Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio Discusses The Band’s Ten Year Journey

Stephanie Hernandez

The American Indie rock machine TV on the Radio began their career in Brooklyn back in 2001. Their landmark 2004 debut album, “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes”, received critical acclaim and garnered the band an almost cult-like following. Their sound, a mix of rock and roll, electronica, art rock, and funk made the band hard to describe but refreshing. Their subsequent four albums “Return to Cookie Mountain,” “Dear Science” and “Nine Types of Light” became benchmarks for other alternative artists on the scene. Their latest, 2014’s “Seeds,” is the first record the group has released since the passing of bassist Gerard Smith in 2011. Back from hiatus and better than ever, TV on the Radio’s guitarist, Kyp Malone took the time before their upcoming L.A. concert to talk to Entertainment Voice about the new album, working with David Bowie and the group’s decade long journey.

Entertainment Voice: Part of what makes TV on the Radio as interesting as a group is your innate ability to evolve without alienating fans, how would you describe your sound now on “Seeds” versus where it began back in 2004 with “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes”?

Kyp Malone: You know, I think we are all better musicians than we were back then. A lot of playing, touring, time in the studio and collaboration with other musicians, as well as all the other events that have happened in that ten year period, musically inspiring or not. There’s been lots of albums we’ve made and songs that we’ve written; it’s the same band at the root, same musical personality, but just better in some ways.

TV on the Radio does a great job at mixing influences and genres; it becomes difficult to place the group in a box. How would you classify your sound?

I don’t know! I just tell people it’s rock and roll (laughs). I know that’s fairly broad, and it’s a cop-out. I understand trying to communicate something to someone, with so many types of music you want to be able to specify what you’re doing for someone who hasn’t heard it. But, I don’t know, I’d like people to listen to our music and decide for themselves what it means to them.

The group can be described as bi-coastal, with half of you living in California and the other half living in New York, how does the distance affect your writing process? What do “TV on the Radio writing sessions” look like?

I don’t think there is a typical one, it’s changed and gone different directions the whole time we’ve been doing it. There’s definitely more ideal situations, but you know, people write novels in prison, so you can really write anywhere! We all bring stuff to the table that we’ve written other places, we start from scratch, sometimes in the studio sometimes in an improvisational jam that gets cut apart after the fact, there’s any number of different ways it can happen.

After five studio albums, the band has accomplished so many items that would appear on any musician’s bucket list. From performing on SNL and the Colbert Report, hailing Grammy nominations, topping “best of” lists etc… What has been the most celebratory moment for the group thus far?

I don’t know. There’s been good times and there’s been bad times, but some of the good times are things that aren’t necessarily tangible. For example, we played the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur this past fall, and it was one of the best times I’ve had playing with TV on the Radio; and it had nothing to do with a Grammy or a record sale you know? It was just a good vibe. And I don’t want to use this empty new age platitude, the reward is the journey but…Well maybe if you’re doing something as time and soul consuming as writing a novel, or making a feature length film, that you could reach a point where you’re tired of it and want to retire. But, if you’re making music, you can continue making music at different levels of publicness. You can do it like the Rolling Stones and be 70 and on tour, or you can be in your kitchen with people that you care about, music is a part of life and we’re lucky we get to do it.

TV on the Radio has had the chance to collaborate with some pretty amazing artists on and off stage like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, David Bowie, and even Kelis on your latest album. What has been the most memorable or enjoyable one of these experiences? Anyone you haven’t worked with that you would like to in the future?

I really enjoyed working with Tim Ireland that was pretty outside the normal experience for me. There’s a whole bunch of people that it would be an exciting privilege to work with. I feel like I can’t have an answer to that because there are people out there that I don’t know yet, that I’m going to hear about and be excited about working with. And the fact that I have a musical community of friends that I can collaborate with is very exciting to me. But as far as what’s happened thus far, it was very cool to work with David Bowie, It was incredible to work with Tim Ireland. I still play in my friend Sean’s Band called Ice Balloon, and that’s been a very exciting and heart expanding musical relationship. I’d definitely say that it means much or more than something else that is more easily consumable, I feel super lucky that music has continued to give me opportunities to engage the world on a larger scale than what I thought I was going to be allowed to.

When did you begin working on “Seeds”? What was the inspiration behind the album?

Over a year and a half ago, two years ago in July is when we started to work on the record. Spread out over some time, over half a year, we spent a total of about three, three and a half months in the studio. The, you know, there’s the process,  of getting it, figuring out how it’s going to come out, what’s going to be on it and all that shit. So, it was done well before it was time to start playing it and letting it get out into the world. As far as inspiration, I don’t know if there was a specific thing that inspired it. It was time, it was collectively decided that it was time to make another record, and “Seeds” is what came out of that decision (laughs).

How after over nine years together do you keep the magic going? Have you ever gotten to a point where you were unsure of yourselves as musicians or the direction of the band?

That comes and goes all the time, maybe not for everybody, but there’s definitely things I question about us from time to time, that people in other bands do as well I’m sure. But, I’ve never given that much of a fuck if we were “great at it,” it’s just rock and roll you know? And you don’t have to be great at it to “do great at it,” as far as I see it. It’s really about creating a feeling. The added benefit of getting to play all the time is like it or not, you’re going to get better. I know that there has been market growth in musicianship amongst all of us, but hopefully not too much.

What is the best and most difficult part of creating an album and planning a tour?

I don’t know if there’s a best part. Difficulties, you know if you experience something, enough times you hopefully develop strategies for how to deal with problems. There are a lot of things that stay the same, because generally people stay the same. We all are who we are and we all work together, in some ways we work together well and in some ways we have challenges. It’s just like any other relationship, there are things that are easy and compatible and that we like about each other, and those are great and it makes playing the music together great. And there is also the other side of that, of all those same things that make it challenging from time to time, but you can’t have one without the other as far as I see it.

What can fans who have not seen you live expect from the performances on this tour?

Thus far the feelings have been, the shows have been very, I feel cliché of myself to keep talking about the vibe and the feeling. But they have all had really good vibes! High energy, lots of sweat and smiles.

With a new and down right great album, TV on the Radio is primed to have another amazing tour. The group’s sixth studio album “Seeds” is available on iTunes now. Do yourself a favor and immerse yourself in an incandescent fusion of sounds, we know we will be.

TV on the Radio will hit The Palladium April 3. Tickets available here.