Questions to Ask a Music Artist
Interview questions for a musician about writing, collaborators, what got cut, how the songs change live, and what a release actually pays. Written for journalists, podcasters, and students preparing for a short interview slot.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What is this record about?
Why ask it
Ask before anything technical. Artists who have thought about the project answer in a sentence, and the ones who have not reach for genre words, which tells you where to spend the rest of the time.
Where did the first idea come from?
Why ask it
A voice note, a loop, a line in a notebook. Origins are concrete, and they get the conversation out of press-release language inside two minutes.
How does a song usually get from idea to finished?
Why ask it
You are after the actual sequence and who else was in the room. Vagueness here often means a producer did more of the work than the credits suggest.
What were you listening to while you made it?
Why ask it
More useful than asking about influences, because it gets recent and specific answers rather than the same three names everyone cites.
Which track came easiest, and which one fought you?
Why ask it
Two songs and two stories in one question. The one that fought them is almost always the one they want to talk about.
What did you cut that you still think about?
Why ask it
Deleted work reveals taste and self-editing. Ask whether it was cut for this record or abandoned entirely, because those are different admissions.
Who else shaped the sound, and what exactly did they do?
Why ask it
Producers, engineers, and co-writers go uncredited in most interviews. Asking what somebody did, rather than who was involved, gets past a list of names.
How do you know when something is finished?
Why ask it
There is no rule, so every answer is personal: a deadline, a car test, the point where they stop hearing it. It says more about how they work than any question about process.
What is the oldest idea on this record?
Why ask it
Records often carry a fragment written years before the rest. The gap between writing and release is a good story that nobody thinks to ask for.
What changed between the demo and the master?
Why ask it
Concrete craft: a tempo, a key, a dropped verse, a vocal take kept from a phone recording because the second attempt was worse.
What do you play or program yourself?
Why ask it
Separates writer, arranger, and performer without turning it into a challenge. Worth knowing before you describe anyone as a multi-instrumentalist in print.
How different is this live?
Why ask it
Arrangements get rebuilt for a stage. Ask what the band can do that the record cannot, and what gets lost in the trade.
Has playing a song live changed how you hear it?
Why ask it
Audiences reorder setlists and occasionally reorder records. Ask which song outgrew the place it was given.
What does the money actually look like on a release like this?
Why ask it
Ask plainly and you usually get a plain answer: advance, recoupment, touring, sync, merchandise. Most working artists are franker about this than interviewers expect.
How much of your week goes on things that are not music?
Why ask it
Posting, admin, visas, approvals, invoices. The proportion says more about the state of the business than any question about streaming rates.
Which decision on this project did you refuse to move on?
Why ask it
Gets a boundary rather than a grievance. The answer usually names a mix, a piece of artwork, or a single choice they lost sleep over.
What did the last record teach you not to do again?
Why ask it
Specific and self-critical, and considerably easier to answer than a question about what they learned.
What can you not do yet that you want to?
Why ask it
Asks for a real limitation, technical or otherwise. Better than asking about ambitions, which invites an answer about career rather than craft.
What should someone listen for on the second play?
Why ask it
Useful for readers and it lets the artist point at detail: a countermelody, a room sound, a lyric that reverses meaning once you know the ending.
What has nobody asked you about this record?
Why ask it
Hands over control at the end. It frequently produces the quote you actually use, because it is the thing they came in wanting to say.
Running the interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you sit down
- Listen to the whole project twice, once properly and once while doing something else. You need both reactions.
- Write three track-specific questions. They are what separate you from the last four interviews the artist did today.
- Check the credits so you can name the producer and engineer rather than asking who they were.
- Find out how long you actually have. A fifteen minute slot means six questions, not twenty.
- Ask what is off limits before you start recording, especially around a label dispute, a lineup change, or health.
During
Ask for a scene, not a summary
Where were you, who else was there, what time was it. Artists narrate a room easily and narrate a concept badly, and the room is what a reader remembers.
Let a pause sit
The sentence after the pause is usually the one worth printing. Filling the gap with a second version of your own question guarantees a shorter answer.
Follow the specific over the interesting
If they mention a night, a cassette, or an argument in passing, stop and go into it. Your next prepared question will still be there afterwards.
What wastes the slot
- Asking how they would describe their sound. It gets the answer they give everyone and it teaches you nothing.
- Asking about influences in general terms rather than about what was actually playing during the sessions.
- Reading a long question aloud. Long questions get short answers.
- Comparing them to a bigger artist unprompted, which usually costs you the rest of the goodwill in the room.
- Saving the money and business questions for the last minute, when there is no time left to follow them up.