Sound and vision

To those of us of a certain vintage and nationality (and round here you suspect that just means me and Clarke), the phrase TV On The Radio only means one thing – Tommy Vance’s ’80s Friday Night Rock Show on Radio 1. Thankfully, Brooklyn’s TVOTR have very little to do with Tygers Of Pang Tang and Saxon. They are, as founding member David Sitek explains, delighted to be on this side of the Atlantic for the first time.

“We have yet to bring the music to the people over here and I have to bring it personally,” he says. “We’re really psyched do be doing this, while not simultaneously making pizzas and bringing them to lazy, impatient people.
“I have no idea of what’s going on over here,” he admits. “I’ve spent the last year in a van with four guys, so admittedly my perspective is laden with testosterone and not at all accurate or far reaching.”
No matter what fashions come and go, there is always a deep-set fascination with American music wherever you go in the world, something that Sitek sees as a mixed blessing.
“In my mind, I can’t really justify the fact that Jessica Simpson sells more records than Black Bass or the Liars but I think that the really active music listeners are seeking a lot of stuff out from the States. I think that the grass is greener theory comes into play and that people don’t give their own soil as much credit as somewhere far away. I remember being so convinced that everything was much cooler in London, wishing that in 1984 I was there and really upset rather than being happy in the sun.”
TV On The Radio themselves are almost a potted history of American music, drawing not only on the in vogue garage punk sound (Sitek has worked with the aforementioned Liars and Yeah Yeah Yeahs as a producer) but also jazz, blues, soul, gospel and even hints of ’50s rock ’n’ roll and doo wop.
“It’s certainly not a common collection of sounds,” he continues. “I don’t think we have a contemporary directly but as bridges between music get stronger and firmer you’ll see all types of different things. It’s hard to believe that we are alone given the condition of the world, it’s surprising to us that everybody’s not doing it and that for the most part what’s being propagated by the industry is just one period of music.”
Given that the industry is so in control, does David not still find it a surprise that a band like his can travel thousands of miles to somewhere completely new and still find an audience waiting for them?
“I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and be washing dishes somewhere. I’ve had something like 60 jobs and I’ve always just worked to get recording equipment, and then I go and get fired because I’m late for work. I’m so ecstatic to be doing this. We don’t underestimate the intelligence of the listener and this is our reward for that.”

TV On The Radio’s Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes album is out now on 4AD