Many people dream about interviewing a member from one of their favorite bands. Whether it be the lead singer, the bass guitar player, or the drummer, a lot of record companies will personally help set up an interview with them. Many companies also have college outreach programs which allow students to personally talk with them.
University of Northern Colorado alumnus Theron Roe, a former journalism major, interviewed one of his favorite bands, the Psychedelic Furs, during his time at The Mirror. Roe graduated in 1993.
The Psychedelic Furs is an English band formed in 1977. In the 70’s, the band consisted of members Richard Butler on vocals, Tim Butler on the bass guitar, Paul Wilson on the drums, Duncan Kilburn on saxophone and Roger Morris on the guitars. According to the band’s website, Vince Ely replaced Wilson the drums and John Ashton was added to the guitars. Currently, the Psychedelic Furs consists of Butler on vocals, Butler on bass, Richard Good on guitar, Mars Wilson on the saxophone, Amanda Kramer on keyboard, and Paul Garisto on drums.
The Psychedelic Furs have released songs called “The Ghost in You,” “Heaven,” “Dumb Waiters,” “Pretty in Pink,” and more throughout their career. According to Roe, he had to contact the Psychedelic Furs’ record label in order to set up an interview. He said most record labels had college outreach program contacts for college radio or other media sources.
“So, through them I set up an interview with one of the band members, that there was an associated time that I called,” Roe said. “I interviewed the bassist for fifteen minutes or so, but it was all kind of coordinated with the record company and it was, we did it by phone and then published it as a Q and A kind of thing.”
Roe said the process of connecting with the record label and setting up an interview was very professional.
“Another story that was pretty interesting I worked on, we did a feature on tattoos. And of course, this was, you know, early 90’s so it wasn’t as prevalent as now, but I interviewed a tattooist for the issue and in the process of doing that I got my first tattoo, so I’ve been through the experience,” Roe said.
According to Roe, he wrote freelance stories for The Mirror before he was hired on as a staff writer. At the time, freelance writers would see if the editor had any stories that they could cover and then write them.
“Once I became a staff writer I would be assigned most of my stories, but if there was something of interest that I thought would make a good story I would submit it to my editor and they would help me go do it,” Roe said.
During his three years at The Mirror, Roe became the entertainment editor. As the entertainment editor, Roe solicited story ideas for both writers and editors, as well as kept track of what was going on around that time. Roe said in 1991 or 1992 The Mirror also distributed comments in the paper to try to get conversations going, instead of just doing the normal newspaper thing.
According to Roe, The Mirror tried to give current events the importance they thought the events deserved, such as Germany reuniting in the 90’s. The reporters took their jobs seriously not only with the events happening on campus, but also events that affected the people in Greeley, as well as Colorado students.
Although Roe is not in the journalism field currently, he said The Mirror prepared him for a good career. Roe also said other staff members on The Mirror are still among his closest friends and he still keeps in touch with them.
“That aspect of it especially is something that I still keep with me today, is the friendships and the colleagues I made at the time,” Roe said.
