Why Warren Etheredge needs to be prepared

Friday, August 21st, 2009
by Mark Carras

So I just saw a very frustrating speaker at Gnomedex. You know the people that cross the line from confidence and into arrogance? This guy came very close to the line. He was talking about the art of the interview. The one thing that he said that got under my skin is that you should not prepare questions. I even called him on that. He told me I lacked confidence. At this point I think I proved that he lacks listening skills. Which is pretty scary for a person that does a lot of interviews.

Now I have not only done a ton of interviews but I have also of course watched a ton of interviews. Now if you want to make sure you go in depth, you need to do a ton of research and prepare about 20 questions. Why not just be spontaneous like Warren Etheredge thinks you should be? Well because every interview is it’s own creature. I have went through 20 questions just to get the artist to open up. One time I interviewed an artist named Anathema that just kept replying with “Don’t worry about that”. After getting through those 20 questions that proved to him that I had done my research and knew something about his band, he started to open up. If I didn’t have 20 questions I would have has a 30 second interview. Either that or I would have ended up asking him stupid crap like “What’s your favorite Pizza topping?” It was that framework that got the real meat of the interview going. About a month ago I was interviewing Raymond Herrera of Arkaea (ex-Fear Factory) and ended up with some info that shocked me. When doing my research I saw a banner for the energy drink Cocaine on his personal site. So I asked him what he was doing with them and how he hooked up with them. This was one of those prepared questions that Warren Etheredge tells you not to have remember. Well Raymond tells me that he is a co-owner! This ends up with a 20 minute conversation about the company, the name, the controversy the name brings, and how he benefits from it. It was a total “get” that would not have happened without that prepared question.

So was Warren Etheredge totally wrong? No. I think he made some great points in his minutes on stage at Gnomedex 9.0. Anyone who does as many interviews as someone like him or I end up doing, that person is going to know a little about doing interviews. However, he showed his weakness as a listener and interviewer. When doing an interview you have to understand that not only is every subject going to be a different beast, but every person doing interviews is going to be a different as well. We are human and unique within that. You need to prepare for that. Of course you should always do your best to listen to your subject and be able to “Tarzan” questions from what they say. Never zone out or you risk asking about their most comical moment right after they explain how a song off their new cd was about dealing with the death or their mother a few months ago. So listen yes, but prepare as well. Have that framework ready. Maybe Warren Etheredge was never a boyscout, but I was always taught to “be prepared”.