Deez Interviews: Meet the Rolling Stone writer who incorporates karaoke into her creative process and wants you to know that everyone else (famous or not) is also a huge dork, too
Happy Friday, Deezers! Today’s interview is with Brittany Spanos, a music journalist who talked to us about the work it takes to put together one of those epic oral histories, how she got her start in music journalism, and why you should def. embrace your inner nerd if you wanna end up on that Rolling Stone masthead one day. Enjoy!
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The interviewee: Brittany Spanos (follow her @ohheybrittany!)
The gig: Staff writer @ Rolling Stone
You originally got your start in media as a fashion closet intern at Allure. What led you to the music journalism path?
Music journalism was the only goal, but working at Allure was my first introduction to what magazines were like. When I started attending NYU, I found the internship search to be really overwhelming on top of working part-time, and the music and pop culture magazines I wanted to intern at wanted people who already had intern experience. I went into the Allure internship without any fashion knowledge (I was pronouncing Lanvin wrong, apparently!) but it was a great learning experience and helped get me in the “media door.”
What's something about covering the music industry that surprises you? Is it all that Someone Great makes it out to be?
I really had no idea what to expect when I entered the industry ... On some level, I thought maybe I would be too boring to interview musicians I thought were cool and interesting. I feared that they — and, on some level, other industry people — would take one look at me and think I’m some small-town dork. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to learn that everyone is also a huge dork, which is something I value when I work with other people or interview artists.
We love, love the oral history you recently put together of Smash Mouth's "All Star." What was it like to work on this?
Interviews are my absolute favorite thing. I have always been drawn to interview-intensive projects and had been itching to do an oral history for years. In the past, I had struggled to get one going because maybe one or two of the main people involved couldn’t or wouldn’t commit, which is make-or-break with something like this.
One of the editorial staff’s pitch meetings late last year was focused on upcoming anniversaries for 2019, and when I saw that the 20th anniversary for “All Star” was coming up, I knew immediately that I wanted to write an oral history about the song and its million lives. I’m glad I didn’t grow too attached to the initial outline I had, though. Everything fell into place with the band interviews, which helped me determine that this wasn’t just a story about the life of song-turned-meme but also the growing tension that comes with having a massive, still-inescapable hit.
I reached out to the band’s management in January, but I couldn’t start the interviews with them until April. The whole thing came together in about two months. I interviewed 12 people for it, and thankfully everyone had fairly similar recollections of the timeline. Putting it together involved an excellent intern who transcribed most of the interviews for me as well as a terrifying color coding system that made piecing the quotes together a lot more streamlined.
My editor was also fantastic and dealt with my increasingly manic Slack messages about Smash Mouth. Also, singing the song at karaoke at least twice during the process was incredibly crucial.
What advice do you have for any young writers who want to be a Rolling Stone staff writer one day?
Spend time really understanding what you love to write about. You should know why you’re drawn to the subjects you want to cover. The unifying aspect of the Rolling Stone staff is that everyone is incredibly nerdy about a very specific slate of cultural interests, and that makes working with my editors and reading pieces by my colleagues extremely fun.
And finally, what's your personal pick for the song of the summer??
No offense to literally everyone, but I’ve been on the Lizzo train for YEARS, and I’m thrilled that she’s finally getting the recognition she deserves. “Truth Hurts” has been on repeat for me since it was released in 2017, and I can’t believe it’s finally cracking the Hot 100. I’m hoping that this ultimate sleeper hit keeps growing this summer. I know I’ll be doing my part by listening to it excessively over the next few months/the rest of my life.
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Don’t forget to follow @ohheybrittany on Twitter, and have a smashin’ weekend you guys!!