Questions to Ask a Music Artist
Good questions to ask music artists in an interview are the ones a press release cannot answer: how the songs got written, who else shaped them, what got cut, how they change live, and what a release actually pays. Written for journalists, podcasters, and students preparing for a short interview slot.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
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.
How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it?
Why ask it
A gentle opener that also tells you which comparisons they are tired of. Artists who reach immediately for two famous names are usually repeating a press bio rather than their own view.
What was the first song you wrote that felt like yours?
Why ask it
Almost everyone has a clear answer, and it is rarely the first song they wrote. The gap between the two is where they stopped imitating, which is the actual start of their work.
Who were you copying when you started, and what stuck?
Why ask it
Influence questions usually get a polite list. Asking what stuck forces something concrete: a tuning, a vocal habit, a way of ending songs, which is more interesting than a shelf of records.
What changed about your sound between the first release and now?
Why ask it
Give them room to be unsentimental about early work. The most telling answers name a limitation they no longer have, such as no budget, no drummer, or no idea how to record vocals.
Which of your songs do people get wrong?
Why ask it
This surfaces the distance between what they meant and what listeners took, which most artists find funny rather than annoying. It also gets you the actual subject of a song without asking bluntly.
What is the oldest song of yours you still play live, and why has it survived?
Why ask it
Songs stay in a set because they work in a room, not because they are the best written. Their reason reveals what they think a live show is for.
What is a song you almost threw away?
Why ask it
Nearly every catalog has one that was rescued late, often by someone else insisting. Who did the insisting tells you who they actually trust.
What do you do when nothing is coming?
Why ask it
Look for a method rather than a mood: writing badly on purpose, learning covers, going back to an instrument they play poorly. Vague answers about waiting for inspiration usually mean they have not hit a long dry spell yet.
What is the worst room you have played, and did you win it over?
Why ask it
A story question that earns its place: the details of a bad night, an empty bar or a hostile support slot, show what they do under pressure better than any question about success.
What do you turn down now that you would have said yes to five years ago?
Why ask it
Learning to decline work is the clearest marker of a career becoming sustainable. If they cannot name anything, they may be at the stage where every offer still feels compulsory.
Who in your life tells you the truth about your work?
Why ask it
Every artist has one person whose verdict actually counts, and it is often not a collaborator. The absence of such a person tends to show up in records that nobody argued with.
What is a compliment you get that does not land, and one that does?
Why ask it
The mismatch shows you what they are trying to do, as opposed to what they are being praised for. Being told a sad song is relaxing is the kind of thing that quietly stings.
What are you working on that you are not ready to release?
Why ask it
Ask late, and accept a vague answer. If they do describe it, listen for whether it is a departure, because artists usually test that idea on strangers before their label hears it.
What would you want written about this record in ten years?
Why ask it
It moves them off the promotional script and onto what they were actually reaching for. Answers about being remembered at all, rather than praised, tend to be the honest ones.
Running a music artist 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 them to name their genre. It gets the answer they give everyone and it teaches you nothing. Ask how they would describe the music to someone who has never heard it, which calls for their own words.
- 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.