d won on-air, and during that time AJ asked if I wanted to sit with their PR guy during the show and then go out clubbing with them later. I said I’d love to….and then at the earliest opportunity I snuck away and went home for my dinner, still shaking from the whole experience.

Yes, ladies, I turned down a night out with the Backstreet Boys and went home to have my dinner instead! Just think of the possibilities if that microphone hadn’t been unplugged.

So, the moral of this story is….know your equipment well. Before you record an important interview with someone, make sure you have had plenty of practice with your tools…to the point where it feels like second-nature. You’ll have enough other things to worry about without having to fiddle around with unfamiliar equipment.

Ask a friend to perform a practice run with you. Make sure you have your recording levels right and that the audio plays back properly afterwards. Then don’t be afraid to ask your interviewee to say a few things before you start the interview in order to make sure everything is working ok – it’s standard practice in all audio recording and broadcasting.

Finally, if you do have a Backstreet Boys incident (or BSBI, as I like to call it), don’t be afraid to admit it and ask to conduct the interview again. As long as you are honest and humble about it, most interviewees will not mind (especially if it’s in their best interests to do so). I was lucky that I already had one interview on tape, so the second would have been a bonus – it took me several years to admit to any of my work colleagues about that incident (and 12 years to be completely open about it).

And, should any of the Backstreet Boys ever get to hear about this, I’m sure you never gave me a second thought but I’m sorry I escaped before having the chance to see the concert and go out with you. I know one of you would have ended up marrying me….but thems the breaks!