Interview: TV Girl
We spoke to the lads from Dirty Gold a few months back now and they tipped us the fantastic sounds of TV Girl, they've been gracing our decks ever since. We managed to catch up with TV Girl a week or so ago and here's the result.
(One For The People) Give us a brief insight into TV Girl, for anyone who doesn't know?
(Trung & Brad) TV Girl consists of Trung Ngo and me, Brad Petering. We’ve been collaborating and writing songs for a long time, and we’re kind of stuck in a comfort zone with our guitars. TV Girl is basically our guitar pop through a hip-hop filter, dealing with a lot of samples, loops, and electronics.
(1FTP) Can you describe your sound in a nutshell for people who may be reading about you guys for the first time?
(T&B) It’s like classic pop songwriting and melodies expressed through the language of hip-hop, with darkly humorous lyrics.
(1FTP) How do you think the EP has been received? happy with how it's gone since making it available for free?
(T&B) Can’t complain about the attention the EP has received. It was free from the beginning. It was a no-brainer to make it free, in large part because we can’t legally sell any of the songs due to the uncleared samples. But it’s better that way anyways. It’s the difference between making a few hundred bucks vs. having thousands of people hear the music.
"Washed Out and Neon Indian really opened my eyes to the idea of sampling within an "indie-rock" context, which hasn’t even begun to be explored to it’s full potential." - Trung and Brad, TV Girl, 2011
(1FTP) Do you know Dirty Gold personally? or did they just tip you to us because they are fans?
(T&B) We've played some shows with them and are actually going to release a split digital single with them any old week now. Considering how young they are, they got a really good thing going. I hope the songs I wrote when I was 16 never see the light of day.
(1FTP) There isn't a major amount of information on you guys out there, is this something you will be looking to exploit for a while? we all know how the web loves a mystery (cults, guards, the vaccines, Wu Lyf......)
(T&B) It is a conscious decision. Band bio’s and press pics range from uninteresting to hilariously self-aggrandizing, and it’s basically impossible to make them look not cheesy. Unless you have Girls’ back story that is.
(1FTP) The chillwave "movement" shall we say has certainly engaged us as music fans over the past year and a bit now. Its noticeably evolving too. We love the progression were seeing it make into a more upbeat club worthy niche, your EP demonstrates that. I put Glowbug into that category too. Do you think people need to start paying a bit more respect to the genre? 'hipster' is associated a lot and it doesn't really hit the same sort of spot as 'thought provoking' and 'boundary pushing', which we see it as.
(T&B) It’s such a loosely defined movement, and encompasses such a wide range of bands, you’d be a fool to write off everything associated with it. Washed Out and Neon Indian really opened my eyes to the idea of sampling within an “indie-rock” context, which hasn’t even begun to be explored to it’s full potential. It’s too damn bad that it has to have such a crummy name though. I mean, it was literally a joke by Hipster Runoff.
(1FTP) What are your future plans?
(T&B) After SWSW, we’re gonna get really serious about recording. We have a 7” and a new EP coming out in the near future. All of which will lead up to our big full length, which we’re gonna go nuts with, because, why not?
(1FTP) Any Videos in the pipeline?
(T&B) We are working on two videos actually. I can say that they are both fairly high concept. One ridiculously, maybe foolishly so.. I can’t say much more about it besides that we want to explore the interactivity allowed by the Internet, which bands have only scratched the surface of so far.
(1FTP) Any other tips for bands we should know about?
(T&B) Wise Blood sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before in oh such a good way. I’ll cruise bandcamp for free downloads and often come away with some gems. Waskerly Way and the Shimmering Stars to name two. Gotta big up our SD buddies DUDES as well.
(1FTP) Fill in the blanks.....
(T&B) TV Girl are charming rapscallions mixed with one beaten egg and a table spoon of salt with a little bit of unwarranted pretension thrown in.
0 comments: