Indie Musicians Tell All in Uncensored Interview

As part of YouTube’s Living Legends program, each month the video-sharing site will honor a new eminent figure and give the community an opportunity to ask him or her “burning questions.”

To start it up, the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are soliciting queries. But, like I said before, I doubt anything regarding the band’s alleged involvement in the occult or Richards’ supposed blood transfusions and nose candy will be entertained. Those seem too inappropriate to be condoned by YouTube. They’d be welcomed, however, by Uncensored Interview.

Launched in November 2007 by Marisa Bangash (an ex-MTVer) and Melinda Lee (a “recovering lawyer, turned new media rights person for major media company, turned digital content management person for a start-up, turned entrepreneur”), the site, which was a finalist in the 2008 SXSW Web Awards, is a video platform for indie music artists and fans.

Like Pitchfork, Uncensored Interview is giving a voice to a section of a fluctuating music biz neglected by mainstream outlets. But instead of speaking through reviews and music videos, it’s letting indie artists speak for themselves through…uncensored interviews. ###In a recent conversation, Melinda explains:

Artists signed with major lables have tons more outlets than indie artists do. At the same time major labels are now shrinking and all the overflow of talent fall into this so-called ‘indie’ bucket. It’s truly such an exciting time in music. We want to give the indie artist a platform and at the same time be the platform where you can see the definition of ‘indie’ take shape.

While that definition is still up in the air, UI is doing its part to give the genre some form, shooting over 200 intimate, almost voyeuristic Q&As, broken down into over 3,000 clips, and placed into such categories as

Among all the cerebral, risqué, sexual, emotional, honest, angry, unbleeped selections you’ll find acts like doe-eyed Sondre Lerche comparing Norwegian and American sex, violence, and profanity, The Kills waxing usual angst, Hopewell on porn and good-looking musicians, The Age of Rockets saying WTF to the Bible, The Pierces reminiscing album art and first concerts, Lelia Broussard cautioning hooking up with groupies, and The Whigs dishing their secrets of seduction:

UI’s production teams shoot all the interviews and encourages fans to submit “v-sponses” (video responses) to get involved in the conversation and begin a dialogue between musician and fan.

The site’s collected quite an inventory since Marisa and Melinda first conceived of the idea over Italian two years ago, and its only growing as more musicians find out about a space where they can engage with fans and talk about whatever the hell they want. So, who’s the creators’ favorite so far? 

Marisa: Ha! That’s like asking which of your kids is your favorite. 

Melinda: Oh, sweet. We’ve become unknowing parents.

Marisa: No…I have no favorite bands, but I do have favorite moments. I think almost all of our bands have contributed a unique element to the site and to their fans and I’m looking forward to what more bands have to say.

Okay, so then who would you want to interview?

Melinda: Wait, I wouldn’t mind getting Ani Difranco or Radiohead or Trent Reznor or I don’t know, Weird Al Yankovic – isn’t he indie?