Interview Questions for a Recording Artist
Tips for Interviewing Famous Musicians, Singers and Recording Artists
Interviewing famous recording artists, musicians and singers is a task that you can’t take lightly, so if you get the opportunity, you have to know what questions to ask to satisfy your audience. Anyone can interview people, but knowing the right questions can turn a decent interview into a great one.
Below are some examples of interview questions that readers or an audience will find interesting in learning about during your interview.
What is your background?
Recording artist interviews need to start somewhere, and getting their background is the perfect opening question. While this may seem pretty bland, it’s a good starting point in the interview because people naturally get more comfortable once they have introduced themselves, which is basically, what the question is asking the person being interviewed to do. Finding out about the recording artist’s family, education, and musical background will humanize them and make the audience feel closer to them before the rest of the questions are answered.
Who are your musical influences?
Every fan and aspiring musician wants to hear the answer to this question when watching or listening to recording artist interviews. Not only do we want to hear if we have similar influences, we also want to know how they were inspired.
Many musicians will surprise you with the answers that they give to this question. It’s pretty cool for example, when a musician surprises us by saying that one of their influences was someone in a completely different genre.
Are you nervous when you go on stage?
It’s hard for most people to understand how musicians go on stage all of the time without showing any nervousness whatsoever. Interviewing famous recording artists gives us a chance to hear how they deal with the butterflies that all of us have to deal with when talking or performing in front of a crowd of people. There are a few people who amazingly don’t get butterflies, but chances are you will get an answer that will help some of your audience deal with their own nerves.
What would you change about the music industry?
This question can be both controversial and informative, which is a great combination when you are interviewing famous recording artists. No matter what business people are in, there are always things that could be better.
When it comes to musicians, they’re often very open about what they like and dislike about the business, so this would be your chance to find out about things that no one else could. It’s an amazing opportunity that you just can’t pass up.
Do you have any advice for up-and-coming artists?
Recording artist interviews should always include one or two questions that allow the artist to communicate directly if taking place with a live audience. Obviously, if you’re interviewing a musician, chances are the audience may be filled with aspiring singers, songwriters and musicians. These people want to know anything and everything that professional musicians have to say, so try to get them to give as much advice as they can.
Follow-up Questions
You’ll often find that these questions can lead to other potentially great questions. Don’t pass up the chance to ask follow-up questions if they can make the interview even better. You will probably only have one chance to interview this person, so get the most out of it with good preparation before the interview and good instincts during the interview.
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