📢 Sammmm249: Hello, Sammmm249! It's great to finally speak to you.

🗣️ Sammmm249: Please, call me Sam! Well, thank you for having me. Honestly, I was a bit taken aback when you asked if I’d be up for this - not sure if many people are being interviewed by, uh, yeah, themselves!

📢 Sammmm249: Well, I've been wanting to play a role in the User Interviews here for a while, so I'm very pleased. Yeah, I’ve been instructed to say that this is a one-off to intеrview oneself - I guеss we're just so exceptionally amazing that we get to do this.

🗣️ Sammmm249: Mm, or I have a massive ego and I'm a persistent convincer.

📢 Sammmm249: Totally. Let's get the interview started, shall we?

PLAY THEME TUNE COMPOSED BY TAYLOR SWIFT

📢 Sammmm249: Okay, first question. Simply - why do you genius?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Is that the verb? "To genius"? ... Right, yeah, uh. 'Cause it's fun, really, and the best place for me to nerd out on topics I love doing, plus, writing's fun! Um, I first joined Genius in November 2022 to upvote some stuff, I think. And then in early May 2023, I added my first song, "charlie!".

📢 Sammmm249: Wow, it's fascinating to trace it back. So that was the glorious start of your transcribing career?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Well, I copied the lyrics from a fan-made YouTube video and just slapped on some headers. Pretty glorious, yessir.

📢 Sammmm249: Well, you gotta start somewhere! No worries, I won’t tell. 😉

🗣️ Sammmm249: What are you doing under the table?

📢 Sammmm249: Texting my mother, sorry.
🗣️ Sammmm249: Your mum’s called Gary?

📢 Sammmm249: Uh, yes? ... Shut up.

AD BREAK (THIS IS VERY COMMERCIALLY VIABLE YES)

📢 Sammmm249: Anyway, next question. Let's try and get a flow going, yeah? Now, I noticed earlier that you said "mum". You’re British? I didn't know that!

🗣️ Sammmm249: Haha, I can't tell if you're joking! It may be said that I make that quite a large part of my personality, admittedly... But yeah, I’m from north-west England. In all honestly, I'm not that proud of it - Brexit, Tories, royalty, empire, corruption, Birmingham... The list could go on and on. But then again, I live in a great part of the world, surrounded by the outdoors, raised in a family with a stable income, and given a great education and opportunities, so I can't complain that much. Plus, we make the best music.

📢 Sammmm249: That's really nice to hear. 🥺 Now, tell us about your hobbies!

🗣️ Sammmm249: Ooh, hobbies! Yeah, no, I'm not great at all that. Well, obviously Genius! I'm on it every day, even if I don't really annotate/transcribe each day, but I like to occasionally spring to life and chuck out a cool new bio - you gotta love a good ol' song bio - or a new song for one of my favourite artists! I've always got something on the go in my Notes app. Apart from that, I enjoy reading, politics, music, and films/shows. My top three favourite TV shows right now? I'm glad you asked! Inside No. 9 is so incredible each episode, The Repair Shop is fantastic to unwind to after a long day, and I'm enjoying going back through The IT Crowd of late. No idea when this will get published, but as of writing, I'm working myself up to watching Adolescence, which has made such amazing headlines lately, but I've heard it'll be a pretty heavy watch!

📢 Sammmm249: Wow, that might be the most British list of TV shows I could expect from you. Crack out the VPNs, guys. Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed you don't watch Coronation Street or EastEnders or whatever. 10 Brit points deducted.

PLAY LAUGH TRACK

📢 Sammmm249: Now, MUSIC! Wanna tell us about your taste in it?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Eek! Well, it varies. It's mainly a blend or pop, rock, and alternative, but I have been known to value classical and dance music on occasion. I would tell you my favourite artists, but you would probably recoil in disgust (they haven't got the coolest reputations)! Yeah, many are pretty mainstream, but I do like some niche artists too. And yeah, I'm gatekeeping. You Scribers are like parasites, hands off my artists!

📢 Sammmm249: Yeah, I don't think any of us were gonna steal them anyway, to be honest. Okay, quickfire time... Fave colour?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Orange!
📢 Sammmm249: Ick. Fave word?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Easy, agathokakological - "composed of both good and evil".

📢 Sammmm249: La de da. Fave animal?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Take a look at my profile picture, man! Kitty cats are cool.

📢 Sammmm249: My bad. Fave GIF?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Only recently discovered it, but already a big fan - this.

📢 Sammmm249: Should have known. Fave season?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Winter, it's nice and cosy. And you don't needa go outside as much!

📢 Sammmm249: You're so real. And amazing. And pretty handsome. Fave memory?

🗣️ Sammmm249: It's really niche/nerdy, and don't judge, but I took the day off school on 4th July 2024 - the UK's polling day - to go canvassing with a local political party. Had a great time being surrounded by amazing people - albeit a bit older! - with the same views as me - that doesn't happen often for me, apart from my family! - carrying out the same aim and having a nice time. Roll on 2029.

📢 Sammmm249: Damn, that really was niche and nerdy. Well, that's nice, and a good way to round off our quickfire questions! Join us after the break, when we'll be doing stuff!

🗣️ Sammmm249: Who do you keep talking to, man?

AD BREAK (SO MANY COMPANIES WANT TO ADVERISE WITH US, GOLLY)
📢 Sammmm249: Okay, Sam, our time's running out... Now, you've progressed in Genius from, as you've told us earlier, joining in November 2022, and then, in 2024, you seem to have had a flurry of progression from becoming a Transcriber and Editor in almost the last week of the year! What's next?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Really all thanks to some great mentors, Mods, and generally cool people! Well, I'm not sure, really. And because I don't have anything else for me to work too, really, I'm really scared—

📢 Sammmm249: Stop saying "really". Sorry, go on!

🗣️ Sammmm249: —that I'll just stop using Genius. I mean, what's my motivation? Sure, it's something fun, but you don't keep playing Monopoly without first place in the horizon. Well, I don't. I get real stroppy during Monopoly. Such an idiotic game where you're exp—

📢 Sammmm249: *COUGHS*

🗣️ Sammmm249: Right, yeah. Well, I'm scared I'll stop geniusing soon. Then I'll probably resort to drugs, who knows. Downward slope from there. But in the meantime, notably, I'm doing a clean-up with the Alex Williams Photography - peak British nerdery going on there - and while I'm not working on it often - sorry! - it's nice to have that to go to if I'm feeling stuck on what to do. Some days tend to be pretty difficult - thanks, humans - so it's nice to have a thing to go back to each day. Genius is good for that.

📢 Sammmm249: I totally agree, Sam! 🙂 Final question to close today's interview - what do you want to be remembered for?

🗣️ Sammmm249: Well, I hope I was a good sport, I'd say.

📢 Sammmm249: Thanks for joining me today, Sam. See you around.

🗣️ Sammmm249: Thanks, Sam. You're a good one.

📢 Sammmm249: I'd say.

UNNECESSARILY FADE TO STEVE COOGAN DOING AN IMPRESSION OF NEIL KINNOCK

ROLL CREW CREDITS