I am interviewing a few fellow Goths for my new blog [gothicguide.blogspot.com], and some question ideas would be lovely!

What draws you to the subculture?

How long have you been involved in it?

Do you have a favourite 'style' of goth (romantic, traditional, vampire, etc)?

Is there a scene where you are?

Addendum: The secret, or one of the secrets to a great interview is to imagine yourself as the reader of the finished product. You then sculpt and craft questions that you'd like to have answered. Remember as well to keep your questions as general as possible, or at least until the person being interviewed by you says something that you'd feel would be interesting to the reader.

Anyone in journalism/media wanna confirm this? This is just my two cents at this point, and would looove verification of some kind from anyone in the industry.

Hi orlok

I am in the industry and I definately agree with you. An interview with anyone should be constructed to give you insight into the other person's point of view. How they experience, see and interpret the world. And you are absolutely right in saying that is should be structured so as to be interesting to the reader, otherwise, what would be the point? A reader has to take something away from the article you write, and hopefully remember it later in an interesting conversation.

Another trick I have learned over the years is to draw the subject of your interview out of their safety/comfort zone - that way you get more honest responses. With celebrities this is particularly a mission since 9 out of 10 times, if you don't put in the effort, you'll get the canned, PR responses. (Belief me, I've seen the lists of prepared answers celebs have to memorize before an interview!) Oh, and also put in LOTS of research before hand, there is nothing that drives a plugged in, intelligent interview subject stir-crazy quite as much as the same boring questions over and over and over and over again. (Check out all the journo's chucked out of Russell Crowe interviews for reference. they'll call him a twerp, I say they deserved it. If you want to do this job you can NOT be lazy.)

Bottom line is, today's journalists are the recordists of history, and the consciousness of the generation they represent. Make sure what you commit to paper (or screen!) counts.

-- Sun Feb 19, 2012 6:41 pm --

Sorry, Sunday afternoon fuzziness to blame, but I forgot to add to your list of questions

What is Goth to you? (Remember that Goth means different things to different people.)

How do you live Goth? (Again, every individual in Gothdom expresses themselves differently - it gives you a perspective on how the individual Goth blends into the world around them.)

What is the most amusing caricature of a Goth? (brings out the lighter side, and gives you a good insight into how the Goth being interviewed observes the world as he/she perceives them observing him/her.)

If you want to stir the hornet's next a bit, ask the blatantly obvious: Are Goths Satanists? Pushing the boat out I know, so just make sure you didn't manage to find one of the few aggresive Goths to pose the question to It will have a similar outcome as the previous question, but give you a more emotional response and insight. (I have the whole "Satanist" issue now with an alternative rock festival coming to our relatively conservative town - to be honest its really getting my blood up at the moment!)

If the person wears black often (as I do) ask them why. The answer may not be obvious, and will likely include in part a defining aspect of the person's gothic personality.

Hope this answers your question