In addition to editing Lovelyish, I’m a music journalist, which means I frequently have to interview famous people. This is a very stressful experience. Here’s how it usually goes:

Your editor emails you asking if you’d like to interview Famous Musician, and you’re like:


Then they’ll be like, “We want you to write an 8000 word in-depth psychological profile tracing the band’s internal and external struggles, all from a 30-minute interview,” and you’re still like:


So you email the publicist and set up an interview slot, and everything seems awesome and you’re going to meet a band you really like!


When you get to the office, the publicist is usually like, “The band’s running late, so we’ve cut your time from 30 minutes to 10 minutes, that’s OK with you, right?” and you’re like:


You go into the room where the band is and say hi, and the band looks at you and you look at them, like:


And you’re the MOST NERVOUS you’ve been in your life:


And you just want to be like:

But on the outside you’re like:

Meanwhile, the celebs are just like:


They stare at you as you awkwardly set up your tape recorder and try to make small talk:


And they’re cranky because they’re rich and famous, and instead of being out like:



They’re stuck inside doing press with you, who invariably has their last interview of the day, and so they’re like:


Your editor wants you to ask them the same 1000 questions they’ve been answering all day, so when you’re like, “Who are your influences?”, they’re just like:


And your editor will always demand that you ask about the latest controversy the band is embroiled in, but you know they’re going to be pissed:


As soon as you try to bring it up, the band will be like:


And the publicist will glare at you and be like, “We’re not answering questions on that today”:


If the celebrity likes the sound of their own voice, which they all do, they will go off on tangents that last for eons, and you’re just like:


But to keep them happy, you have to act enraptured:


And you’re really like, there’s no way I can use any of this:


Then they will start babbling about their third grade music teacher and how they learned to play kazoo and it changed their life and inspired their artistry, and you’re like:


But you have to be like:


Sometimes part of your interview will be a contrived activity, like you have to go antiquing or roller skating or taking the celebrity to get their fortune told so that you can add a fun personal touch to the story, and it’s always really awkward following them around with a tape recorder and notebook, like:


Later, you sit down to transcribe the interview and find out your tape recorder didn’t have the volume turned up, so you can barely hear your conversation:


And transcribing takes hours and hours of listening to your own voice, and you’re like, why do I sound like an 8 year old?


And then you’ll get an email from your editors, who are like, “Can you have the article done by Monday?”