They had my face huge on the screen.
“Once the drag queen comes out of the cake, you’re up.”
I nodded to my editor and a fellow Dallas Observer writer and I walked onstage, envelops in hand.
The Canton Theater was full of local artists and Dallas music enthusiasts. All eyes were on me as I read out the nominees to the Dallas Observer Music Awards and then did the whole “And the winner is…” while opening the envelope.
One of the names I read was “Bobby Sessions.” He was nominated for a few awards throughout the night, and won 3 of the biggest ones.
The next day, my friend Yani who works for the Universal Music Group asked me to photograph her interview with him.
I arrived at a management studio in Deep Ellum. Bobby Session’s manager, Vince, came to the lobby to get me. When we came up the elevator, Yani and Bobby were sitting on a black leather couch. They both got up to greet me.
Bobby Sessions sang the title track for the new movie featuring KJ Appa, Amanda Selberg, and Common, The Hate U Give.
I took some candid shots of Bobby and Yani as he spoke about his career, his life and his personal connection with the issues in the movie.
Once the interview ended, Yani and I just kind of stayed and chilled in the room with him, his manager, and his girlfriend. We just got to chatting. We talked Kanye West, SMU, and other random things.
Here’s where I took advantage of the situation. I asked him about interviews he’s had with people and what has made a good and bad interviewer. He told me a few key tips:
- Be genuine, but don’t sound fake.
- Be genuine, but don’t sound disinterested.
- Ask questions you genuinely want to know, because the interviewee can tell if you do.
That’s it. Then he took us to the roof of the studio where he often hangs out and thinks. It had a breathless view of downtown Dallas.
Bobby Sessions is a deep thinker and an artists through and through, but he’s also just a chill kid. Almost everything he said was profound, and it was cool to get to know him just as his career is taking off.
isabel notes 