Andrew McMillen on interviews (Ed’s note: mandatory reading for any media student)
Treat every interview as if it’s the most important thing in the world, just for that 15 minutes or half hour or hour, even if it’s not. Boring interviews are still boring on paper.
Interview with Giordana Caputo – 4zzzfm
They’re not working for a bureaucracy. They’re not working within guidelines. The idea at 4zzz is that you can create whatever you want and I think that’s a really exciting concept
A Conversation With Yannis Philippakis of Foals, 2010
By Andrew McMillen I interviewed Yannis Philippakis [pictured above], singer/guitarist of the British pop act Foals, for Scene Magazine in late December 2010, ahead of their Australian tour as part of Laneway Festival 2011(which I reviewed for The Vine). Our interview originally ran in condensed form as the cover story of Scene Magazine #811. Here’s the full interview transcript.
extracts from Conversations with Punx – 10. Sena Hussain
Taqwacore to me is a genre of punk that specifically deals with the political climate surrounding Muslims post 9/11. For Secret Trial Five it gave us a community in which to bounce off ideas, talk to, strategize, tour with, and relate to.
extracts from Conversations with Punx – 9. Henry Rollins
When religious organisations get together to protest gay people’s right to be married or happy, I will be happy to read about them getting a foot up their ass.
extracts from Conversations with Punx – 7. Exene Cervenka
It’s a connection to something that’s kind of unfathomable because I still don’t understand where creativity comes from or where a song comes from.
The Collapse Board interview – Samuel Miers (School Girl Report)
“I use nails under the strings on one song. Spanners, a peg, a drill, a headband and a bracelet. They all give different sounds to each song.”
extracts from Conversations with Punx – 4. Jonah Matranga
Reggae and country can be just as spiritual as metal. It’s the intention behind it. For me, Miles Davis and Bob Dylan are fucking punk
The Collapse Board interview – Super Wild Horses
Super Wild Horses make me dance. All swinging shoulders and bouncy knees. Make me open the windows wide. Drink cheap booze and bomb hills on cardboard boxes. Make me think of my sweetheart. Make me sing along. Make me feel like I’m 15. Just drive-ins and scraped knees and fast guitars. Tappety drums and tambourines. [...]
An Oral History Of Crime
I thought, since we were called CRIME, we should feature famous criminals on our posters! First, a series of war criminals, then gangsters, then serial killers, and so on. So, I thought we should start off with Hitler…
The Collapse Board interview – Fire Witch
“Honesty tends to make a lot of people uncomfortable and I like that”
the first interview I ever did
Ultimately, the music is the most important thing. If we never did any gigs then it’d be terrible.
“I have few regrets. Writing for Fasterlouder is one of them.”
I was intrigued to read the following words from QLD journalist Sophie Benjamin on her blog …
extracts from Conversations with Punx – 3. Don Letts
I look at my history and see myself as a fallen angel.
extracts from Conversations with Punx – 2. Larry Livermore
An old-fashioned punk thing would be if anything started to be too professional, you’d smash it. You couldn’t have any rules.
Everett True in the UK, part two – London
“I didn’t listen to pop music growing up,” he reveals. “If I listened to music, it would be something classical”
Everett True in the UK, part one – Southampton
“Most music critics are reading other music critics to find out what they should like”
An Interview with Matt Kennedy from Kitchen’s Floor: Part Two
“I always say if you get the chance to sell out, then sell out. It’s laughable how little money I’ve made from my music.”
An Interview with Matt Kennedy from Kitchen’s Floor: Part One
“A lot of people would describe it as lazy or apathetic, but I don’t see it that way. I’m just trying to write pop songs”
extracts from Conversations with Punx – 1. Ari Up
It’s Collapse Board’s pleasure to introduce the first in a new series: extracts from Conversations with Punx. I have long been an admirer of Brisbane writer Bianca Valentino’s interview style: the (full) examples I’ve seen are so in-depth and revealing and soulful. They show an obvious attnetion to detail and to the other person that [...]
The Collapse Board interview – The John Steel Singers
“There was a band called Wire that we were listening to quite a lot during recording. And they have all of these two-minute pop songs that are just clean and sound awesome, and then they’ve got a dirty, seven-minute track next.”
An interview with Richard Kingsmill, triple j Music Director
I was in Perth last week, covering an event called One Movement For Music for its official blog, One Movement Word. It was the second year I’d blogged for the five-day event, which includes a music conference component (called MUSEXPO Asia Pacific), a three-day music festival, and nightly music showcases. In one of the most [...]
You Am I interview
“Hey it’s You Am I on the TV! They’re playing at the finals!” my mum calls out excitedly to me from the living room. Tim Rogers’ perpetually scruffy, lanky frame bounces briefly across our TV screen to the roar of 83,000 punters packed into Sydney’s ANZ Stadium. (He’s next to Dan Sultan and Phil Jamieson, [...]
Wild Beasts interview
It’s Laneway nest week. That’s exciting. They’ve got several artists I’d like to have a peek at – including Bridezilla, Florence And The Machine, The XX, Daniel Johnston and Wild Beasts. Rockin’! To celebrate, here’s an interview I conducted with Tom Fleming of Wild Beasts. Raw and unedited as it is, it’s also an EXCLUSIVE [...]
