Need advice from people experienced with journalism?

Alright, I just landed a job with a magazine and my first assignment is to interview the lead singer of an upcoming rock band and write an article about the lead singer while managing to not promote her band. Just her. The interview is going to be on Monday. Is there any first-timer advice you can offer me to make this the best interview for me to make as my best foot forward seeing as to how I am new at this Magazine.





Thank you!Need advice from people experienced with journalism?
Hopefully she won't have a flack (public relations person) with her. They can take over an interview and not let you get the information you want to get but what the flack wants you to get.





It's good to have a list of questions you want to address, but don't just sit down and start ticking off the questions. It's best to treat it like a conversation, as if you're meeting someone for the first time. Note what the person is wearing, what's around you, what they do during the interview.


If she talks about the band, let her, but be sure to come back to the questions that you want answered.





Before you go, read some stories that have run in your magazine like the one you've been assigned. Also, read other such articles on the Web. Look at the information the reporter included, and use that as a guide for your interview.





Good luck! Journalism is great fun. You get to meet all sorts of interesting people.Need advice from people experienced with journalism?
A3 gives you a lot of useful tips for the interview... The only thing that I would add to that is for you to do at least some semi-deep research on her before you meet her. (Don't waste your time asking her useless time consuming questions such as when or where she was born, etc, when a quick google search might tell you all those basics).





Then, in the interview, use what you've already learned about her to get her engaged in an actual conversation with you. (For example, if you find out that she learned a musical instrument at a really young age, you might use that to get her to open up about how music affected her childhood.)





The more knowledgeable you are about her and her life, the more she will be impressed that you've done your research, and the more comfortable she'll be engaging in a ';real'; conversation with you. Good luck!