Gavin, the person behind the Nardwuar-adjacent hat and sunglasses, does a surprising amount of footwork for these interviews, and it shows. That effort is what elevates 1QI from just a little social media-based show to something else entirely. You can find all of his interviews on the show’s Instagram, one_question_interview, among other channels (links below).

Gavin is creative – as a Berklee musician, it comes with the territory – and it’s clear he listens to that intuition. It’s a driving force in his life, and it’s brought him to several different projects in the last few years. This one, though, is special. 

He is currently at home in Oklahoma waiting for the school year to start again, but he has several episodes ready that he’ll be releasing weekly. Many of them are with his Berklee classmates, but to be fair, they’re an important demographic in the Boston scene. 

As a person outside of their immediate sphere, it’s nice to get a closer look into their world and art, even as 1QI begins to branch out. I was thrilled he was willing to take the time out of his vacation to chat with me. We spoke about everything from the logistics of 1QI, his music, Berklee itself, and being creative on the internet.  

M: I want to start with something simple: Can you tell us a little about your background?

Sure. I go to Berklee and just finished my second year. I really love it. Boston is just a great environment – [I get to] play music with all my friends. 

I’m in a pretty similar situation to you guys in terms of starting a thing that’s new. I wanted to just open up a platform for people to get to talk about what they do, and highlight people in my local scene. A lot of the people I interviewed so far are Berklee people, but eventually I want to branch out to local Boston [musicians] that aren’t necessarily Berklee. But for right now, that’s what it is.

I noticed you’re playing a character. Are you planning to maintain that distance between you as a person and you as an interviewer? 

Yes. The character I put on is [someone who is] enthusiastic and energetic, but once I hand over the question, I like to stay still and quiet, [to keep] the focus on the other person. 

It’s more just like a vehicle to get the other person to start talking, and then [I do] the outro whenever they’re done. I’m considering putting a little bit more of myself into it later on, but I’m not entirely sure. I’ll figure it out as I go along.

I totally get that. I noticed you do a lot of work behind the scenes with things like graphics and background information. Can you tell me a little about that? 

Of course. Well, before I do an interview with the person, I try to look at everything they’ve ever done. I have a big Google doc [with information] on every person that I plan to interview. Once I figure out what I want to ask them, I’ll kind of hone in on that. 

Then, once I’m editing, I’ll listen to see if they mentioned something that may not make sense for someone watching, and I’ll add it in. [For example,] if they mention an album, I’ll put that album on screen, or something that influenced them or something like that. Or if they talk about a piece of gear, I’ll put a picture of that onscreen. Just anything to make it make sense, because I’d like it to reach an audience that isn’t entirely musicians.

Can you elaborate on your inspiration for starting this show? 

It had been brewing in my head for a few months this spring. I was like, I want to start a video thing, but I didn’t know exactly [where] I wanted to take it because I wanted a unique spin. But I also wanted to reach out to [other musicians]. 

Eventually, it just kind of came to me. I was watching TikToks, and they do a lot of these short form video interviews. I thought that that would be great if it was more focused on musicians, and more open for them to talk for a bit longer. It’s still generally short form. The longest video so far has been about 14 minutes, but the shortest ones are like three to six minutes. That’s kind of the general range. 

I don’t cap it, but short videos are good for social media, so it’s just one question rather than being a huge thing, [which would] be a bigger commitment for people. It’s easy to get people hooked on the pitch when I tell them. 

It’s a great idea. 

Thanks. I came up with it and, you know, I have my phone recording, I have decent video, I bought a microphone, and had access to tripods. I just made it work with what I had. 

I saw that so far, it looks like you guys are in a practice room? 

It’s been different recording locations for most of the videos. A lot of them are in these practice rooms that are actually in my dorms, but some of them have been in the person’s apartment. I’ve enjoyed going to other people’s places to record episodes. 

In the future I’m going to have my own apartment, and I think I’m going to flip it [to be] where people come to my place to record. I’ll have a nicer setup that’s more consistent.

I will say that getting 14 minutes out of one question is pretty incredible, but do you think you’ll ever expand beyond that format? 

I think honestly, the idea is pretty flexible in itself, because I sort of stretch the meaning of a question a bit. It’s less of a question and more of a prompt. It’s open-ended, and they can go into tangents and get into the details of [their answer]. It’s a one-sided conversation in a way. 

That makes sense. Do you think what you’re doing has a universal appeal?

Sure. Well, I think the variety of lengths that I’ve already got in terms of episodes is enough to satisfy lots of different crowds. There are three minute videos for people that may just want to check it out, but not go super in depth, but I also have longer episodes for people that are more into it.

I feel like there’s so many people out there – and so many things I can ask – that I can really run this for a long time, and it will be interesting to all kinds of people.

I noticed you’re spanning genres pretty widely. Is that intentional? 

Absolutely. I’ve tried to get a wide range of people, and I have a lot of episodes stockpiled for the next two or three months that I’m going to release weekly. 

I tried to get a wide range of genre and style, but also diversity in people. And the more it goes on, the more different kinds of genres and musicians that I’ll get, which will be great.

If you have one, would you mind talking about an interviewer or media inspiration? 

Well, definitely. I’ll say one of my biggest influences was Nardwaur. Just like, how goofy he is and everything, and the fact that he goes so in depth in terms of research. I took that aspect of him as inspiration in terms of just figuring out everything I can about a person before interviewing them. 

I feel like he’s got it so down, and [after watching him], I was like, I can do something! Of course, I have to do my own thing, but I can do something like that.

Did you have any interest in journalism or communications before you started this project, or did it come from watching interviews like his? 

Not really. I always thought it was cool, but I never personally thought that I would get too into it. But with this, it’s in a form that I can do, and it’s in a format that I think people will eventually gravitate toward. It’s still new and it’s got a small audience, but with every video, just every week, the audience grows a little bit. After [some] time there will be a big audience for it, I think, which is great.

Do you think this human-centered, narrative structure is where arts journalism is headed? 

I’m not entirely sure, honestly. I think it would be really cool, but it has to be digestible in order for people to accept it as the norm. 

I know this is all music-oriented right now; would you consider artists from other mediums? 

Maybe – I’m not sure exactly who they would be, but I’m open-minded with the whole project. If there’s something that comes to mind – or if someone brings it to me – that makes total sense, then I would like to go for it. But right now, I don’t have any [expansion] plans. 

I do want to talk a little about your experience at Berklee. How is being a musician in the city? 

It was definitely a new thing, going to a city, because I spent my life in a suburban town. I mean, I’ve gotten used to it now, and I really enjoy the city and walking everywhere. Also, I definitely love Berklee. Berklee is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. And the people I’ve met here are all amazing. 

I absolutely love just everything about it. The whole atmosphere. Even just walking down the halls on campus and hearing all kinds of music going on, is just great. I also really enjoy forming bands and making connections. It’s common [to] end up in lots of different projects throughout your time here. As long as you’re open to talking to people, and are social and communicate, then so much can happen.

Are you currently in a band? 

Actually, I started my own band this semester. We’re called We Back. And the Instagram handle is just @webackband. It’s funk and R&B music. 

We’ve played a few shows and I’ve written some original songs for it. I’m planning on recording some of those next semester, and hopefully putting stuff out on streaming.

It’s a whole new experience [to] lead my own band. Trying to figure it out wasn’t all easy, but it was all fun, which was great.

That said, my major at Berklee is video game scoring. 

That’s so cool! 

Thanks! I know. It’s great. It’s like fully interactive music experiences, which is amazing to me. 

You have access to all these music educators – have you considered interviewing your professors? 

I definitely have, and I do want to do that in the future. I would like to interview the ones [who] have more field experience. Technically, all of the professors have worked in the music industry in some capacity, but some of them are much more involved than others.

Well, I think I covered my questions. Is there anything you want to add?

I wanted to add that [for each interview,] there is an end card with the tag and a little musical clip. I make all of those, and it’s been really fun! 

I make them in the style of old cartoons; they have title cards, and a musical sting with that. I do a similar thing at the end of each video, but [those are] a bit longer, and they have a prompt that’s similar to the description, where it plugs everything and has a question for the audience. 

I also made the intro jingle, [which is] a lick that I’ve used in a lot of stuff. There are also a few sound effects in some of the videos for comedic timing. And I made sure that for some of those it’s the same motif as the intro jingle, because I like keeping that consistency. 

You’re essentially scoring your own interviews. 

Yeah. I underscore the video with the music of the person I’m interviewing as well. 

//

The rest of our conversation was simply music nerdery. We talked a bit about video game scoring, I told him how cool he was (probably too many times), and he asked me only to plug the show, so I’ll do that now: 

Watch a few 1QI interviews. Listen to some cool new music. You won’t regret it.

You can find the show on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.