It’s 7 in the morning…
…and I’m already at the office, even though office hours officially start at 9, and I usually get here much, much later (haha). So what am I doing here at this ungodly hour? Not for kicks, I assure you. See, this is the downside of having to conduct phone interviews with someone on the other end of the world, i.e. we here in Indonesia have to adjust to their schedule. In this particular case, I was given a hotel room number to call at 6:45.
There are a number of options when a record label sets up a phone interview for you with one of their artists. They give the artist your number and have the artist’s people call you; they have you go to their office and make the call from there; or you can make the call yourself from wherever is convenient. I was given the third choice, which allows for a certain degree of luxury.
Based on personal experience with these interviews, I eventually opted to calling from the office as opposed to doing it from home or at a wartel. Maybe home wouldn’t be so bad, but I just can’t seem to work there. As for a wartel, I once tried an interview at the wartel across the road from the house. Hassles a-plenty: no speaker phone, which meant I had to hold up my tape recorder (an absolute necessity for me when interviewing) to the receiver - while it was stuck to my ear - and talk into the transceiver at the same time. Hard to concentrate on the interview itself, as you’re trying to make sure everything gets recorded clearly. And after playing back the tape, everything did get recorded. Unfortunately, seeing as the warnet was by a main road, and the phone booth’s walls were paper thin, all I recorded was mostly traffic noises, with some traces of dialogue underneath.
Having learnt my lesson, I did the next phone interview using the nifty speaker phone at the office’s conference room. It’s quiet and the acoustics are awesome, so obviously the recording comes out extra clear. And so on this latest interview, I opted to use it again. Well, actually it was more out of necessity: I’d forgot to write down the contact details sent via e-mail, whereas the internet connection at home is down at the moment.
So what this meant was I had to forego the comforts of home and head to the office at 5:40 in the morning. Usually it’d be unthinkable, considering school and work traffic and that I’m only meant to be at work by 9. But this was special, since school’s out at the moment (I assume), so the roads were pretty much deserted. So I managed to get to the office in just over half an hour, first time I’d ever got there that early, before anyone else. 6:45 arrived, I dialled the number and was told that the phone was in use at the other end. Not a problem, as I’d just try again in a few minutes. But then I got a call from the label, telling me that there’d been a mistake, and that my call was, in fact, scheduled for 11:45.
You don’t say.
So what does one do to pass the time? One takes a long nap.
