Interview with David Marchese
David Marchese is a reporter for the New York Times and co-host of The Interview.
The Barber’s Haircut
Contents
Max Raskin: This interview is going to be like asking where the barber gets his haircut.
I know you have a theory of the first question being a microcosm for the whole interview and everyone who has interviewed you has made a joke about asking you an interesting first question to set the tone.
So I think the only place where I can start is with this question: What is your favorite color?
David Marchese: [laughs] It's a funny question. I'll tell you two that are vying for the top spot. Kelly Green and black. In a heavy metal way. Spinal Tap…none more black.
MR: And then second, the obvious follow-up, is what's your favorite food?
DM: I don't know that I have one answer to that question and I increasingly worry that the fact I seem to really enjoy all food must just be an example of my taste buds dying over time. There’s really nothing that I eat and I think, "Oh, I don't like that." I just really can go to town on anything you put in front of me.
MR: Do you snack during the day?
DM: Oh yeah, of course.
MR: So what do you snack on?
DM: Well, it depends what's in the house, but, for example, today, I had what I would call elevated GORP [good old raisins and peanuts]. So raisins, but then with honey roasted peanuts. And then I also had a couple of pistachios in there. A little later in the day, I had a chocolate-covered graham cracker.
MR: Oh, really?
DM: Yeah, delicious. Dark chocolate.
Premise Rejectors
MR: Are you a feinschmecker about anything? Like do you really know and have strong opinions about scotch or jazz music from the 1940s or something?
DM: It’s a good…[pauses].
No.
MR: Were you about to say it's a good question? Because that means a lot.
DM: I was about to say it's interesting because it raises the question of what it means to be an expert in something. Anything that I could claim any expertise on — aside from my own life — that expertise is a drop in the bucket compared to an actual expert’s.
I could tell you, for example, that I really do know a lot about rock music and jazz from the '50s to the late '90s, early 2000s. But am I really an expert on that? I don't know that I'm really an expert on anything, but I have enthusiasms.
MR: Is there anything else you have really strong opinions about?
DM: There's stuff I really like, but I'm also realizing as I'm talking out loud I just think, “Who am I? I'm just some yutz. Why am I talking with any authority about anything and why would anyone care what I have to say about anything?" I really believe anybody can like whatever they want or have whatever opinion they want.
MR: De gustibus non est disputandum.
DM: What's that mean?
MR: It means, “Of taste, there is no dispute.”
DM: Yeah, that's how I feel. I have strong opinions about metaphysical questions like we should all aspire towards goodness and kindness and try and help each other.
MR: No, no, no. I'm not talking about that. I’m talking about things like: Is Coltrane better than Bird?
DM: Okay, I'll give you an opinion because I know I'm not answering the question the way you want.
I think there's a case to be made that Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones is a better rock and roll guitar player than Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. If you factor in Ron Wood's work with the Faces and on Rod Stewart's solo albums, I think he’s the better player, but you always think of him as the second banana.
MR: Coke versus Pepsi? Do you have anything like those things?
DM: I feel like I'm letting you down, Max. It's a live and let live vibe.
MR: Do you get annoyed when people question the premise of your question?
DM: Yes. It is a thing that happens when you talk to people, as I'm sure you've experienced, you just get premise rejectors. And it is annoying. So I apologize if I'm annoying.
MR: Oh, you're not.
DM: I think the thing that happens with premise rejectors is that they usually understand the question that you're trying to ask them, but they're trying to control it in a certain way and they're not really playing ball in the way you might hope.
That's not what I'm trying to do with you. I'm just trying to give you an honest answer, so I don't want to gin up something to answer the question straightforwardly if I don't actually feel it.
Job Interview and Secret Fantasy
MR: I want to have your job. If you ever leave your job, can you recommend me to your bosses?
DM: It’s gotta go through HR, my friend.
MR: Is there anyone whose job you want?
DM: It's not so much a specific person with a specific job, but there are other things that I would really like to do. I feel like if my path and my skills had been a little different, I would've loved to have been a novelist or someone who wrote books.
My secret fantasy, which is about to be no longer a secret, is I would've loved to have been a musician.
MR: Last time we talked you had a guitar over to your left.
DM: It's still here.
MR: What kind of guitar is it?
DM: It's a brand called DeArmond. It’s like a Gretsch Duo Jet — a rockabilly guitar from the '50s and '60s. But I got it mostly because I just thought it was cool-looking. I like the finish on it.
I got it when I was around 18 or 20 and I was into the idea of working on guitars at that time. So I switched out the stock pickups for these other ones just because I was interested in futzing around with it.
I made it sound worse, and I never put the originals back in, so it looks cooler than it sounds. It doesn't play super well, but it’s my Frankenstein, so I like it.
MR: What’s the last song you played?
DM: I was going through a Who phase, so I was working on “Baba O'Riley” and “Join Together. ” Both very easy.
MR: What’s the last album you listened to front to back?
DM: Wrong Way Up, which is an obscure album by Brian Eno and John Cale from 1990. See, this is something I have a strong opinion about — the Brian Eno songs on it are far superior to the John Cale songs, and they're just incredible. There's this one called “Spinning Away,” which I think is all about van Gogh and his artistic process. It's the most beautiful song in the world, and there's at least three or four songs at that level on the album. If you're at all a fan of Brian Eno, I highly, highly recommend it.
David Marchese’s 2024 in Music
MR: Can you share your Spotify Wrapped for this year?
DM: Sure — I'm going to look at it and decide whether or not I think it's embarrassing.
MR: Why would it be embarrassing?
DM: Oh you get self-conscious about other people judging your taste. That's all.
MR: I read that you used to have low self-esteem.
DM: I think depending on the day, the “used to” may or may not be true.
MR: So what were your most played songs last year?
DM: So my family uses my Spotify account when we go on car rides. This is all stuff that we've just been playing over and over, which is not necessarily the stuff I would choose.
So I’ll tell you now, the number one most played song for 2024 is “Escapade” by Janet Jackson. Number two, “Raspberry Beret” by Prince. Number three, “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Jepsen.
So the first one that comes up that I know is my choice, at number seven, after Olivia Rodrigo's “drivers license,” is Grateful Dead doing “Peggy-O” live in Englishtown, New Jersey.
MR: 1977.
DM: 1977, yeah. Dick's Picks Volume 15.
MR: I know that song. I know that album very well.
DM: Unbelievable, unbelievable performance.
MR: I'm putting it in there that I got the year right.
DM: You should.
MR: What are your other top two that are just yours?
DM: They're so corny. “Against the Wind” by Bob Seger. And then the Grateful Dead doing “Dear Mr. Fantasy→Hey Jude” from October 1989.
Questioning the Dead
MR: So you're a Dead fan.
DM: Yeah. I really love the Grateful Dead.
MR: So wait, hold on. I didn't know that. What are your favorite years?
DM: I don't think I could pick a year, but I can say that lately, I've been more inclined to listen to the Brent Mydland years.
MR: The best.
DM: So maybe right now, it's 1990 — in that '79 to '90 period is what I've been most enjoying.
MR: [Pauses.]
I just forgot what I wanted to ask.
I remember reading you hate it when you forget questions while you're talking, and you try to cover you for yourself.
DM: Yeah, you just tap dance until it pops into your head or until you move on.
MR: Yeah, I'm doing that right now.
[Pauses again.]
Oh, and I just got it.
DM: There you go. Good.
MR: Have you ever interviewed anyone in the Grateful Dead?
DM: No, I don't think I ever have. I really would only be interested in talking to Jerry Garcia.
MR: Or Bob Hunter?
DM: Mostly Jerry Garcia.
MR: Oh, that's wrong. It's either Jerry or Bob Hunter or Mydland.
DM: To interview?
MR: Yeah.
DM: Was Brent Mydland an interesting interview?
MR: I don't know. But he just seems more interesting to me than anyone else in the band.
DM: The reason I say no to Bob Hunter is not because I wouldn't be interested in it. It’s just my sense is that he was so reluctant to explain anything.
MR: So then you ask him other questions like, “What does he snack on?” He famously wrote “Brokedown Palace,” “Ripple,” and “To Lay Me Down” after drinking a bottle of Retsina.
DM: It's a Greek liqueur, I think.
MR: So this was all prelude to this question: Do you hate Bob Weir?
DM: No.
I think he's pretty far inferior to Jerry Garcia as a singer and an instrumentalist and a songwriter, but I think you do need him to balance it out a little bit.
MR: I interviewed Steve Silberman and asked that question to him.
DM: What'd he say?
MR: He made this great point that the “China Cat Sunflower→I Know You Rider” from the Europe ’72 album is actually a great bit of Weir playing. And I admit I love the Winterland transition.
DM: But you know what the crazy thing is that people who really like him will go online and compare his rhythm guitar playing to McCoy Tyner.
MR: Because he said that! He compared himself to Tyner’s backing Coltrane. Then you listen to the isolated audio.
DM: It's ridiculous.
MR: It’s absurd!
DM: But I will say, when I do focus on Bob Weir’s playing, I appreciate that he's not just doing up and down strumming. He's trying to add things to it.
But I think Jerry Garcia is truly a genius musician.
MR: And a genius figure in American life and history.
DM: Yes. I remember interviewing Trey Anastasio and he was telling me about when he first saw the Grateful Dead. He said something like he knew right away that seeing Jerry Garcia up there on stage was seeing an iconic American character. Like if you had gone to see Woody Guthrie or Lead Belly or something.
Like a Rolling Stone Interview
MR: I totally agree. Do you feel that way about anyone today? Do you feel that way about yourself?
DM: Oh God, of course not.
MR: Is there anyone you feel that way about?
DM: Of living artists, I really do think Bob Dylan is the greatest songwriter of the last hundred years and somebody whose music people will be paying attention to for a long, long time.
MR: Dylan or Leonard Cohen?
DM: Well, that's a really good question. I mean, I definitely go back to Bob Dylan more. I think if you were to take their 10 best songs, it's probably a tie. But I think Dylan has more interesting nooks and crannies and peaks and valleys. I even like the bad Bob Dylan because I'm like, "Oh, I find it interesting that that's what you were doing then." I have no critical perspective on him anymore.
MR: The Great American Songbook or Bob Dylan — what’s better?
DM: Bob Dylan's covers of the Great American Songbook.
MR: There’s something really deep in the simplicity of the Great American Songbook and I also really love Dylan singing it.
MR: Early Springsteen, do you like?
DM: Love.
MR: Amazing, right?
DM: Catch me on the right day and I would say The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is arguably his best album.
MR: Do you like “Incident on 57th Street”?
DM: Love.
MR: Early Springsteen is just so much better because it’s these magical stories instead of complaints about repealing the estate tax or whatever.
DM: “Wild Billy's Circus Story,” “New York City Serenade.”
MR: That has one of my favorite lyrics of all time, “It's midnight in Manhattan, this is no time to get cute.”
MR: Charlie Parker or John Coltrane?
DM: Well, for me, it's John Coltrane. A Love Supreme was the first jazz album that really caught me.
MR: Is music your thing?
DM: I would say yeah. It's probably the art form I love the most and that I can get most emotionally swept up in.
NytGPT
MR: Do you use ChatGPT at all?
DM: I have used it, yeah.
MR: Do you use it to write any of your questions?
DM: No.
MR: So I used it to write some questions.
DM: How do you find that goes?
MR: I mean I used it right now to write some questions.
DM: But have you used it for this before?
MR: No.
MR: I just figured it'd be fun to do it with you.
DM: You know I just remembered — the one time I used it in this context was at some point I think I wanted to see what its idea of a David Marchese question was.
And I thought, "Oh gosh. If my questions can be reduced to these, either my questions need a lot of improvement or ChatGPT isn’t what I need to worry about."
MR: [Uses ChatGPT to describe a classic David Marchese question.]
“A classic David Marchese question is one that feels deceptively casual but cuts to the heart of a person's values, experiences, or contradictions. It reflects deep research, a keen sense of the subject's public persona, and an understanding of their work or worldview. The hallmark of his style is a blend of curiosity, challenge, and a kind of intellectual playfulness.”
Do you agree with that?
DM: I'll take that. Sure.
MR: How do you say your name?
DM: Mar-kay-zee.
MR: Is your dad Jewish?
DM: He converted. He was born Italian Catholic.
MR: And your mom?
DM: Jewish.
MR: [Uses ChatGPT to write a David Marchese-style question to ask David Marchese.]
When you're interviewing someone, how much of the conversation is about understanding them versus understanding yourself through their response?
DM: No comment.
MR: Really?
DM: No, I'm just teasing you.
MR: Oh. What's your answer?
DM: I would say it's much more about understanding them. And if I can get some understanding of myself, that's the cherry on top, but it's not the sundae.
MR: I thought that was a stupid question.
Here’s a better one it came up with: If you could interview any historical figure, who would it be?
DM: Jesus. Einstein. How do you pick one? Elvis.
MR: I’d maybe try to find someone who buried treasure somewhere and ask where it was. That's a rejecting-the-premise answer, right?
DM: No. I was looking for worldly wisdom and you're just looking for dollars, man.
Levity and Loss
MR: I have a couple more questions. This is going to get heavy.
DM: You don't have to preface it. If I don't want to answer it, I'll tell you I'm not going to answer.
MR: You interviewed the doctor who killed your mom.
DM: Yes — assisted death.
MR: Were there any moments of levity in that whole process?
DM: Oh, yeah — lots.
MR: What?
DM: There were really a lot of them. There'd be moments where I'd be talking on the phone with my mom in the weeks leading up to it. Our relationship with our parents, at least speaking for myself in some ways, you're stuck in adolescence. So I'm talking with my mom and she'll be yammering on about something and I'm holding the phone away from her thinking, "Why is she telling me about the lunch meat in the fridge or whatever?" And then I think, "Oh, but I'm being disrespectful…she's going to be dead in two weeks.”
Then there’s gallows humor. She'd be looking at her garden and say, "Oh, that needs to be weeded." And then she'd go, "It's not really my problem anymore." That kind of stuff.
Nicholas Cage and Flossing
MR: A lot of people have interviewed you. And I got to tell you, Carrie Neill’s interview with you on dscout is so good. I’m just going to link to it because it’s better than my interview if someone wants to know you as an interviewer.
MR: Who’s your favorite interviewer?
DM: There are lots of really skillful people. There was an Italian interviewer Oriana Fallaci, who was well known for these really combative, brave interviews with major world political figures.
Maybe the rise of podcasts has had something to do with this, but it feels like there are a lot, a lot, of good interviews out there if people want to find them. And I don't know if 10 years ago it felt like the interview as a form was something that people could or should be spending so much time and energy on. So I think that's nice.
MR: Do you listen to podcasts?
DM: Only as research, basically.
MR: Let me ask you this free association: What is the first interview of yours you would recommend people read?
DM: The first one that comes to mind is Nicolas Cage. He said very Nicolas Cage things.
MR: If I could grant you a wish and you could interview anyone now, who would it be?
DM: Dalai Lama.
MR: What kind of microphone do you use?
DM: It's a Shure MV7.
MR: What do you use to shave?
DM: I'm very brand agnostic. I think like a Gillette Mach3 or something like that.
MR: Do you floss?
DM: Oh, yeah. Once a day, not twice.
MR: Okay, last thing. What song would you recommend people listen to right now? If they made it to the end of this interview, what song is the prize for making it to the end of this interview?
DM: This is a song I've been enjoying lately. There's a version of “Life Is a Carnival” by The Band from the Rock of Ages live album. It has horn charts by Allen Toussaint. Just the whole thing, the whole arrangement, the singing, the playing is truly joyous.
MR: Where does this interview rank 1-10?
DM: 12.