Q: Where on earth did you get all of these interviews?
A: From various sources. Some from my personal collection dating back to 1984, some from file sharing, some from tape trading, some from personal collections, some were recorded directly from the internet, some were converted from video sources such as YouTube. Basically, anywhere I could find them.

Q: Why do you skip all of the songs the band played during interviews?
A: To help avoid copyright issues with U2 and because this site is about U2 interviews and not providing U2 music. Also, since most of the interviews are recorded in mono and/or at lower bitrates, it doesn’t make sense to “stream” U2 songs at such low quality levels.

Q: I have some old U2 interview tapes I’d like to donate, how can I reach you?
A: Fantastic! Please send an email to interview *at* u2interview.com and we can make arrangements. I can and will pay postage after receiving the tapes/CDs if the tapes/CDs represent a gap in our collection. Our postal mailing address is: U2 Interview Archive, PO BOX 1372, Placentia, CA, USA, 92871-1372.

Q: Can you provide me with a copy of your collection in MP3 format so I can play them on my iPod?
A: No, sorry. Currently, we are only streaming these interviews at modest quality levels for copyright reasons.

Q: Why are all of the interviews encoded at such “modest” quality?
A: Many of the interviews are very old, and as such, were never recorded at high quality to begin with. Also, we have decided to encode at lower MP3 bitrates to avoid a large bandwidth hit. Finally, streaming at lower quality allows dialup internet users reasonable access to the interviews. High speed internet is not ubiquitous as of this writing.

Q: How accurate are the dates you place on the interviews?
A: If we place a full date on an interview, we are fairly confident about the date. Dates were either on the original tapes/CDs or were determined based on other factors, such as “touring schedule logic” as we like to call it. Two great resources that have helped us pin down dates are U2Wanderer.org (a U2 Discography) and U2Tours.com (U2 tour info website). Whenever possible, we cite sources to help document the context of interviews.

Q: How do you capture and convert audio from the internet?
A: We prefer Audacity, and excellent open source sound editing program. Basically, if it can come out of your PC speakers, then Audacity can record it. For internet recording, the key is to set the Audacity recording source “mixed output” or “stereo mixer”. To record a tape or other source, set the Audacity recording source to “Microphone” and plug the tape or CD player HEADPHONE JACK into the computer MIC jack. Once you have recorded, then export from Audacity to MP3 using the Lame MP3 Encoder DLL.