So, it's here! I was featured on CBS News and I'm still reeling. Huge thanks to a wonderful crew at CBS for making the experience super relaxed and enjoyable. I had an awesome interview and my show was even better than expected. I could safely say, that night, I was on cloud 11! But then comes the day after, when you start trying to rewind & playback the night to see if there were any glaring mistakes you made vocally, any statements you didn't mean to make in the interview, and so on. As a creative person, you're constantly picking yourself apart, not for any masochistic purposes, but because you want to make sure you're learning from each experience, and you want to get it right, or at least, get it better each time.
So, when the producer of the CBS News piece sent me the link to the completed feature, I was overcome with equal parts of excitement and sheer fear. What if I said something I didn't mean to say? What if I had spinach in my teeth during the whole interview? What if they only chose parts of my performance that weren't, in my opinion, my best moments vocally or performance-wise? So, pensively, I clicked on the link, and what do I see: "Norman Vladimir: A Pop-Soul Artist with "depressingly hopeful" lyrics". AHHH!!! Depressingly hopeful?! Did I really say that?! And, I remember, I totally did. LOL!
There was a moment during my interview where I was asked how to describe my writing style, and I referenced an interview I did on Radio 2 for the Netherlands in which I joked with the radio host that my music sounds happy, but it's actually quite depressing...but at least it's hopeful. So, in a nervous twitch of sorts, I combined that idea, and said that my music was "depressingly hopeful". Let me say for the record, that there is nothing depressing about being hopeful - my statement just awkwardly combined two ideas. Basically, I just goofed! So, I thought it was funny that the statement became the hook for the piece, but I think it's good because people will want to know what is meant by "depressingly hopeful". Eh! Live and learn...at least the statement is true! I'll work on my on-air polish, but I'm so happy about the feature overall. Huge thanks to a wonderful crew at CBS for making the experience super relaxed and enjoyable. I felt like a rockstar. I'm looking forward to more of these features.
Much love,
Norman Vladimir
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CBS News Feature:
