The interview with Britt Daniel of Spoon featured this week is actually the second interview I did with him. The first was back in 2003 in Providence, RI, and it turned out to be an utter disaster.

First, we waited until after his set to chat, so Britt was pretty wiped out. There was also an impressive blizzard brewing outside, which added a sense of urgency (particularly since I didn’t know how I’d get home that night).

But the real problem was that I didn’t have any lavalier mics, and all the camera mic picked up was the sound of tables being dragged across the club floor as they were closing down for the night. The result was total cacophony with Britt’s lips moving and no discernable sound coming out.

I had considered posting the interview anyway with subtitles… or even more tempting, with subtitles that weren’t actually what Britt was saying. For example, while Britt was talking about heating up beans, I could write “First, I sear the fois gras while preparing the balsamic reduction” (you get the idea). In the end, I decided just to shelve it and hope that I’d get a second chance.

My second chance came when I ran into Britt at the Austin Convention Center during the 2007 SXSW festival. He remembered me and agreed to do another interview the next time he was in New England. I managed to nab him in New Haven, CT before his show at Mr. Toad’s.

In the time between interviews, Spoon’s popularity continued to rocket with the release of two critically acclaimed albums (Gimme Fiction, and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga) and appearances on Letterman and, recently, Saturday Night Live. By the time I get around to my third interview, they’ll no doubt be rock superstars! And in my opinion, deservedly so.