FACEBOOK
GOOGLE
Interview: TV On The Radio (Pt.2)
Interview: TV On The Radio (Pt.2)
- Genre : More Music
- Type: News
- Author : Super Admin
- Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008
The fans that you've cultivated can be a finicky crowd. Noses have been held up at fun before. Was there any internal fear of backlash when you made this album?
I feel like our internal backlash happened a few years ago. That's kind of the most exciting part: finishing something. Besides doing it. Letting it out into the world and seeing what kind of notes come back. Seeing if someone embraces it or throws it back at you.
All of you guys are great musicians. How are the recording sessions? Are all five of you in the studio together?
Things used to get built in fits and stages. One of the ways that a song gets written is that Chip and I will write a demo and it'll get flushed out by the rest of the band, and then we would take stuff home on a little drive and maybe be overdubbing something in the studio. It was like a big relay thing. This was the closest thing that we've done to working a regular shift. It was like, I'll be here from 9-5, and then I'll come back at 3 in the morning. Which ended up working a lot better than having everyone sit here and get agitated and weird with each other.
How long has the process been? Are you always writing songs?
It always has been. I feel like everyone has been writing sketches and stuff. We dropped everything off in January and started recording in February. In January, we pretty much had a big show and everybody that made anything remotely interesting to them brought it in. We just started working from there. In the beginning we had anywhere from 33-34 songs. We realized that we didn't even want to hear that double album.
That also lends itself to some EPs being on the way…
That was the nice thing too. We had some great songs but for whatever reason they didn't go with this batch of songs but would do well on their own. We'll probably be going back to the studio and taking a bunch of disks to get them out.
I read about some of the more interesting studio techniques that you guys have applied on your past records. Did you guys try anything crazy this time around.
You know those little Magic Microphones? On the song "DLZ" I was singing through one of those at the beginning, so it's on the track. That's a very inexpensive piece of studio equipment.
Is there any one song on the record that you can call out as a personal favorite?
I don't know. It's kind of pressurized in the right way. I'm trying to think of one that really sticks out to me. I really liked the song "Love Dog" a lot. I guess that would be my first choice today. It keeps changing every time I go through it again.
I think parents would say the same thing. You've got favorite kids on different days. I feel like TVOTR and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a few other bands that came out at the early 2000s in New York helped give birth to the hipsters of today. But I feel like there's a backlash starting, or we've reached a saturation point with that kind of idea. I know it's not a defined movement, but how do you see yourselves in that context?
I feel like us, and the bands you just mentioned, all lived very near each other and were all making our work in this community of artists. There were tons of weird bands and filmmakers everywhere. I hate to break it to you, but anyone who is working on this stuff for a long time is an enormous dork. No matter what happens after that. I know personally that, if there is a hipster backlash going on, a lot of us realized that we weren't going to be cool a long time ago anyway. I don't know. I also feel like I noticed that scene and know that our music may be a part of it. I feel like everything kind of runs its course.
That's a healthy way to look at it.
There's also something to be said for not wanting to be cool. I don't know.
You guys are a multi-cultural band, and we've got an election going on that's brought multiculturalism to the forefront. Did you think about that when you were first getting together? I feel like, now it's cool to have a black
I feel like our internal backlash happened a few years ago. That's kind of the most exciting part: finishing something. Besides doing it. Letting it out into the world and seeing what kind of notes come back. Seeing if someone embraces it or throws it back at you.
All of you guys are great musicians. How are the recording sessions? Are all five of you in the studio together?
Things used to get built in fits and stages. One of the ways that a song gets written is that Chip and I will write a demo and it'll get flushed out by the rest of the band, and then we would take stuff home on a little drive and maybe be overdubbing something in the studio. It was like a big relay thing. This was the closest thing that we've done to working a regular shift. It was like, I'll be here from 9-5, and then I'll come back at 3 in the morning. Which ended up working a lot better than having everyone sit here and get agitated and weird with each other.
How long has the process been? Are you always writing songs?
It always has been. I feel like everyone has been writing sketches and stuff. We dropped everything off in January and started recording in February. In January, we pretty much had a big show and everybody that made anything remotely interesting to them brought it in. We just started working from there. In the beginning we had anywhere from 33-34 songs. We realized that we didn't even want to hear that double album.
That also lends itself to some EPs being on the way…
That was the nice thing too. We had some great songs but for whatever reason they didn't go with this batch of songs but would do well on their own. We'll probably be going back to the studio and taking a bunch of disks to get them out.
I read about some of the more interesting studio techniques that you guys have applied on your past records. Did you guys try anything crazy this time around.
You know those little Magic Microphones? On the song "DLZ" I was singing through one of those at the beginning, so it's on the track. That's a very inexpensive piece of studio equipment.
Is there any one song on the record that you can call out as a personal favorite?
I don't know. It's kind of pressurized in the right way. I'm trying to think of one that really sticks out to me. I really liked the song "Love Dog" a lot. I guess that would be my first choice today. It keeps changing every time I go through it again.
I think parents would say the same thing. You've got favorite kids on different days. I feel like TVOTR and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a few other bands that came out at the early 2000s in New York helped give birth to the hipsters of today. But I feel like there's a backlash starting, or we've reached a saturation point with that kind of idea. I know it's not a defined movement, but how do you see yourselves in that context?
I feel like us, and the bands you just mentioned, all lived very near each other and were all making our work in this community of artists. There were tons of weird bands and filmmakers everywhere. I hate to break it to you, but anyone who is working on this stuff for a long time is an enormous dork. No matter what happens after that. I know personally that, if there is a hipster backlash going on, a lot of us realized that we weren't going to be cool a long time ago anyway. I don't know. I also feel like I noticed that scene and know that our music may be a part of it. I feel like everything kind of runs its course.
That's a healthy way to look at it.
There's also something to be said for not wanting to be cool. I don't know.
You guys are a multi-cultural band, and we've got an election going on that's brought multiculturalism to the forefront. Did you think about that when you were first getting together? I feel like, now it's cool to have a black
RELATED NEWS
Share
