We interview a lot of musicians at Tone Deaf, and for the most part, they’re a delight to chat to. Press can be a gruelling part of an entertainer’s job, but the pros understand that it’s necessary and try to make the best of it.
Then there’s artists who genuinely enjoy talking about and promoting their music, these usually make for the best interviews. Then there are the interviews that don’t go so well and even drift into *gasp, horror* awkward territory.
It’s usually no one’s fault and there’s a thousand variables at play. Maybe there’s a bad phone connection or someone’s got jet lag and a hangover (the musician or the interviewer) or it’s the artist’s 100th interview that day.
The general rule of thumb is that you want to avoid awkward interviews at all costs, but we’ve noticed a trend lately of interviewers actively pursuing awkward interviews with popular musicians, usually to rack up views on YouTube.
Sometimes, these can actually be pretty entertaining, especially if the artist or band are in on the joke. Such was the case with that hilarious Northlane interview we recently wrote about. But other times, the schtick wears a little thin.
Case in point is Mr Wavvy, an interviewer whose tagline is ‘Your Daily Dose of Awkward‘. He’s kind of the new kid on the block and as you can see in this Chromeo interview, he’s got the whole awkward thing down pat.
He’s managed to interview some pretty big artists, including Yelawolf, Mac Miller, Dillon Francis, and Jake Bugg. Most recently, Mr Wavvy caught up with Mac DeMarco for an interview that we’ve gotta say, kind of bothers us.
See, it’s fine if you want to manufacture an awkward interview, but Mr Wavvy’s interview with the Canadian songwriter went from being awkward shtick into actually awkward, before drifting into totally inappropriate territory.
After leering at DeMarco for pretty much the entire interview, Mr Wavvy begins suggesting porno titles based on his songs, all culminating in the interviewer forcing a kiss onto the songwriter, who’s known for awkwardly kissing his bandmates, but not… y’know, strangers.
