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"A lot of bands have something to say," explains
TV On The Radio producer/multi-instrumentalist David
Sitek. "We have something to ask."
Indeed. Good luck finding easy answers in TVOTR's ever-evolving
soundscapes, though, whether we're talking about their
new disc, Dear Science (DGC/Interscope) or the band's
early days. When guitarist/vocalist Kyp Malone joined,
he didn't even get what Sitek and vocalist Tunde Adebimpe
were going for on their self-released 2002 debut, OK
Calculator.
"Aspects of OK Calculator are genius," says Malone, "but it
isn't as laser-focused as Young Liars." Neither were Adebimpe and Sitek's
early live sets, boundless and brash bits of performance art that Malone remembers
as "an open mic/karaoke night gone awry. I could
hear songs peeking through it all but it wasn't really
my thing."
Boy did that change in 2003,
as Young Liars became Malone's favorite CD-R (he'd
often play it for the latte sippers at a local coffee
shop) and the group's first Touch & Go
release. An immediate favorite among critics, the EP
nailed Sitek's goal of sounding like a "grand four-track
thing," from the epic, evocative balladry of "Blind" to
the spectral pop trails of "Staring At the Sun." To
make things even more interesting, Malone dropped his
skepticism and joined the group full-time before Young
Liars' official release, with drummer Jaleel Bunton and
bassist Gerard Smith rounding out the band's rhythm section
soon after.
"We had a gig in Iceland where we needed a full band so we asked the two
best guitar players we knew, Gerard and Jaleel, to play drums and bass," explains
Sitek, laughing. "It's absurd that Kyp and I are even holding a guitar
when Jaleel and Gerard are fucking bananas at playing it."
While that may be true, TV On The Radio's loose approach
to songwriting, recording and performing leaves an incredible
amount of room for instrument-swapping and role reversals.
Rather than rely on a stringent and stale guitars/bass/drums/vocals
setup, the quintet often brings home-demoed sketches
to the studio along with the attitude that a track needs
to go through everyone's filter before it becomes a fully
formed song.
"Music is the most flexible medium in the world for me," explains
Sitek, the beat conductor responsible for distilling the band's tracks down
to a living, breathing composition that's never cloying or cumbersome. "There
is no shortage of ideas; the hard part is not following each whim."
As much as he tries to keep a
record sounding lean, Sitek is quick to admit, "It
takes most bands an album to get to a high track count.
I can go from 4 to 96 in a day, without question. I'm
track hungry, really. A lot of stuff isn't even an
instrument.
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