I've been following Random Goth Couple for quite awhile, and thought they would be a lot of fun to interview. This is also my first interview with YouTubers, so, yay! I absolutely love Conor and Lynn's content! If you aren't following them, make sure you go check them out! They're a lot of fun!
Q: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FIRST VIDEO YOU EVER PUT UP.
L: The first video we put up was I believe the Amsterdam Video. If it's still up don't go there, don't watch it haha. I was too shy and I wouldn't talk on camera so you were like ok i'll do the talking... so nothings changed haha
C: We went to spend Christmas in Amsterdam and we went to see the Cool Japan exhibit in the Tropenmuseum. I think it was 2018 so it's nearly 5 years ago now. I've thought about taking it down a lot of times because it's. Tt's not edited really badly or anything it's just it's not very us. It was the first Vlog we did it's just like a standard YouTuber vlog video and it hasn't got any of our style infused in it... but it's nice to look back on. I'll probably private it right before this goes live now because I'm embarrassed haha
Q: WHAT GAVE YOU THE IDEA TO START MAKING CONTENT?
C: Around 2017 we finally started travelling and doing all the things that we had always wanted to do. We visited Salem for the first time and had an amazing experience there, and the following year we went to Halloween Horror Nights ,Horror Made Here, and Disney Halloween for the first time .Just all these really cool
experiences and when we came back we were looking over pictures and videos and they were terrible haha they were awful! We had really really awful phones at the time and we were really disappointed because we wanted
to be able to look back on these memories.
L: Also because I have a terrible memory haha and we were looking at these pictures and couldn't make out anything. We were planning on going to Japan the next year and Conor knew what a big deal that was to me and he got me this camera for my birthday to make sure we got good pictures. And he got me a small camera so that it wouldn't be a stress to carry around and he was like "this should be okay for you to carry around and film with
because its really light". But eh... I'm weak haha and it still gave me a hand cramp. So he ended up having to record anyway. I had like a little following on Instagram and people wanted to see what I was up to and they always said that they would like me to do videos but I was really shy and I wouldn't talk on camera so I asked for his help with that, try and get me to be more confident and stuff. I still struggle talking to a camera.
C: We basically just started uploading videos to show our friends and family what we'd been doing. We actually had to take some videos down after we started getting subscribers because we had family occasions and stuff on there. I always filmed the videos like vlogs because it felt more comfortable talking to the camera and explaining what we were doing and then over time more people started watching so we started doing more Youtuber type videos. We never sat down and said okay lets be youtubers, It was a very natural progression.
Q: HOW DID YOU REACT WHEN YOUR CHANNEL STARTED GETTING A GOOD FOLLOWING?
C: That's a good question.. I don't remember! Haha It happened very fast. We were uploading videos sporadically for the first year and we had maybe 100 subscribers. Then less than 6 months later we hit 1000 and we were blown away, that was a huge deal to us and we started then to try to upload a bit more often because i think we had maybe 5 videos at that time after 18 months. And then out of nowhere one day one an older video that I think was nearly a year old at this point just blew up out of nowhere and YouTube started showing it to everybody. It hit the algorithm really really hard and started getting 20000 views a day and in the space of two weeks we went from 1000 subs to 20,000 or something like that. It was the most sudden thing, out of nowhere, I
didn't know what to do.
L: My main focus was just making sure to answer the comments because I always want to make sure I answer everybody's comments and there was suddenly so many so I was just freaking out. I always made sure to comment back to every comment but it got to the point where it just wasn't possible but I was trying my best! I was just trying to message everybody back and tell them we appreciated them and answer their questions and I was just freaking out the whole time, that's all I remember.
C: Yeah I remember you freaking out because this video went from having 10 comments to like 1000 out of nowhere and I do remember you actually sitting there trying to answer all the comments on it and it took days. We were Just in shock to be honest, it was wild. I think the first thing we did was a live stream to come on and be like "Hello what is happening? there's a bunch of people here now. This is crazy. Hi!" and just explained what we were about and what we we wanted to do and there was like 300-400 people there and they were all just so nice and supportive so that was the wake up call for us to actually start focusing on making content and
taking it more seriously.
Q: WHAT'S THE CRAZIEST EVENT YOU'VE BEEN TO?
L: I guess now we can say download festival. It was crazy in so many different types of ways. The amount of bands, the heat, the experience.
C: I still think the first time at Halloween Horror Nights I would classify as being like the craziest event I've been to. That was very very overwhelming at the time it was so unlike anything we had ever been to in Ireland or in the UK. It was so full on! Scare actors EVERYWHERE, the pyro displays and all the haunts from movies we loved. It was so different from anything we had ever done at that point so I think that that's why it always sticks out to me.
L: I just felt at home there to be honest, I was comfortable. I'm definitely sticking to Download.
C: I mean you did see someone relieve themselves while walking directly in front of you. While they were still wearing pants.
L: Yeah thats honestly one of the craziest things i've seen. I mean I saw someone in a giant inflatable pig costume get chased by someone in a butcher costume and I saw a giant Pikachu in a mosh pit. And I've just never seen so many hot sweaty alternative people in one place.
Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY WEIRD FAN INTERACTION STORIES?
C: I think we have been really lucky in the sense that any of the people who like our content that we've met in real life have been very very chill and just very laid back. Everyone has been really respectful that we've ever met in the real world. I do remember though when the ice cream TikTok blow up I was getting recognised a lot for that and that was really odd. One day in the city someone stopped me and asked to take a picture with me. Normally in those situations if people want to take pictures its because we're dressed up and in full makeup and they want to take pictures with the both of us. This guy specifically just wanted me and I wasn't wearing make
up or anything. So I asked him why he wanted a picture and he said "I saw your TikTok about the ice cream" so I agreed and he just took a picture with me and then just walked away? So that was weird. He didn't say anything encouraging or that he liked our videos... Just took a picture with me and went about his day so yeah that was pretty weird thinking back on it.
L: We have more strange reactions with just random people over people that actually know who we are. We've had people take pictures of us randomly and shout at us and call us over just to talk about something that don't actually know who we are.
Q: IF YOU WERE A SALAD, WHAT DRESSING WOULD IT HAVE?
L: I wouldn't be a salad hahaha We're not Salad people. Actually being honest I do like salad, I do eat it a lot. I like the white sauce
C: Mayo?
L: It's not Mayo, it's just called salad dressing? You know what actually if I was a salad it would be chocolate sauce
C: Yeah Hershey's chocolate sauce makes more sense for us.
7. WHEN YOU'RE ON THE ROAD, WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE SNACKS?
L: Lunchables
C: Ewhhhh
L: Hahaha anytime we go to the UK or anything I always get Lunchables because I feel like they're easier to find over there. Recently we saw one that had Oreos and stuff in it so it's nice its like a snack and a dessert. I definitely also bring my vitamin juice whenever we travel anywhere.
C: I always go in to default mode whenever we're travelling anywhere because I know there are certain things that you can get pretty much everywhere so for me it's usually Pringles. Because I know no matter where we are in the world I can get Pringles. So Pringles and a Kinder Bueno is my default snack anywhere I go.
Q: WHAT'S THE FURTHEST YOU'VE TRAVELED FOR AN EVENT?
L: We flew to LA for 4 days just to see the Trinity of Terror tour. I mean we did other stuff while we were there
but..
C: Yeah I suppose that one counts because we literally flew over there just for that concert. And second would be M'era Luna festival. Ireland to Germany isn't THAT far but because of where it is we usually get two flights and 2 trains and we're travelling for about 10 hours.
Q: GOT ANY BIG PLANS COMING UP FOR CONTENT?
C: We've been focusing on interviewing artists this year. That's been our big new thing and we've had some amazing guests so far. We have more of those in the works that I'm personally very excited for.
L: I think overall the next big one for us is M'era Luna. We always love covering that event. It's always the happiest time of the year for us.
Q: BEST LIVE PERFORMANCE YOU'VE SEEN?
L: I've talked about this so much recently just because it was so great but honestly if you had asked me this question before download I don't think I would have had an answer and I think that says a lot about this band and their performance.
C: It's just happened so it's so fresh in our mind. Take away our Goth cards haha but it was Bring Me The Horizon at Download. It was one of the highest budget most involved shows I've ever seen, it had a storyline, they had actors on stilts in costumes that were changing every song, their Pyro set up was insane.
L: I think before that it would have been Motionless In White a couple of years back when they were really into their spooky stuff and they had people dancing on stage giving out candy and they all had a spooky horror aesthetic going on with their pumpkins in stage and everything else. That's definitely one of my favourite things to see but for now I'm going to stick with my Bring Me The Horizon at Download Festival
C: Obviously we've seen a lot of incredible bands play smaller venues that have put on great shows but when you're up against a huge production with so much money and so many moving parts it's hard to compare. They're almost like two different things. For small shows we saw Lordi play a 500 cap venue here in Dublin and I was so impressed with how much they put in theatrically in their performance. It was a small venue and they did costume changes every two songs, they had all these different characters come out, all these props and changing backdrops and stuff and I remember being so impressed how they had put on such a theatrical
performance in such a small venue so more more credit to Lordi.
Q: HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH IDEAS FOR CONTENT?
C: I feel like we made a list three years ago and we're still living off it hahaha We sat down, brainstormed and wrote down all our ideas and we've just been living off that ever since. Obviously there's other things that come up that get slotted in that are more time-sensitive like interviews or events and usually if we're going to an event somewhere and we have spare time I like to check out what's in the local area and then see if there's any way we can form a video around that. We have about 4/5 different "series" on the channel that I feel videos fall into and
we just add to them over time. Some things do come up randomly like the Ash Wednesday TikTok just came to me ON Ash Wednesday. We were talking about it because I had been out at the shop and saw someone with Ashes on their forehead and I thought how funny would it be to go to a church in full black metal makeup and get the priest to put Ashes on me and it was literally the day of at around 5pm and we just ran out and immediately filmed it. Usually the best ideas come when you're not thinking about it and it just comes up naturally.
L: It happens randomly too. I think watching TV shows, listening to music etc helps or I might see a TikTok of something that I think we would want to react to or something like that. That can definitely encourage us to
make a video.
Q: WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST STRUGGLE AS CREATORS?
C: Keeping a schedule... Definitely haha We had had such a perfectly mapped out schedule for the past 2 years that SHOULD run like clockwork at this stage but something always comes up, life gets in the way. I stress about that a lot, because I'm like ok we have to do one video a week, every week. Simple! I think the longest run we've had of that uninterrupted is 5 weeks and then something came up and we missed a filming day and then we couldn't film the next day either so that video ends up a few days late and then the next filming day we can't film because i'm still finishing the last video and you end up basically chasing your tail trying to catch up and its
easy to get burnt out.
L: I think mainly in this day and age it's that there is so many different platforms to be posted on. It's not just YouTube, it's TikTok, it's Instagram, its Twitch. It's just so many different platforms that you should be posting on frequently and it's really hard to stay on top of it. I feel like it's going to keep growing too, there's always going to be new platforms and it's getting harder to always post and always have content.
C: I agree it's like "OK we filmed this YouTube video that's going up this week but in the meantime I have to have some pictures to post on Instagram and also I need to be making short form vertical content for TikTok and Instagram Reels and Shorts on YouTube" and the list just never ends.
L: It's hard to say because it's great to put your full attention on the one thing but unfortunately right now it's like you need to be on all platforms to grow. And it helps grow your other platforms by posting on them so you kind of have to be on everything. And it's just behind the scenes stuff too that can be very time consuming that people don't think about. Like set up, lighting, sound, and there's always tech issues. You can't just sit down and
do the video you want to do and it's done. Editing then too takes a lot of time, especially if there were any issues with sound or anything.
C: On average a sit down talking video takes four days. One day to get ready/set up/film and export all the footage, two days to edit, and then a day to export and make thumbnails and upload and make sure everything is OK. So that's 4 days of the week gone already. Without all the other platforms to think about. And that's just a sit down video in our room, never mind if it's a two day shoot where we have to go outside for some segments or anything like that.
L: It can just take a lot longer than you would imagine if you weren't making these kind of videos and you didn't know the work that went into it.
Q: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY TO YOUR FANS WHO MIGHT READ THIS?
L: Thank you for the support, we couldn't do it without you, we wouldn't have all these amazing experiences like going to Download or meeting all these amazing artists if it wasn't for you. And thank you for your patience waiting on content because I know we're not the fastest on that haha we're trying our best.
C: Just thank you all for for everything and just being the best. We have such a great community and every time we do live streams we're just genuinely blown away by how respectful and kind you all are and we're so thankful for it.
L: Yeah and not just to us, to each other too. Everyone is just so nice to each other and are there for each other.
I love these guys!