Big ish poppin'

The great thing about Iron Blogger is that I have really started writing a least once a week, but, as you can see, my posts end up happening on Sundays (the last day of the weekly deadline). So, I still have to work on that.

Wednesday is the next Iron Blogger meet up, which I think will be interesting. I'd like to talk to fellow IB n00b and creator of the "Rap 'n' Blues"  blog, for reasons that should be obvious. It's a radio week, so there's going to be a lot to do just in general.



After last month's show, I want to continue building on the quality and building up the listenership. How's that going to happen? No damn clue, as yet. The Facebook page has been helping. Maybe not so busy in terms of "likes". I don't imagine that the FSK crowd are all too big on Facebook, but the monthly impressions have been spiking on show days. And actually putting up a show description on the FSK page has probably also helped.

I think my next step is to start doing interviews, which is an entirely nerve-wracking concept for me. Zilv and I did approximately one interview when the show was called RAP statt EKG and, I guess, for my thesis paper in college, I did a bunch of interviews...but they were all kinda crappy. It's almost like I forget how to talk or hold a conversation. Add into it the idea of conducting an interview in German and it's almost my worst nightmare. I almost never speak German on air. I don't know why. Strike that...I do know why. I'm completely self-conscious in a way that I'm not when I'm speaking face-to-face with someone. But maybe it's something that I just have to get over by just fucking doing it.

And maybe my interviews will suck and no one will care about them but me. But I'll get to talk to artists who I think make cool music...which is kind of the only thing that matters to me.

I found this TEDx talk featuring Nardwuar the Human Serviette (Canadian radio/YouTube personality, musician, and all-around fascinating person). Nardwuar's been getting a lot of coverage lately, even though he's been around for years. I didn't really hear about him until he became associated with Pharrell Williams' i am Other YouTube channel and started interviewing all sorts of rappers. I mean, he'd interviewed rappers before and his Snoop Dogg/Lion 13-year-span of interviews
is pretty classic shit, but it seems like now he's really got the resources/clout to interview just about anyone. The Brother Ali and ?uestlove interviews are probably two of my all-time favorites...but so many of them are just so good.

I digress, however. What you see is someone who is just killing it with the art of the interview. And from the first interview I'd seen, I was just so impressed by the depth of research and the knowledge that he's able to demonstrate. Not only that, there's often a point in many interviews where the interviewee asks, "How in the world did you find out about that?!" and Nardwuar's answer is basically, "Well, you're X and you're special and we're interviewing you so we have to know this." It's really a thing of beauty to watch. And once you start watching one interview, you want to watch all of them.

In the TEDx talk, he two key points: 1.) Nervousness can be a good thing and 2.) The power of asking. Being nervous can/should help you to prepare (or maybe in his case over-prepare) and can keep things from getting stale. Each time is a new and different opportunity. As far as asking goes...well, it never hurts. You can get a "Yes" or a "No" or a "Not right now", but you'd probably be surprised at how many yeses you can get, if you just bother to freakin' ask for what you want. The other answers won't kill you either.

I'm in talks to organize an interview for August/September. I wrote to a concert promoter and asked if it would be possible and then the concert promoter got me in touch with the group. So, I mean, that whole asking business has been pretty solid advice so far. I'm certainly excited and nervous about it, but I've got a bit of time to prepare and I hope that all goes well.