Wikitubia:Interviews/bauerklos music

This interview was conducted on December 8, 2016 by Aidan Dunphy

bauerklos / Alex N. is a YouTuber with over 1,920 subscribers as of December 9, 2016.

Q1: How and when did you discover YouTube?


 * I'm not so sure of the specifics, but it was probably around 2007 or 2008 when I first actually went to YouTube and watched a video (so I was about 7 or 8 at the time).

Q2: Can you remember what the first YouTube video that you ever watch was?


 * One of the first videos I remember watching was SMOSH's Pokemon Theme-song Lipsync video, as well as a tutorial called "How to record with Hypercam 2" (Hypercam was a popular screen recording software back in the day). Back then all the videos had the same YouTube-given music like "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White Tees, or "With a Spirit" by 009 Sound System, so old tutorial videos are very nostalgic to me.

Q3: Can you remember what the first video game that you ever played was?


 * The first video game I played was Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube. I still have my original disc!

Q4: Who was the first YouTuber that you were a fan of?


 * My first favorite YouTuber was probably Cinemassacre (Angry Video Game Nerd / James Rolfe). I was pretty young to listen to such vulgar humor but most of the time I got it and I had a lot of laughs.

'''Q5: Who influence you to make YouTube videos? '''


 * Well, my channel consists of video game music so I mainly get influenced by video game composers themselves as there's always a good video game soundtrack I can get inspired by. Non-video game influences are probably, (and this is probably a weird one), The Beatles. I've been a fan of since I was young and my father showed me some of their tracks. I really enjoy their style that's unique and that inspires me to be more unique with music and ideas.

'''Q6: What do you think about the new YouTube Advertiser-Friendly content guidelines?


 * I can see why YouTube wants to put these sorts of guidelines in place but I definitely feel it takes away from the humbleness YouTube use to have, as it feels like more of a platform for big companies and products to buy advertising space, and I get that advertising is important to run a website but I don't want YouTube to lose that "You" part. Also, there's the fact that people have gotten their videos demonetized for simply having a suggestive word in their title, which I find a little lacking on YouTube's part when it comes to detecting what videos they want to demonetize.

Q7: How did you come up with your former YouTube channel name aza3ful1 and your current YouTube channel bauerklos / Alex N.?


 * I think it was me hitting random letters on my keyboard in 2010 that allowed me to come up with "aza3ful1" because I was young and didn't really care much. I ended up leaving the YouTube channel for 3 and a half years before I returned to it with a different name (bauerklos) because that was my username on other sites. Then I switched it to Alex N. because that's my actual name. But since I'm not the brightest kid on the block I'm using both now (bauerklos / Alex N.) because I can't decide which one I want to keep.

Q8: Currently who is your favourite YouTuber or YouTubers?


 * I really enjoy a lot of h3h3productions' content, along with penguinz0. Angry Video Game Nerd is still a favorite of mine! I think I like too many other YouTubers to list them all at this point though!

Q9: Do you have a favourite and least favourite video that you have uploaded?


 * My favorite video is probably my first one, "Hacking Pokemon Ruby" because of it's abundance of foul language that I can't believe I wrote at 8 years old, - it's nostalgic YouTube audio library pick "Hey There Delilah", and the nostalgic view of me opening Hypercam 2 with Internet Explorer on my Windows XP. My least favorite video is my first MUSIC arrangement upload, which is labeled "Pokemon- Mt. Coronet [R/S/E Soundfont]" because it's utter trash, but I guess you gotta start somewhere!

Q10: What is your favourite part about having a YouTube channel?


 * My favorite part of having a YouTube channel is being able to top yourself with every upload, and being able to look back on work as you progressed and see how you started and how you've grown from one point in time to another. Especially if it's over the course of almost 5 years! That's crazy.

Q11: Will you ever upload a Facecam or Face Reveal video?


 * I think sometime in the near future I might record a piano cover or something! It would be some kind of fresh new content I would love to make, so that'd be a good opportunity to reveal my face.

Q12: You currently have over 1,915 subscribers, did you ever think you would have that many subscribers?


 * Hell no, I thought I was going to stay at 14 subscribers for my entire YouTube career (back in 2010 and again in 2014). Once I started gaining traction (despite it being small), I would always think "wow, me from 4 years ago never expected THIS to happen".

Q13: You currently have uploaded 466 videos, did you ever think you would uploaded that many videos?


 * Absolutely not - like I said before, YouTube is a great way to see how much you've grown at something for a long time so it's definitely nice to have that much to look back on.

Q14: Currently your most viewed video has over 26,500 views, did you ever think one of your videos would have that many views?


 * I definitely didn't expect it to get that much attention for sure, and even better, on a much more popular YouTuber's channel, (Mixeli), a music track of mine was used and the video garnered over 90,000 views! It definitely gave my channel a boost and it's crazy to think that so many people have listened to your music.

Q15: What is your lifetime subscriber and video view goal?


 * 10,000 subscribers is my goal currently, but I'm not gonna rush to get there! A video with 1 million views would blow my mind for sure, so that's a goal of mine as well.

Q16: What was your lifetime subscriber goal when you first started uploading YouTube videos?


 * My sub goal back in 2010? I think it was 50 subscribers, which funny enough took 4 years to get to because I had not logged on for those 4 years.

Q17: How long do you think YouTube will last?


 * I think YouTube will last as long as people use it - it's extremely convenient to use compared to other video sharing sites so that's a plus! It's community is huge so it'll be around for a loooong long time for sure.

Q18: How long do you think you will be uploading YouTube video?


 * I couldn't tell you, but I'll be trying to upload music on the side when I can even in the far future.

Q19: Are you planning on going to any YouTube conventions?


 * I really would like to head to one, but I live in deep NYC here in the good ole' USA, and being in high school currently I haven't got all the time in the world. But I really hope I can in the future!

Q20: What advice would you give to someone who is trying to make videos on YouTube?


 * Find an audience and stick with it. See how they react to certain kinds of videos (or even music if you're like me), and allow them to make constructive criticism. I thought I was a hot shot when I started making music but I've progressed so much in 3 years. I'm still not a hot shot, but criticism goes a long way whether you like it or not.

Q21: What is the future for you and your channel?


 * In my case, I'm gonna try to get a job somewhere doing music. I'd love to work at Nintendo or something for sure as that's always been a dream of mine, to compose music for a game by them. Even then, I'll continue uploading to my channel no matter what. I hope to move on to not just video game music, but creative covers of more popular music as well that include vocals and more live instruments.

Q22: Have you ever done a interview like this before?


 * I haven't, but I hope I've done a decent job for the first time! Thanks!