#BehindTheScenes: Interviews: The Yellow Diary
Written on November 25th, 2019 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}The day had finally come.
It was 11:55 in the morning (day 2 of Atmos) but little did I bother to get out of bed because I wouldn't be busy until well after lunch, which was when the pro-show bands would be arriving for their sound checks.
It was around 3 pm when I met up with my partner to go over our questions, which we worked on for 4 days, for the 57th time (Fun!). At this point, we knew everything, except for when we would interview the band, Anand Bhaskar Collective. Nevertheless, we just hung around the academic block, wasting money on food and ATMOS merch, ready to run to the green rooms when chief Nandi gave us a call.
It was at 4 pm. No call.
It was at 5 pm. No call.
It was at 6 pm. No call.
It was 6:21 pm, and we got a call from Nandi. Without even bothering to pick up I began sprinting up the waterfall stairs, towards the entrance to the D-block. Before I even got the chance to mutter "hello" into the microphone, he almost yelled from the other end, flustered and anxious, "listen listen listen. I've put you on a conference call, listen to me carefully. You are going to be interviewing Anand Bhaskar Collective at 9 pm sharp. I don't want any delay. Go through your questions a few more times and just be as prepared as you can. If you guys are not at G-block by 8:50 I swear I will-" he paused abruptly and said in a calm and condensed voice, "just be there guys, and be prepared." And cut the call without hearing a word from us.
I sighed a heavy sigh of relief and went back to clicking pictures with my friends at the waterfall. In fact, it slipped my mind until my watch displayed "8:30 pm" and that was when I began to stay cautious again: phone in my hand, ready to click the green icon when Nandi called; lingering near the exits, ready to sprint when I was summoned; my notes and audio recorder open, ready to spring into action when we entered the green rooms.
The clock kept ticking, but my phone display showed no signs of any notifications or calls from anybody. As time passed by, I began to get worried. Why wasn't Nandi calling? Was the interview canceled? Did the band manager disagree? Did someone take my place to interview them? Did I miss Nandi’s call? Did he forget about us? The absurd questions that ran through my head knew no bounds. I immediately texted my partner, Sanket, asking for updates, but he was even more clueless than I was.
At that instant, I spotted Nandi with his huge DSLR, clicking buttons frantically. I tapped him on the shoulder and shouted at the top of my lungs, so he could hear me through the music, “They just got on stage, how about the interview? Will it happen now?”
He vigorously shook his head left to right. We agreed to get in touch when it may happen and went back to doing our own thing.
It was 10:45 pm when my phone read “Nandi” and instantly, I knew I had to race to the green rooms. As I picked up the call, I threw everything at my friend (including my beloved Frankie and glow stick) and took off.
Once I reached, everything was chaos. Everything was a blur. All I could see was people running around, trying to fetch paper cups, hand towels, and what not.
I stood to a corner, baffled by the immense chaos, like a child lost in a railway station, until Nandi and Sanket came to rescue me. I followed them around like a lost puppy, past the hustle and bustle of the band night, to G102.
Once we reached, it was intense chaos all over again. Nandi was trying to talk to any person he could see there and find out about our interview, but all that we could see were people running around. We decided to sit down on the ground and go over our questions for THE MILLIONTH TIME.
When we spotted Nikhil bhaiya, we instantly ran towards him and asked him about the situation with our interview. At first, he hesitated and muttered "Listen, they're already pretty pissed off that our show is running late. I don't know if it will happen," but looking at our dejected faces, he quickly said "but I'll go have a word with the manager, just wait here," and at this, all of our faces lit up, although the fact that the band wasn't in such a bright, cheerful mood meant that they may not want to talk to us wholeheartedly for too long. Our previous night’s fever dream about having a chance to take a picture with the band while having a wholesome “vibe sesh” with them were memories of a distant past (quite like my Frankie). Nonetheless, we waited for about 10 minutes, when Lokireddy came out of the room and trudged towards us.
“Guys, I’ve tried everything I could. They’re an hour behind schedule and they are definitely not happy with it. Plus-“ before he could finish his sentence, Nandi stepped in and almost pleaded “We’ve worked on this for so long. We’ve put in so much effort, so please, anything that can happen, even five minutes will be good. Please do something.” Nandi was crestfallen, his dejected look, almost moving us to tears.
By this time, we already lost most hope and were figuring out ways to get an interview with The Yellow Diary, even though they didn’t respond to us after we sent them the questions for an interview that morning.
Crestfallen, Arjun Lokireddy said “They asked me if we wanted a pro-show or an interview,” and at this everyone fell silent. Our minds were spinning with the various possibilities that could happen tonight, and one of them (the interview) was about to be knocked off the list. I could hear my heart pound, even over the blaring music of the other band performing 20 feet away from me. "You're telling me the problem, Loki. Can we please find a solution?" Nandi said exasperatedly. Loki responded, "We have a solution. We're getting a show." He turned to us, "I'm sorry guys." The two minutes that passed felt like an eternity, before Nandi said, heartbroken, “oh okay, but if there’s anything that can be done please tell us,”. We shared a glance and Nandi took off with his camera.
Sanket and I sat there, dejected, unsure of whether we should leave or when we should leave. We just sat there, out of place, like two awkward kids exchanging looks that said a thousand words.
“Oh damn, we missed our chance to interview them. Nandi and the Journal Club are going to be so disappointed. I wish we could get an interview - just to finish it off”
“We’re so out of place here. The pro-show is so loud and the band we’re meant to be interviewing is in the room next to us, angry and threatening to cancel”
“Why are the food coupon lines so long? I want my Frankie!” were the thoughts that emanated through our minds.
Looking at the DoPE kids running around trying to hold the night together, it didn’t seem like they would give us any instructions, so we decided to wait for Nandi.
It was 11:20 pm and Anand Bhaskar Collective was walking towards the stage. This was when it hit us. It wasn’t going to happen. If they got on stage now, they wouldn’t get off until 2 am. This was it. No interview. Bye-bye Anand Bhaskar. Bye-bye interview. Bye-bye great photograph opportunities.
Just as we were standing up, Nandi ran to us and said “Let’s try talking to TYD’s manager,” and at that, Sanket and I were baffled. First off, we were counting on someone that didn’t give any sort of response to our question list. Second off, Sanket and I barely researched on them. We only knew general information about them. How were we going to talk to them about specifics for a solid 10 minutes? What was Nandi thinking?
But Nandi being Nandi, he managed to get someone to talk to the manager and agree for a quick interview. When he came back to me, he asked “Shreya, you’ve done enough research on them right? I'll ask Vamsi to join you for the interview. At first, they only wanted one person inside, but I got them to agree to two people. Since you know enough about the band, you'll be going in. I think there is a rough draft of the questions somewhere on the group, look at them, sort them out, edit them, and make sure you're good to go in 10 minutes,".
My heart skipped a beat, maybe even two or three. No Nandi, I don’t know any specific details about the band. I hardly looked them up for 5 minutes. But how could I tell him that? I couldn’t, not at that time, not during that unholy mess. Mild fear and panic took over while I - in my dazed stupor just nodded my head up and down, moved out of the way, and began researching. Google tabs were opened, news articles were speed-read, questions were jotted down and anxiety attacks came and went and came back again. I needed all the information I could get about the band in less than ten minutes. Trust me when I say this, I didn’t go through so much stress even during my mid-sems. At that point, there was not much we could do, so Vamsi and I just decided to go with the flow. All our research and editing happened so fast that before we knew it, the manager called us in. I stepped up, praying that I wouldn’t say something stupid and screw up. Just breathe, I told myself - seconds before I internally screamed, “How do you breathe?”
The room was freezing, and when we entered, the boys were having the time of their lives, laughing loudly, throwing food around and getting manicures done. They asked us to wait for ten more minutes. Honestly, I’ve never heard the phrase “ten more minutes” throughout my entire life combined as much as I heard in that one hour. But those were the most useful ten minutes ever. I sighed a heavy breath of relief, sat down, gulped down some water, thought about my Frankie one last time (hey, I was kinda hungry) and went over everything I had to say with a calm head, or at least I tried, before the manager called us in again for our big ten minutes.
And that, my friends, is how I got my first pro show-interview ever.
Written By: Shreya Guda