Dumb and/or boring interview questions you never ever need to hear again

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You know, questions like "Who are your main influences" or "If you were stranded on a desert island..."

If I was a rock journalist, I'd ask questions like "What's the strangest thing that's ever been up your ass?" You know, interesting questions. I'm starting to think that all rock journalists (this includes bloggers, who are nothing but *wannabe* rock journalists) share the same brain.

― Spider man, Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:40 (eighteen years ago) link

This is already a dumb and boring thread.

― snowballing (snowballing), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:42 (eighteen years ago) link

If I was a rock journalist, I'd ask questions like "What's the strangest thing that's ever been up your ass?"

There's goes newspaper work for you, then.

How about, "What made you think hiring the Boozefighters MC for hall security was such a good idea?"

Or, "When exactly did you stop beating girlfriends?"

― George the Animal Steele, Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:44 (eighteen years ago) link

the boring questions are bad, but the questions from people who are audibly proud of themselves for coming up with clever questions are considerably worse

― Mr Straight Toxic (ghostface), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:46 (eighteen years ago) link

OTM, lock thread, goodnight

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:47 (eighteen years ago) link

NOBODY CARES AOBUT THE QUSNTONS. IT'S THSA ANSGWONS< STUPID.

xpost

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Never seen "So how's the tour going?" elicit an interesting response.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:56 (eighteen years ago) link

But that's an icebreaker!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:57 (eighteen years ago) link

It depends what publication you write for. Sometimes you need to ask the *boring* questions to introduce the band to the public. It's kinda daft to ask really obscure questions if you know that 90 percent of the readers won't know the band. I used to incorporate these cliche questions in my interview for the people who didn't know'em and then also ask more *interesting* questions. *shrug* Like someone else said, it's not the questions that matter, it's the answers.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 20:00 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, i think there's nothing wrong with a couple of fairly generic questions to kick off an interview - they don't have to make it into the finished article, and personally i'd rather do the whole "how's the tour going?"/"how about those dolphins?" thing before digging into the heavy stuff.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, sometimes something AMAZING just happened on tour, and they're gonna tell you all about how the drummer wasn't allowed into the club because he left his ID with his gear when the band was loading in, and the meatwad bouncer won't let him in to fetch it even, and, y'know, that turns into a nice little bit of colour for the interview.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 20:05 (eighteen years ago) link

a lot of times i think the best questions come when you realize why you're doing the interview: because of the art this person has made. i think an interview should be a way to figure out the artist's mindset and better understand the music. or some bs like that

― sovietpanda (sovietpanda), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 20:59 (eighteen years ago) link

I'd rather just find out the band's influences. I'm sure your campus alt weekly/zine/blog is going really well though.

Nothing worse, from my perspective as a reader, than "quirky" questions as mentioned above - "If you were a Flintstone, which one would you be?" HahahahahahaSHUTTEHFUKUPTHXBYE

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 21:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Maybe it's just me, but I almost always enjoy reading responses to questions about desert island picks and "What have you been listening to lately?"

― PB, Tuesday, 3 January 2006 21:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Maybe it's just me, but I almost always enjoy reading responses to questions about desert island picks and "What have you been listening to lately?"

i like that stuff too -- i'm sure the interviewee's answer changes every day!

― jody, Tuesday, 3 January 2006 21:20 (eighteen years ago) link

"take sides: steely dan or u.s. maple"

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 21:24 (eighteen years ago) link

It is sometimes nice for newer bands to be asked who their influences are because 75% of the time they are much different than what people seem to think their influences are, because the way people seem to think about these things is "you sound like X therefore your influences must include X."

― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 21:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Donald Fagen wrote an article about Ennio Morricone

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 21:27 (eighteen years ago) link

I think that some "boring" questions are ambiguous so that the artist is allowed to say what they want. If you ask about influences, the band can then go into why music is important to them without being asked the ridiculous question, "why is music important to you?"
That being said I hate it when the question, "you have been compared to _______, what do you think about that?", is asked.

― silence dogood (catcher), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 00:52 (eighteen years ago) link

What, in your opinion, are some lost IDM classics?

― Jingo, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 00:57 (eighteen years ago) link

i hate it when people latch on to ONE really obvious comparison and never fucking let go of it, even though there are a dozen other artists the band sounds more like and might actually be ripping off.

― it was jody that killed the beast (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 01:00 (eighteen years ago) link

What are you saying?? That Oasis doesn't sound like the Beatles?

― Jingo, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 01:06 (eighteen years ago) link

I like the influences and desert island questions. I wouldn't want to be asked those myself, but it is interesting to read the response, regardless of how accurate, spontaneous, incomplete or bitchy.

― Lazy Dog, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 03:46 (eighteen years ago) link

"What are you listening to at the moment?" generally seems to be most interesting.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 09:11 (eighteen years ago) link

My answer:"To your insanely boring questions, mate."

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 09:59 (eighteen years ago) link

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