My Old Kentucky Blog Interviews Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio
von John Moulder am 6.11.2008
At the very least, Tunde Adebimpe is a modern day Renaissance Man. He is a gifted painter, a creative producer, and a talented actor. Oh yeah, and he also writes songs and sings for one of the best bands in the world right now, TV on the Radio. The band is currently wrapping up a US tour in support of their new record, Dear Science, an album that will surely go down as one of the best in 2008. We were lucky enough to get Adebimpe on the phone, where he generously gave his time to discuss the vibe of the new songs, his new, prematurely announced "supergroup" project, and of course, Cate Blanchett.
MOKB: Where are you located at the moment?
Tunde Adebimpe: I'm on the side of a highway in Dallas, Texas right now trying to figure out how to cross the street.
MOKB: What's your agenda for the day? You guys have a show tonight I take it?
Adebimpe: Yeah, we have a show in a couple of hours. The only things that are locked into place are soundchecking and the show.
MOKB: Do you ever get to do anything before that to relax?
Adebimpe: Well, something happened to our bus today. We all had to get off of the bus in sort of a hurry. But I think we're getting some time to walk around and see what's nearby. Normally, we just pull up to the venue and soundcheck, hang out at the venue, play the show, and leave. Outside of the show, it's a super unrewarding experience.
MOKB: How has the tour been so far? Are you enjoying yourselves?
Adebimpe: Yeah. It's fun to tour this record, absolutely. I have very few complaints about the tour.
MOKB: Have you noticed any difference in crowd reaction when you compare this tour of new material to when you were playing new material from Return to Cookie Mountain?
Adebimpe: It's been insane this time because we did a miniature tour before the record came out and a lot of people were already making song requests from the new record and people knew the words to the new record, which I guess you can thank the Internet for. But as far as reaction, I don't exactly remember. I know we played so many of them but I don't remember a single one of the shows from the last tour! But this one has been awesome. The new songs - there's a lot more movement in them. I feel like people are getting into that.
MOKB: Yeah, I just caught your show at the Vogue in Indianapolis and definitely noticed that to be the case.
Adebimpe: Oh yeah, that was a really fun show.
MOKB: I couldn't help but notice you occasionally had a sixth member on stage with you during that show.
Adebimpe: That's our friend Katrina Ford, who's in the band Celebration. We were in New York and she came up and sang on a few songs, which she'll do whenever she has time. But she just kinda wanted to get out of New York for a while and so we said, "Yeah, why not. Come to as many shows as you want to." She's kind of like an honorary member. She's been on every record. It always helps to have as many voices - like, if we could bring everyone that played on the record on tour we would, but no one would pay for that.
MOKB: TV on the Radio has essentially received critical acclaim with each release since the Young Liars EP. Does that form of success play a role in your songwriting process or does it not concern you?
Adebimpe: It kinda of does and it doesn't, in this weird way. Everyone in the band has spent a lot of time making work that has really meant something to them. The point is making the record. Getting it done and getting it out. Everything that comes back is kind of the icing. Or, you know, the poisoned icing, depending on what you get back. I guess it changes it in the way that you kind of realize that it's encouraging to know you're making something that someone outside of what you're actually making it for wants to hear. It's always nice to get a compliment for something you've worked really hard on.
MOKB: Shifting gears a little bit here, I wanted to talk a little bit about your acting career - particularly in the new film Rachel Getting Married, in which you have both an acting role and a spot on the soundtrack singing an a capella version of Neil Young's Unknown Legend. How exactly did your contribution to this film in both forms come about? Did you have to audition?
Adebimpe: I did, kind of, yeah. When we got off of tour, I asked our manager, "If anything comes up that's interesting - I know I'm going to be writing songs but I need to be doing other stuff too." One of the first things that came up was Rachel Getting Married. I read it and I thought "Oh, this is cool! This is not at all stupid and I'm really psyched that someone would ask me to be a part of it." And then I heard that Jonathan Demme was directing and I kind of have to go and try this because he's one of my favorite directors. I went in and was going to do a reading and he ended up being at the office and I was not really at all prepared for that. But it was cool. We ended up just hanging out and talking about the music and film and then he said I could come back in and do a reading with Rosemarie DeWitt, the actress that plays Rachel. And I don't think that I went back in. I think he saw some other stuff that I did and felt that I could pull it off. So that was great working with a lot of people that I really admire a lot.
MOKB: Was it your choice to cover that Neil Young song for the film?
Adebimpe: That was funny because Jonathan had asked me to scope around for a wedding song that I thought that character would be willing to sing to his bride-to-be on the wedding day. The original one I came up with was this song Silver Words. It was written by Sixto Rodriguez and sung by Ken Boothe. And that was kind of it for the week leading up to shooting it and then, I think the week of, Jonathan kind of - I think he's probably the biggest Neil Young fan I've met in my life. I think he's made two documentaries about him now. So he was like "What about this song, Unknown Legend?" So I made a demo of that in my trailer on Garage Band. I guess that's the a capella version of the song that's on the soundtrack now.
MOKB: That's the original demo on the soundtrack?
Adebimpe: I think so. I'm not sure. That's what I was told by the music director, that we're going to use that demo - is that okay? And I said, "Yeah, sure, you can use it." I guess the version in the movie is a little different. So I did that and emailed it to Demme and he was like, "Yeah, I think that's good. That's going to fit the scene." It was actually a Neil Young song that I think I'd heard years ago but hadn't heard recently. I just sat there and absorbed it for a second and tried to make it like that guy would do it. It was really fun. A very inspiring experience.
MOKB: How long have you been acting exactly?
Adebimpe: I guess roughly ten years now. That's horrifying!
MOKB: Is there anyone that you really admire in terms of acting? Someone that made you want to become an actor?
Adebimpe: There are a lot of people. I think Peter Sellers, Forest Whitaker, and David Thewlis are three of my favorite actors. But I feel like I could keep going. I always think about Cate Blanchett. She's someone who consistently - she totally disappears and then reappears as such a formed character that you're a little scared of that person.
MOKB: Yeah, Cate Blanchett is a good one. Have you seen the movie Bandits?
Adebimpe: Huh uh.
MOKB: It's not considered one of her most memorable films but I fell in love with her for the character she played in that movie.
Adebimpe: That's awesome. She can do it all.
MOKB: Right. The ability to go from a distressed housewife to a surprisingly convincing Bob Dylan - that's some talent.
Adebimpe: Yeah, she's completely amazing.
MOKB: I wanted to ask about this new project that was recently announced with Mike Patton and Adam Drucker of Subtle.
Adebimpe: Oh yeah, that was kind of mistakenly announced. It was actually Adam's idea. We're kind of figuring out what it is. It's definitely not a straight ahead-style band at all. I think it might be a little bit noisier. I don't want to be disappointing to anyone who's looking for a bunch of songs but it's still kind of getting formed. I don't really know how much I can say because I actually got in trouble for that. But we're working on something, I'll say that. It's being put together slowly but it got prematurely - I remember going on Pitchfork one day and seeing it say "Adam Drucker...supergroup," and I'm like, "I wish someone had told me!"
MOKB: So this project doesn't even have a name yet then?
Adebimpe: No, it's still just getting together. Adam and I did a little work on it but it's still super embryonic.
MOKB: Fair enough. Well, it's getting to be the end of yet another year which, for music journalists everywhere, means one thing: year end lists. Do you have an album of the year yet?
Adebimpe: I feel like I haven't listened to as much music this year. I've been so locked into making the record and touring it. The Deerhunter record I liked a lot. It's really, really good. I always love when I'm listening to a band and I have no idea what to expect next, just song-wise. And then I love it even more when I have no idea what to expect from the next record. But yeah, I thought that was really beautiful. And the Department of Eagles record was really great. Erykah Badu's record - did that come out this year?
MOKB: *I couldn't say for sure.
Adebimpe: If you can check and see if it did - I think that record is awesome. It's one of those records where at first I'll listen and be like, "Ah man, I really want to like this and I don't think I like it." And then two weeks later I can't fucking stop listening to it at all. I feel like a lot of my favorite records ended up coming into my life that way. I get weirded about by it at first and I'm like, "Eh, no. I don't know how to do this." And then suddenly I'm like, "Oh. It's great. That's why."
*For the record, Erykah Badu's record, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), was released in February of 2008, so you can count it, Tunde.
In other news, you can now stream OMG!!!FMV!!!, a song from Adebimpe's other recently announced sideproject, Fake Male Voice. The track will appear as a b-side to a 7" picture disc that will be released on December 23 via Heartfast Records. The vinyl will be accompanied by a DVD, featuring three videos made by...well, who else? Tunde Adebimpe. The Renaissance Man.