Get To Know Punk Musician Turned Writer Alexandra Weiss

Alexandra Weiss is Interview Magazine’s managing editor. During her college years, she started her own band and toured around the country. When her band suddenly broke up, she had to find a way to stay afloat. She started by interviewing her musician friends and pitching the stories to magazines. Eight years later, she has had a cover story in the style section of The New York Times, edited and written for publications such as Dazed, ID, and Office Magazine, and is now the managing editor at Interview Magazine. Her passion for music, women’s rights, and creative art forms have forged her successful career path. 

 

Q: Since you have been the managing editor at Interview, you have been able to be part of iconic issues with cover stars such as Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, and most recently Lana Del Rey. Do you have a specific cover story or interview that stands out to you most?

A: I've done a lot of stories that I'm really proud of but the whole March issue with Lana is one of my favorites. In addition to being managing editor, I was also in charge of all of the production for this issue because of some staff changes. The Lana story is the hardest I’ve ever had to work on a story. When I got the first copy in the mail I actually teared up which had never happened to me before. This is a hard job and industry, so to see all of that work pay off in such a big way meant so much to me. The impact that the cover has had on social media, Lana fans, and even on my own friends has been a very full-circle moment.

 

Q: What does your day look like as a managing editor at Interview while also writing and contributing to other publications? Do you find there to be a lot of variety in your day-to-day work?

A: My day-to-day as managing editor at Interview never looks the same. It depends a lot on where we are in the magazine making process. For example, we just finished our next issue and we’re about a quarter of the way through the summer issue. Usually I am coordinating interviews for upcoming stories, coordinating photo shoots, and working on web stories. I also do managerial things like getting new ink for the printer and a lot of copy editing when an issue is being finished. 

 

Q: You are also a contributing editor for Office Magazine and write for multiple other publications such as Dazed, ID, and Oyster Magazine. What is something you do to make sure you're portraying each publication's different brand voice even though they all focus on pop culture content? 

A: Separating brand voice is a really important skill and something I have had to work on over the years. No matter where I’m writing for, I have my own voice and that voice is tweaked a little bit for the publication I’m working on. The type of story I write for each publication also varies. I might write about the same thing for The New York Times as I would for Interview or ID, but I would write about it in a different way for each of them. For example, Interview is very specific. For print, it’s almost all talent-on-talent interviews. Whereas for the New York Times, I’ll spend a month interviewing subjects myself. I did this story for The New York Times 2 years ago that was about financial dominatrixes. I wouldn’t write something like that for Interview, at least I definitely wouldn’t in that same way. That was a heavily reported piece that I spent 6 months working on. If I had done that story for Interview, it would have been along the lines of “these are the 5 coolest, hottest dominatrixes in downtown Manhattan''. 

 

Q: Something so special about Interview is how celebrities interview each other, rather than a writer interviewing talent. From an editing standpoint, this seems like it could get kind of messy. Are there questions that are created ahead of time or are they completely made up by the celebrity interviewer themselves? 

A: We really do follow Andy Warhol’s philosophy of sticking a tape recorder between two people and letting them talk. Every once in a while we’ll give talking points if the interviewer asks for it. It will be something along the lines of “this person has a movie coming out and this is the role they play in that movie”. We really just let them do their thing, we don’t interject. I have worked with talent on talent conversations for years, even before Interview. I would moderate and often jump in to try to guide the conversation in the way that I wanted for the story. That’s just not what we do at Interview. As far as the editing process goes, we go in and fix any spelling mistakes that happen during transcribing. There are some challenges you might think you would run into like maybe they'll have a boring conversation or not talk about what we want them to talk about, but that’s never happened. Even when they talk about something we never would've guessed, that’s interesting in its own way. 

 

Q: Interview has had somewhat of a rocky past with the magazine both folding and relaunching in 2018. Even though it's 5 years later, do you ever feel the effects of the magazine being somewhat “new” again? Do you enjoy working for a magazine with a smaller staff?

A: Interview just has such a long history. Andy Warhol started it in the 1960s and we really try to stick to those roots. Interview was the magazine I read when I was in high school when I was first interested in fashion and culture. It has had various ideations but it’s had the same through line that has been really true to what Andy started. It’s a legacy brand in that way. So even though it was relaunched, it wasn't like we had to start from scratch. There was a brand to build on. 

 

Q: You have written and created a lot of content about women’s rights and sexual freedom, such as being the editor-in-chief of A Woman’s Right To Pleasure. What was this experience like and did you always know you wanted to write about these topics?

A: I started my working life as a musician. I was in a band when I was younger and we were touring, making records, doing the whole thing. I thought I would do that for the rest of my life. My band broke up suddenly and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I decided to just start interviewing other musicians and pitching the stories to magazines in the hopes to make a little bit of money to survive. Now I’ve blinked and it's been 8 years. I didn't mean to get into this industry, but once I did I loved it. 

 

When I look back on the music I made, we sang about a lot of the same things I write about. It was never a conscious decision that I was going to write about feminism or women empowerment. I'm the type of writer and person where the things I like are a big part of my identity. The things I think about and talk about with my friends make their way into my art. As far as A Woman's Right to Pleasure, that's a really specific thing I never sought out to do. I got brought in to put together this art book and it consumed my life for 3 years because it was such a big and important project.

 

Q: What qualities does Interview have that drew you to work there? Were you actively seeking out working for Interview or did it come out of nowhere? 

A: I had written for Interview as a freelancer and have been a fan of it for a long time. I was so consumed in working on A Woman's Right To Pleasure the few years prior that I was not looking for a job. I remember last summer seeing Interview’s Anne Hathaway cover and thinking “wow Interview is killing it lately and what they are doing looks really cool”. Randomly, the person who used to have my position reached out to me and asked if I was looking for a job. So, overall it was totally random but it has been a magazine that has been in my life for a long time before even having this position.

 

Q: With Interview still having a print presence, is that something that is important to you as an editor? Do you enjoy the digital transition most magazines are taking now and how do you see this impacting your future as an editor?

A: I don't know if it affects the editing and writing too much. We do something different on the website than we do in print but that's just by nature since print is basically all of the talent on talent conversations. On the website, we will have a writer interview an artist or write an essay. By the time I started in this world, print was already “dead” and on its way out. As a reader, I enjoy print but I also enjoy it as a writer, editor, and artist. Although, I have also written stories that I have loved that have only lived online. It is really special that I was able to go to the bodega when I had a cover story in The New York Times and show the guy working there my name on the paper. When I was younger, if I was a fan of a band, I bought every issue of every magazine they were ever on the cover of. Honestly, there's just something nice about a tangible object. 

 

Q: While you were pursuing your undergraduate degree, you took time off to start a musical group, “The Shining Twins”. How did you decide to take a break from your degree to pursue this? Was coming back to school after your break stressful? 

A: In college I was in this class where my final project was writing a few songs, teaching myself how to play the bass, and producing the songs. I liked it so much that I decided to pursue being in a band. We were successful enough to be touring 90% of the year, so I logistically couldn't be in school. When my band broke up, it seemed natural to go back to school since I only had a semester and a half left. I also went back and got my master’s in journalism last year. In my jobs, I sometimes would get so stuck in the editor role. I wanted to go back to writing. It was a great experience because I worked the whole time but got to focus on perfecting my craft. 

 

Was it hard going back during my undergraduate years? For sure. I felt like I had been out in the world for so long that coming back to school was a little weird. With my master’s degree, I didn't feel like that because everyone was a professional who had been out of school for a while. If you don't have to take a break for logistical reasons, I wouldn't. Do I regret taking a break though? No, I had the most amazing experiences and was able to be successful in a career. 

 

Q: Interview is known for its more edgy, out-of-the-box shoots and stories. As the magazine progressively becomes more popular, what goals do you have for the future of Interview?

A: Honestly, I love everything we do. I just want to keep doing it, do more of it, and reach even more people.

 

Q: If you could give anyone that is trying to go into the magazine industry a piece of advice what would it be? Is there anything you wish you knew from the start? 

A: It is a lot of hard work and you really have to want it. I have seen a lot of people burn out quickly because they don't really love it. You shouldn't just decide you want to write because you have no other options, even though that's kind of what I did. You should be a writer because you want to write. I have very rarely in these 8 years had someone telling me what to do and when to do it. I had to be pushing myself to pitch stories, pushing myself to edit, pushing myself to keep writing, pushing myself to keep going. It's really easy to get a few nos and say “I’m not gonna pitch any more stories for the next 6 months''. You really have to love it to put yourself through it.