TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe On His Debut Solo Album

With beloved indie band TV On The Radio, frontman Tunde Adebimpe has made some of the most adventurous and acclaimed music of the twenty-first century.

The Brooklyn band’s first three albums alone won the 2004 Shortlist Prize and Album of the Year honors from the likes of Spin, Rolling Stone, The Guardian and more. The band collaborated with David Bowie, Trent Reznor and more.

TV On The Radio remain a highly active touring band, with a run of dates this summer. But the band has not released new music since 2014. So, Adebimpe has released his debut solo album, Thee Black Boltz, a brilliant collection that covers his many diverse influences.

I spoke to him about the album.

Steve Baltin: What was the span these songs were written? Was it a concentrated period or was it over time? Because that mood swing from “I Love You” to “God Knows” is pretty gigantic.

Tunde Adebimpe: It was definitely a long time. I think I started it without knowing I was starting a record. In 2019 TV on the Radio took a bit of a break. We were going to take a break that we didn’t really know when it was going to shore itself up. And I started working with some old demos that I found. But then the pandemic hit, and we had a longer period of time to take that break. So, a lot of the songs started then and we worked in fits and starts from 2019 until the middle of 2024 or the beginning of 2024. So, a long while, the bulk of it though, like the sewing things up and finishing happened from probably spring of 2023 to 2024.

Baltin: When you go back and look at it after such a long period do you find that your mood and your interpretation of the lyrics changed quite a bit?

Adebimpe: Yeah, always. Especially now that I’ve sat with the songs for such a long time and I’m far away from when we finished it. I will say that It’s the record that, of anything I’ve worked on, that I’ve been able to listen to the soonest after it’s been done. I should say the soonest after it’s done without feeling incredibly uncomfortable. And I think that’s because we did sit with the songs for such a long time and we’re cool enough with them to be not too attached and not too detached to them now, which lends itself to going back in. Sometimes you’re writing something and you don’t exactly know what it applies to or you think it applies to one thing and then you’re mapping it onto your life and world events in the present and you’re like, “Oh, that also works in this new way.” But yeah, I feel like they’re pretty multi -purpose. I feel like anybody can use them for whatever you feel like using them for.

Baltin: How do you use them then? Do you find that they’ve shifted quite a bit?

Adebimpe: That’s hard for me to answer because I feel like they shift for me. I have the ground floor of what I feel and think about the songs, that was pretty established when we were done and turned it in to the label. But yeah, in the months after, I feel like I have the consciousness of the intention and can also hear that detachment from it to feel like it’s a document of internal events that now can soundtrack a bunch of external events. I can feel like the song “I Love You,” I wrote it for my sister who passed away. But it can be applied to any expression of affection in the face of perhaps certain doom. It can be used for that. “God Knows,” like you were saying, is a breakup song. It wasn’t my breakup, but it was me interpreting what a friend had gone through. And again, I feel like that’s a good multipurpose breakup and makeup song. That’s what I like. I like the message in a bottle connection that a record or a piece of art makes for someone where they can find themselves in this thing that someone else made.

Baltin: On your Instagram, when you shared “God Knows,” which I love that song, you asked the question, “What’s the worst thing you ever loved?” I started thinking about it last night and I was just thinking about it and it’s an unintentionally deep question. Because first, you have to determine how many things you truly loved then decide if you regret it or not. Do you have an answer to that question? The worst thing I’ve ever loved?

Adebimpe: It’s open ended, but that applied to this friend who was very much expressing they were so deeply in love with this person who did not give a f**k about anybody else, and was a very manipulative, self-destructive person. She expressed a lot of like, “I’m gonna save you.” And this person doesn’t want to be saved. Ultimately that person isn’t here anymore. And she was left with the guilt of that, but also this feeling of, “You suck.” Realizing that person flat out fell for all the affection and the little kernels of probably very true and mutual love. That person didn’t hold up their end of the deal and they also weren’t strong enough to say, “I don’t want to lead you on. I’m gonna use you as a support system for my narcissism. But I’m sorry, some risk coming through.” What’s the worst thing I’ve ever loved? I also don’t know. I feel like everything I’ve truly loved has been pretty. I don’t have that many regrets about relationships. It’s an interesting question because you’re kind of like, “What is that? What’s the sliding scale?”

Baltin: I love the fact that it’s called “God Knows” because I think “God Only Knows” is the greatest pop song of all time. You have the most loving, wonderful pop song of all time and you have the total antithesis called “God Knows.” Was that intentional?

Adebimpe: No, definitely not, but I so appreciate it cause I agree with you about that song.

Baltin: On a solo album, it’s, I’ve talked about this with someone recently and it’s very different because in a band everybody has their opinion, whereas a solo album, it’s, it’s all on you. So, when you hear this record do you hear influences like Fugai and The Flamingoes come together?

Adebimpe: There’s a Fugazi element to “Magnetic.” In “Ate the “Moon, there’s a moment from “Another one Bites the Dust” that’s in between the intro and the main part. There’s a reversed piano key and a weird flange on it before it goes into the rest of “Ate the Moon.” I feel like a lot of acapella stuff that I will do or that harmonizing is definitely from doo-wop things I heard my parents listen to, definitely from the Beatles, all of that stuff pops up. I feel like how couldn’t it? There are so many times where I’ve written this song and I have to call a friend and say like, “Is this a Pixies song that I am like ripping off?” Something sticks with you in that way. Absolutely it’s part of your musical and social vocabulary in a lot of ways. So it’s all a homage and no biting.