TV on the Radio
For TV on the Radio, performing in Sydney this month, you have to leave space in a song for the listener – and for laughter. By Jenny Valentish
They’ve had a tendency, TV on the Radio, to try and kill off a pop hook with textures and twists, as though they’re afraid of it. With fifth album, Seeds, a truce has been reached and the ideas are free to breathe. The lyrics, too. There’ll always be an existential twist, but now that frontman Tunde Adebimpe has hit 40, his philosophy is to speak from the heart. He talks to Time Out before the Brooklyn/LA quartet’s date at the Forum.
Tunde, the members of TVOTR can go on hiatus or work with other people, but they come back and the magic happens again. Is recording almost a spiritual experience? It’s spiritual in so far as when you get together with your closest friends it’s indefinable and makes you feel better about your life. We’re all so different, but in the context of the language that we speak musically, we’re on the same level. We’ve got decades-long in-jokes. Do you follow each other into emotional peaks and troughs? We used to, but now if someone’s in a bad mood we just get away from them [ laughs]. These days nobody has time to get sucked into something that’s not at least funny in a very anarchic sense. When we get punch drunk that’s particularly infectious and can absolutely go too far. Which is funny, because you’re saddled with a reputation for being austere – perhaps for the sociopolitical content of some of your material. Serious songs can be a vessel for exploring those feelings, but if you’re going to live any sort of creative life you have to be willing to dip into different aspects of your psyche. Like the Bad Seeds compared to Grinderman. How could somebody who has such an obvious dark side as Nick Cave not have an incredible sense of humour? It just makes so much sense to me. Journalists and fans have differing opinions about a TVOTR song’s meaning and mood. Do you sense that? If you don’t leave space for people to insert themselves into your work then you’re cheating somebody out of an experience. I’m always interested to hear an interpretation of our songs because I can disagree with it, but as soon as it’s out of our hands it’s for anyone. There’s plenty of music in the world which says, ‘There’s no room for you in this. I’m telling you exactly what it’s about.’ I heard a song yesterday [by Fall Out Boy] and the chorus was ‘You’re going to remember me for centuries’ – and it was like somebody beating you over the head with an enormous Incan dildo. Part one: no, I’m not going to remember you for centuries – I’m going to get this song out of my head as soon as possible. Part two: the person you’re talking to most likely won’t make it out of one century. It’s a lie. A loud, annoying lie with no space for anyone in it.
Sydney Opera House Bennelong Point, Sydney 2000. 02 9250 7111. vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com. 9pm. $64-$89. Jun 8-9.