This Is Just Me Whining

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About how I just did an interview where six of the questions, in a f**king ROW, were predicated on the notion that everything I write is direct, confessional, autobiographical feel-my-pain singersongwriterism.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Grrrrrrrrrr.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:26 (twenty-two years ago)

you should write a song about how you are a black lesbian gyno.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude I swear to God the very next interview would be all "when did you find time to become a gynocologist, Ms. Darn1elle?"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:32 (twenty-two years ago)

you need the Matrix!

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:33 (twenty-two years ago)

did you cry during the interview?

― keith (keithmcl), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:35 (twenty-two years ago)

did they ask what it's like living as a goat in the mountains too?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:37 (twenty-two years ago)

you need the Matrix!

Mountain Goats collaborating with the Matrix = ALBUM OF THE YEAR!

― Andrew Frye (paul cox), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:37 (twenty-two years ago)

ESOJ I kiss you

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:39 (twenty-two years ago)

well it's only a few weeks til your in melbourne so i'll hold you to that

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:46 (twenty-two years ago)

you're

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:46 (twenty-two years ago)

emo

― keith (keithmcl), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Nahz. Evil, but nahz.

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:54 (twenty-two years ago)

this is what you deserve for strumming an acoustic guitar and having narratives, john.

― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:12 (twenty-two years ago)

be glad somebody's bothering to interview you! unless it's your mom or something

― rumple, Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:18 (twenty-two years ago)

he doesn't have to take that! he's on the same label as uh the breeders! and pixies reissues!

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:21 (twenty-two years ago)

and a guy who was briefy in the silver apples!

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:25 (twenty-two years ago)

(i would cut off several toes to be on 4AD btw)

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:25 (twenty-two years ago)

well I mean that it was my own mother just made it sting that much more

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:27 (twenty-two years ago)

she'll NEVER understand you! < /runs upstairs and throws on damaged loud>

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:30 (twenty-two years ago)

We! Are tired! Of your! Abuse! Try! To! Stop Us! It's! No use!

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"these songs are metaphors really. if you pay close attention they're about the international relations of the micronesian federation. the guy? that's actually micronesia. and sometimes the girl is the un security council, but often she's polynesia. except sometimes the songs are metaphors for various theories of the jfk assasination."

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)

See, that's what I've been trying to do with my songwriting, couching the real meaning in these sophisticated metaphrors. But it always quickly devolved into simple allegory.
"There was a man - a man named Billy Evil."
I'm blocked creatively.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 07:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Musician in complaining about crapness of interviewer technique shocker. Funny, I usually rant "did you even LISTEN to the lyrics?" upon being understood, while you rant "you LISTENED to the lyrics TOO MUCH!"

It could have been worse. They could have asked you where you got the band's name from. And where you all met. (What do they ask when interviewing solo performers?)

― kate (kate), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 07:14 (twenty-two years ago)

1) "Don't you have any friends?"

2) "Have you ever thought of adding drums or bass or something to your songs to make them sound better?"

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 07:43 (twenty-two years ago)

What questions do you actually *like* being asked in interviews?

(n.b. I actually don't like any of them. The best interview we ever did was one where the journo asked us how many different kinds of cheese we could name in a minute. I think we got about 40...)

― kate (kate), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 08:02 (twenty-two years ago)

My friend Claudia uses her zine Homotiller to ask excellent questions like "What's the best way to start a fire?" (GBV) or "What's your porn star name?" (Rye Coalition)

She tends to get amusing answers, the bands appreciate it, and the reader gets a little more insight into the individual personalities. Everybody wins.

― Liz B. (Liz B.), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Though I'm not trying to advocate boring, repetitive, ass-hat questions, I had always assumed that artists hated doing stupid "what kind of tree would you be" interviews just as much as they hated stupid "where do you get your ideas?" interviews. Is this not the case? Lou Reed famously hates talking about anything outside the music itself, but I can imagine that getting a little heavy on the interviewee after a few days of the press circuit...

I've always felt the best interviews are those that mix deep insights into an artists' oeuvre, with more superficial questions that give a sense of who they are outside of performance. (I also love when artists talk about other albums they like [and why, of course], but I know that others find this sloppy/boring/lame.)

― Sean M (Sean M), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 12:30 (twenty-two years ago)

What questions do you actually *like* being asked in interviews?

Love either/or & why questions - "Salinger or Vonnegut? Sterne or Rabelais? And why?" because as cutesy as they sound, they actually usually get me thinking about stuff I haven't been thinking about - ditto questions like "if you were a tree, what kind of invasive parasite would grow on and around your trunk?"

Also this here's a great one: "My heavens, but you're an attractive man! This isn't really a question or anything, I just had to say it." If I had a dime for every time I've gotten this one, I would be dead broke.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 12:38 (twenty-two years ago)

answer in a Rickey Henderson persona, but when you speak of yourself in the third person refer to yourself as "Rickey" also

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 12:45 (twenty-two years ago)

drop some sabermetrics in there too

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

How about questions like "Exschuzhe me, but could you fill me on exactly how many Bloody Hawaiians songs you recorded and when, and is it true that there are rare Seneca Twins tracks floating around?"

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

We need a documentary called Bugging Darnielle Is Easy. I have little sympathy for these type of complaints, because it's been along time since anyone interviewed me.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 21:55 (twenty-two years ago)

"Salinger or Vonnegut"

Vonnegut by miles.

― David Allen, Thursday, 17 July 2003 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

ips beetle

― keith (keithmcl), Thursday, 17 July 2003 02:12 (twenty-two years ago)

We need a documentary called Bugging Darnielle Is Easy.

Cumulative effect, Anthony. It's a job, a good one, sure - but am I to understand that you never complain about your job, since you're lucky to have one? (Not you particularly, mind; just that one is always fortunate to have work.) That's all I'm doing: complaining that for 10 years or so, I've had the good fortune to explain repeatedly to people who write about music for a living that just because I sing convincingly and in the first person about coming at somebody with a gun does not necessarily mean that I came at anybody with a gun. It gets a little old. I am not saying "O my job sux" because it doesn't. But this particular aspect of it is ass.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 17 July 2003 04:56 (twenty-two years ago)

you mean you didn't run through anyone with a broadsword?

― Sean M (Sean M), Thursday, 17 July 2003 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

john what kind of EXAMPLE are you setting?? my god man think of the CHILDREN.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 17 July 2003 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

how many tech-head/fanboy-ish "how did you write/record that" questions are okay before they get annoying?

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 17 July 2003 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

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