The Upcoming Band, Interview Example

Every one wants something new, something fresh, something that could offer more than just the usual taste that old bands provide. Music is specifically a distinct element that identifies well with such taste from the general audience (Harwood, 1976). It could be understood that somehow, with a new band coming up into the industry, everyone wants to know what they could offer, what is new about their music and how their band is planning to face the different difficulties and competitions in the industry (Small, 1977). For this interview, an upcoming band has been asked to participate and share their inner most ideas about the industry, their band and their members. This aims to bring to the audience the most compelling information that they could get hold of before the band even makes it to the mainstream and become as famous as they are expected to be.

At first I searched for an existing band whose concert I would be attending. I would of course prefer to go to a concert of music bands I am specifically interested with. Hence, I asked a lot of people I end up by finding the perfect band for that mission. I was disappointed that I couldn’t get a ticket to attend their concert. But I had luck and found a friend that could not go to the event and gave me his ticket. I then got dressed and prepared myself for the concert. Along with my appearance, I prepared my questions well and tried planning how I would get up to the band and ask them about the information I would like to gain from the members. I cannot deny that I was excited about it. It was rather my first time to attend a band concert with a mission to actually talk to the members of the ones who are performing on stage. I was nervous at the same time as I wanted to make my interview worthwhile, something that I and my readers would actually enjoy reading. I sincerely hope to give my readers a good sense of the article I am to create, but it seems that I cannot even get my nerves to relax to complete the task. Nevertheless, I started to walk and head on to the concert.

It was on Friday 14^th of February 2014. The event was in 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown West Virginia. When I arrived, there was a long line in front of the main door. I waited too long in the line, and started to chat with the man behind me and asked him if he went to other concerts before. When it was my turn I showed them the ticket. But it has my friend’s name. They couldn’t let me because my name was not on the list. I was so disappointed so I talked to them and tried to convince them. In the end they understood that it was my friend’s ticket and I took it. They accepted the ticket and let me in. And because it’s not legal for me to drink, the checker marked my both hands with a black marker. I went inside and the astonishing night began. The band that made the show is Erica Blinn and The Handsome Machine.

The stage wasn’t that big and the lights were low on the dance floor. But on the stage the lights were high and colorful. I arrived at the event at least an hour early. So I decided to take a tour in the place and explored the place. There were two drinking courts one on the left corner and one on the right corner. A little later, the dance floor was filling up with people and the audience just began dancing and enjoying themselves with the music. I can tell by their eyes that each person was excited for the concert to begin any moment then.

Before the show started I went back stage and found someone putting the band instrument and cleaning the place. He looked too busy but I wanted to interview the band so bad. I asked him if it’s okay if I interviewed the band. He replied “Sure they will be happy to have that interview meet me here after the show and I will help you.” The bands crew got on the stage and as soon as they got on the stage I felt the audience cheer and the band began to warm up. They were jumping all over the place, waving, clapping, and dancing. I felt it was a noisy loud rock music going on. But after the first song I enjoyed it very much. They played such good music and they rocked the stage.

The band’s members included Erica Blinn who plays vocals, guitar and harmonica; PJ Schreiner plays drums, vocals; Mark Nye plays bass, vocals, Greg Wise plays guitar, vocals. When the show finished I ran to the back stage and met with the crew I talked with earlier. He said “ Erica is signing and selling t-shirts for the fans when she is done I will talk to her” I waited for her near the booth to finish her work. But while I am waiting, I saw Greg Wise he is a white tattooed man with a beard who also played as the guitar soloist.

I went to Wise and asked him gently, “Can I ask you few questions about the band?” I was happy when he answered, “Yes why not?” I got my recording machine out my pocket and asked him, “Can I record this interview?” He answered, “Sure” I pulled my question paper out and my mass questions rained on him. I said, “Greg Wise, sir, what was the best show you have ever done?” He answered, “ to be honest I don’t know exactly but I think that every show we did was cool and awesome. And they are all the same style. But in my opinion we played once with The Clarks in Pittsburgh and the fans really liked it.” I said, “ What about your band, how would you describe your band?” Greg answered, “We are just a simple rock and roll band that play rock songs. We also have a lot of influences form Blues and The County.” He seemed busy looking around and nervous. And I saw Erica free so I wanted to have a chance to talk to her. So what I did was to talk to Greg and excuse myself politely as I thanked him for answering my questions for the interview.

Erica Blinn is the band leader. According to Jeff Niesel (Blinn grew up listening to the classic rock of the ’60s and ’70s) it was the first time she was on stage in Columbus thirteen years ago when he first saw Blinn. I was wondering what the biggest problems of the band were and Blinn responded as he said: “ I think that there are two main problems we face: one is financial and the other are media problems because, again, they cost a lot”.  Another question popped into my mind immediately thus I asked what was the main reason that made the band play rock music. She answered, “the main reason that made us play music is that we enjoy playing music and the second reason is financial issues.”

We forgot about the question for little bit and chatted. While we were chatting she mentioned that everyone in the band plays guitar. But everyone has another special instrument that he is attached to. For Erica Blinn, the harmonica was a special instrument she liked and played a lot as a hobby.

Taking a more personal leap and interest on other members of the band, I asked:  “Can you describe each personalities of the band members?” To this she answered: “Everybody is reserved, and Nye Mark the guitar player is outgoing, but I think we all have the same personality depending on the surroundings and how comfortable you are. And I love these guys. They are awesome”. According to Blinn her most favorite song is hi sky kisses.

Learning so much about the band, it could be realized that they are but ordinary individuals who were not afraid to pursue what they want to do and what they dream of. The financial woes that each individual considers to be an important aspect of their motivation to enter the band served a great opportunity for them to do what they want the most while earning for what they need at home to support themselves and their families as well.

This interview is rather an eye opening chat that I had with several famous individuals who are willingly able to give me a better of picture of the reality behind the fame and fortune that bands in the music industry experience. Apparently, behind the excitement and distinct applauses from the audience, every band, no matter what genre they belong to, have a specific background that could actually be easily relatable especially for their fans; these facts make them even more lovable and specifically real for the people who support them and their music.

The connection that each band member has with each other also serves a good mark about friendship, communicability and camaraderie shared between each other. Dealing with each other’s likes and dislikes is not easy, but because they love what they do and they love each other, they are able to see more than the problems and manage to deal with their differences successfully. Hence, no matter how competitive and specifically daunting the industry becomes, the band members could either choose to stick better together or let their differences mark them and break them apart.

Works Cited

Harwood, Dane (1976). “Universals in Music: A Perspective from Cognitive Psychology“. Ethnomusicology 20 (3): 521–33.

Small, Christopher (1977). Music, Society, Education. John Calder Publishers, London.