If you do a scan online, you can find many articles about how to interview a band and what kinds of questions to ask a band, but there aren’t many things about what bands can do to prepare for and leverage an interview.

Preparing For Your Interview

What do you do when someone contacts you for an interview? Do you have a set process, a standard one sheet to send them? Do you have a publicist that gives you information about what they’re looking for? Preparing for an interview is key to keep it lively and interesting. Here are tips about getting ready:

1. Prepare a One Sheet: Think of your media one sheet as a resume: list the main bullet points about your music career and a list of accomplishments or anecdotes. Not every journalist will have time to thoroughly research you first and having some kind of guideline will help. In fact, some may even request that you bring a list of talking points or topics of interest. 
   
   
2. Set a Goal: What do you hope to take away from the interview? Some more press? A review? Some promotion about your tour or new record? Try and keep your answers somehow related to your overall goal.
   
   
3. Do Some Research: Take some time to go through the source: look at other interviews and features that they’ve done to get a vibe of their style, what things they find interesting, and who their audience is. Find out as much as you can about the format, interview length, and how it will be shared. Cater your responses to what you find.
   
   
4. Practice: Just as you’d want to prepare for a job interview, run through some typical questions that you’ll be asked: inspiration, your band’s history, talking about the new album, etc. You want your stories to be smooth, consistent, and concise. It seems easy but the more you go through it, the more you can keep it interesting and flowing well.

During the Interview

It is becoming increasingly rare for artists to be coached for interviews. There’s just a general assumption that it’s only about answering questions given to you, whether it is by email, phone, or on camera. However, there’s an art to keeping your audience’s attention as well as encouraging them to share the piece. Keep these things in mind:

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First and foremost, congrats to all of the ONErpm artists performing this year!  What a great accomplishment!

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Source: SXSW