One of my best friends, Ashmi, is in town, and we’ve been doing Grammy stuff and relaxing. Most of you probably don’t know that I used to work in the music industry. This week my blog will have a music theme. I mentioned in my lawn sale post (see for link) that I couldn’t give away my Alexi Murdoch EP. Let me explain: I was the second person ever to interview Alexi, and he wasn’t happy with the way he was portrayed. Alexi didn’t have a manager or publicist at the time, though he got a manager soon after. The publication I did the interview for ended up thinking it was too regional, and there were politics to consider.

Since I was one of the first people to interview Alexi, it’s been weird to see writers poach information I used in my interview from my personal research. I talked to a few of his friends to find out more about him. There was no press kit on Alexi, so I couldn’t use that for reference. Writers often use the press kit for added information, but to read what other people write about someone and use what you want, is not cool. Entertainment Weekly did this for a small blub on Alexi.

Anyway, one of my friends who had gone to school with Alexi got very mad at me, because Alexi was mad. I still believe he should’ve interviewed Alexi himself if he wanted the interview done a certain way. People are never 100% happy with how they turn out in print. I offered to take out anything that Alexi didn’t like, but he just wanted me to make the interview go away.

Also, he was annoyed about small things. He didn’t like that I called him the opening band (which he was) or that I said his girlfriend was dutifully collecting mailing list information. I learned it’s not good to interview people who aren’t used to seeing their words in print.

My friend in Philadelphia e-mailed me the other day:

I will give you a call this weekend but I just had to tell you that Alexi Murdoch is all over the radio here (the public radio). We hate him.