The Recorder

A recorder is a necessary tool in any interview. However, it can stop the interviewee from truly getting comfortable. I learned this recently as I was interviewing my dad. As always, he was ready to talk until I told him he was going to be recorded. I assured him that no one was going to listen to it accept me and he still had a hard time getting started with the essential question: How has your upbringing shaped who you are?

My father enjoys talking about the old days.

None of the stories I heard growing up were discussed during the interview. He was quiet at first. I had to use probing questions to get him to talk some more. I also had to phrase the question in another way to make him start thinking about his career and his life now. It was funny that with the recorder he felt like he needed to be cautious. How will others respond to a voice recorder?
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Throughout the interview, my dad kept coming back to a central theme, observation. He said that he was an observer. He believes that growing up, his observation of people around him, shaped who is today.

My dad is a chef and usually everything revolves around food and when he was younger, he did not have to cook. His older sisters and mother cooked for him. However, he was watching and asking questions. It was not until he was 19, that he started to take some real interest in cooking. Through observing chefs in the kitchen, he developed his talents.

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I asked my dad what was so difficult about having the recorder on the table and he said that he felt like he was under scrutiny. This is interesting and important to think about. He suggested that I start off with a simple, easy going conversation before I dig into the interview. This is to make the interviewee comfortable with the recorder and the process.