Three years ago TV on the Radio began in a loft, in a part of Brooklyn that, at the time, was highly concentrated with various talented and influential artists and musicians. This hotbed of creativity, open-mindedness and community helped turn their musical sketch into an audio reality. Tunde Adibempe (vocals, loop pedals), David Andrew Sitek (sampler, guitar, pedals), Kyp Malone (vocals, guitar, loops) and relatively newer members Gerard Smith (bass) and Jaleel Bunton (drums) make such interesting sounds harmonically, vocally and musically that their music defies genre and even description. I recently talked to founding member Tunde Adibempe about the past, present and future of TV on the Radio.
I hate to ask this question because it’s such a cliché, but TV on the Radio sounds different from anything else. Do you guys have any outstanding influences that helped shape your sound?
I think all of our influences come out in different ways when we play or sing, but they might not be so conscious when we’re doing it. If I could eat a pill that would make me sound like Blind Willie McTell and Sam Cook, El P, Devo, Nirvana, the Buzzcocks and Outkast all at the same time, I would definitely find that pill and take it. But the next best thing to that is keeping the feeling of music that you really love in your head and in your heart when you are playing and it will probably find its way out in a little more genuine way than trying to rip someone off.
I tried, and wasn’t very successful... can you describe TV on the Radio’s music?
I’m the worst in the world to do it. Fancy music. I don’t know. I know it’s a weird cop-out to say go and pick this up and listen to it and give it a name, but I’d actually rather people did that... give it their own [name] and keep it to themselves, because after something is given a name or put into a genre, it sucks the life of it. If someone is encountering music for the first time and if it’s been given a genre name, that person could react with, “Well, I don’t even like that music,” and they’ll never give it a listen. So I don’t know. Fancy music. Terribly, terribly fancy music.
Do you guys make all the music yourself or do you use a lot of samples?
Sort of a combination, but... the technique that David uses is where we play the instruments and then sample them.
So you guys make the sounds, then use those to loop?
Yeah. Usually it’s a sound that Dave will make and then sample, and then tweak even more inside the sampler.
I’ve noticed a certain amount of darkness and of humor in your lyrics. Do you think so? And do you think you tend to gravitate toward dark, funny things in life?
Definitely. I think everyone in the band is fighting complete and total cynicism. But there is also a lot of optimism in the band, which comes across in the recordings. Even though the subject matter is dismal and despairing, sometimes there’s the feeling that the song is working through something that seems insurmountable and you just have to navigate it for four minutes before you realize it’s fine.
I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing.
Me either, so fuck those people [laughs].
I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing.
Me either, so fuck those people. (laughs)
I read that you were a film student, into making animation, as well as a painter and a cartoonist. Are you still involved with any of these projects?
I am. Not as much right now because the band is sort of priority right now. But I’ve got an animation studio here right now by some incredible stroke of luck. There are four of us who have been making animation in the studio for six months now. I’ve got a book of sketches that I did about the same time as “OK Calculator” and I’m printing them up and taking them on tour with us, so I can bring some of those out to people. I’d really like to get back into it as much as I can. I just have to figure out the logistics of touring and things like that. I still love animation and cartooning and comics and all that stuff and would like to do more of it. I think for the next album the plan is for us to direct most of our own videos unless something really very special comes along. We’re actually writing a lot of things with that in mind. We’d like to make an accompanying film.
It’s a little early to talk seriously about that, but I think something will happen.
What would your reaction be (or what was it) if you walked into some sort of public space and your music was playing?
It’s happened before. It was really uncomfortable until I realized that nobody knew it was me. Then I could chill out a little, but it was a weird feeling. I had to leave immediately. When you make something, at least for me, no matter how proud of it I am, there is an element that you’d rather somebody listen to it when you are not there because you start to hear little things that you may classify as errors that no one else will ever know of. And I think to myself, “I can’t believe I did that in what’s playing right now. Everyone will know I suck.”
Like a lot of New York based bands, there was a ton of hype surrounding TVotR before the band had really released anything. How did you deal with that?
I just thought a lot of it was funny. A lot of it came right after the EP was out. “You’re the next big thing” is the worst, most misleading title to put on anything. It’s like, “How do you know?” We don’t know. We don’t care that much either. That sort of hype is the territory, though. People need something to talk about. We’ll see what happens with the rest of it. It’s a really strange, strange thing.
If you guys do get famous, how do you plan on dealing with fame?
Cabin... in the woods. Instantly. I don’t know. I really have no clue. I’m always excited to meet somebody who really likes what we are doing; I have no problem with that at all. Who knows what will happen or how receptive people will be? I’m not expecting any stalkers.
You never know...
Well, no stalkers that we can’t at least have coffee with.
Do you plan on using your music to eventually run for governor or to take over the world?
Oh my God. Maybe emperor. No, definitely not in the cards. I don’t think I’d want to be in charge of the world. It’s a fuckin’ mess.
Is the New York music/art scene pretty close-knit or do you know other artists like Nick Zinner and Brian Chase (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Aaron Hemphill (of the Liars) through other means?
Those guys we all met because we did live in a very, very close radius at that time. I think actually Nick and Karen and Aaron and Katie and Angus were all living in the same building, which was like four blocks away from our thing here. They would come over because David was working on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs record and the Liars record as well and they’d just come over to hang out. Everyone would be hanging out at the studio. I just remember that we’d be halfway finished with songs or just beginning songs and people would hear stuff and ask if they could add something to it, or we’d ask if they were interested in putting anything on it, if we had a part we were thinking of that someone could play. And everyone was just really cool about just coming in for like fifteen minutes then walking out to the common space and sitting around eating and wasting the day away. It was pretty much like playing. It was pretty special, and even though it was pretty recent I feel as though things have changed in certain ways.... People live in Manhattan and New Jersey and have moved away. Everyone is still cool and still okay, but it was nice to have a space where everyone could just run into and no matter when you came over something would be going on. I do feel like the art and music scene here is pretty tight knit as far as friendships and acquaintances go. But also geographically because you couldn’t really throw a rock without hitting someone who is in a band... not that you should do that. But that’s pretty much how it is around here.
Vocals seem to be the instrument of choice for TVotR. Is this the case?
We are definitely a vocally-based band. When I started making music, I got really frustrated with trying to learn how to play an instrument. So I would just make sketches of songs by using my voice for guitar parts, keyboard parts and cello parts and then throw it all together. It was the only way I wrote music, so it was a natural extension for me to keep doing that. I’d just sketch out a song with my voice and then start filling in the parts where an instrument could go. A lot of David’s stuff that he played for me when we first started playing music was mostly instrumental. It was just a good combination and everything just fit. Our only rule is that we don’t have any allegiance to style and we don’t have to judge anything until we’re at a point where we feel we’re finished with it. So far it’s yielded stuff that we can at least listen to with a straight face.
How important are the lyrics to your songs?
I would say pretty important. They’re always important to me when I’m writing them. I usually don’t sit and write for fun; it can be fun, but I usually write when I need to clarify something in my head. With this band the lyrics are very, very important and I hope that people can read the lyric sheets and it is as engrossing as written words or as poetry. I think that’s the level that I hope for, that I strive for.
Beat, rhythm and harmony all play an important role on “Desperate Youth, Bloody Thirsty Babes.” Do you see these elements as being key to music? Or just to your music?
I think of those things as being key to our music right now as far as synchronization. There is so much possibility with sound, it’s just such an open field, so at least for me my definition of what music is is always shifting. It’s never really pinned down. For us, definitely on this album it’s that way. I don’t think those three things are key to music, but they definitely help out (laughs).
So do you guys already have another album in progress?
We have sketches of stuff ready, but nothing that’s really at the halfway point yet. We have a lot of songs that we didn’t put on the full length for whatever reason. But now we’ll be in the van on tour humming one of those songs incessantly and saying, “Why didn’t we just keep working on that?” I can safely say that six or seven songs that we didn’t put on the full-length probably in some permutation will be on the next thing.
TV on the Radio are touring through Northwest in April with Seattle’s Hint Hint. The Seattle show is April 25 at Neumo’s and the Portland date is April 26 at Berbati’s Pan.
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