TV On The Radio's Kyp Malone explains what inspires and pisses him off about music; and why he's not pumped for the next US election.
Scenestr managed to catch the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist between being on the road with the band and working on an art show with some friends. He also guest-starred in acclaimed Comedy Central series 'Broad City'.
However, the Brooklyn quartet's fifth album, 'Seeds', is a sadly poignant affair, being the band's first work since the death of bassist Gerard Smith in 2011, a tragedy that Malone says is still hard to fathom. "My relationship with grief and my relationship with friends that have passed is something that never gets easy," Kyp says.
"But that being said you have to keep living ... There's a necessity to detach the two because I can't be affected at my job and I want to respect my friend's memory because it was fucking me up at every turn."
As for the band's ever eclectic sounds, Malone says his personal songwriting inspirations can never really be pinned down. "It's hard to know where ideas come from," he says before a customarily wry observation. "I could listen to the Led Zeppelin boxset and if I wrote a song after that I would be riffing off Muddy Waters through the filter of Jimmy Page through the filter of my lack of technique.
"But whatever comes out of that song I wrote will likely have much to do with my relationship with my mother in that moment, or some shit-awful fucking pop song I heard at the grocery store."
In a world where downloading music has become such a norm that musicians are required to tour extensively to make any money, Kyp is reluctant to view it as a permanent trend. "I don't think there's such a thing as the inevitable with regards to an invented thing – like, for example, capitalism," he says. "I feel this is likely to keep going in the same direction. I feel bad about it but it's hard to talk about it without sounding like an old person complaining."
As grim a prognosis as it currently may seem, Kyp is ever willing to think outside the square about how artists can supplement their incomes. "Like a lot of people I'm trying to figure out different hustles and not necessarily just be a touring musician and trying to pitch stuff to McDonald's for a commercial. I don't know, l like going into soundcheck work and trying to expand in different ways or practising robbing banks, and eventually going to rob the banks.
"[The current model is] also going to lead to the complete squelching of anything resembling culture and anything unique or true to itself. That seems like an alarmist thing to say but people are constantly pandering. Like, I'll hear this music when I'm out shopping for avocados or coconut milk and it sounds like the shittiest version of Death Cab For Cutie sung by Disney voices and yet there was a Bob Dylan and there was a Nina Simone and they were on the fucking radio and it was good."
Kyp is quick to clarify: "There still is a Bob Dylan. I didn't mean to put him in the past tense."
With an extensive body of work spanning many years and projects outside of TV On The Radio, is there a track or album to date that he is particularly chuffed with? "It's hard to know what I'm most proud of because I hope I'm not done. I still fucking love [2006 powerhouse] 'Return To Cookie Mountain'. It's built on mistakes and it's built on harmony and I love it.
"I listen to records I made with friends in bands back in the day on four-tracks [recorders] that no one gives a fuck about but I'm super proud of it. I just hope I have more time and opportunity to make an Ice Balloons record that rises like a bullet to the top of the noise charts," he says with faux hubris, referring to his side project.
From high-profile candidates such as Hillary Clinton throwing their hats in the presidential ring to riots spurred by police brutality, it is a busy, political climate in Kyp's home country right now – and he says it's hard to be optimistic. "If I could skip the election entirely I would be very happy," he says.
"The system is built so that no one that could possibly care about people could be in the White House. I'm not saying they're all evil maniacs – there's definitely people who get in the game because they're civic-minded but the corporate interests involved run so deep.
"I would like for there to be a woman in the White House but I would like a woman who didn't vote for the Iraq War," he adds, referring to Clinton.
He believes police forces have been significantly militarised in America and this has caused a rift between it and US citizens, especially African-Americans. "Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but when the government goes on about freedom and democracy and yet they send the military and police in to stop protesters, like the Occupy movement, and every anti-war rally I went to for the Iraq War, then it doesn't ring true."
To more pressing matters, what does he enjoy most in a gig rider? "Sparkling mineral water, coffee, dark chocolate and tequila. A bowl of tequila."
TV On The Radio Tour Dates
Mon 8 Jun - Sydney Opera HouseTue 9 Jun - Sydney Opera House
Wed 10 Jun - The Tivoli Theatre (Brisbane)
Fri 12 Jun - The Forum (Melbourne)
Sat 13 Jun - The Forum (Melbourne)
