The first interview usually comes sooner than you expect: a morning radio show, a short local TV segment, a podcast, a blog that sends questions by email. Most artists prepare the song and forget to prepare themselves. A little work before a music interview makes the difference between a nervous ramble and a conversation people remember.
Decide what you want people to remember
Before anything else, write down two or three key messages. Not slogans, just the things you want the audience to leave with:
- the name of the new song and when it comes out, or that it's out now
- one reason it's worth hearing: the story behind it, an unusual collaboration, the place where it was recorded
- what comes next: a show, a video, where people can follow you
Everything else is a bonus. If the host's questions wander, you still have something to return to. A line like "funnily enough, that's connected to the new single" brings you back without sounding scripted.
Prepare stories, not adjectives
"The song is very personal" tells the audience nothing. "I wrote the chorus on the night bus home after my last shift at the bakery" tells them a lot. Hosts and listeners remember scenes, details and small surprises, not descriptions of feelings.
Have three or four short stories ready:
- how the song started
- something that went wrong in the studio, and how you solved it
- how you began making music
- a message from a listener that stayed with you
Practise telling each one in under a minute. A story that takes three minutes in a café needs trimming for radio.
Clichés worth retiring
Some phrases come up in almost every interview with a new artist, and they make you sound like everyone else:
- "Music is my life."
- "This song is different from anything I've done before."
- "I don't really have a genre."
- "It's a song for everyone."
Replace each one with something specific. Instead of "no genre", say "slow electronic beats with a folk singer's voice on top". Instead of "for everyone", say who you pictured listening when you wrote it. Specific answers are easier to quote, and journalists like answers they can quote.
Short answers for radio and TV
Broadcast time is tight. A good answer is roughly twenty to forty seconds: the point first, one detail, then stop. Long pauses and long lists sound much worse on air than in a room.
- Say your artist name and the song title clearly at least once, because people tune in halfway through.
- Don't wait for the perfect question. Use the one you get as a bridge to your key message.
- Ask the producer in advance how long the segment is and whether you'll perform live.
- Skip inside jokes and names nobody outside your circle knows.
- If you're asked about something you don't want to discuss, such as your private life, money or a disagreement with another artist, decline politely and move on: "I'd rather keep that private, but I can tell you how the video was made."
When a made-up singer, Mara Vale, went on a morning show to talk about her single "Late Train", she had three sentences ready: what the song is about, the night bus story, and the date of her next gig. The segment was four minutes long. All three made it on air.
Print, online and podcasts
Longer formats let you go deeper. For email interviews, answer in your own voice, keep paragraphs short and read everything once more before sending. For podcasts, you can tell full stories, but your key messages still matter.
Give journalists the correct spelling of your name, the song title and your collaborators in writing. Reading the final text before publication isn't always possible; if you ask, ask only to check facts, not to rewrite quotes.
What to have ready
- A one-page press kit with a short bio, photos and contacts.
- Press photos in high resolution, both horizontal and vertical.
- The final audio file, if a station will play the song. Ask in advance which format they need.
- The release date, the exact title and a list of the people who worked on the song.
- Your social handles, written the same way everywhere.
- For TV: clothes that match your visual style, nothing with very fine stripes or tiny patterns, which can flicker on camera.
Before the real thing, ask a friend to interview you with questions you haven't seen, and record it on your phone. Listen back once. You'll hear the filler words, the answers that run too long and the story that works. After two or three rounds, the real interview will feel like your fourth conversation, not your first. And when the interview is out, share it on your own pages and thank the host.