Satellites, resale shops and living rooms: The cozy signal-worlds of TV2
If a great signalwave album is a “place” you can inhabit for a while, then TV2 is a true world builder. The New Zealand-based artist has a preternatural sense of how to bring a concept to life through immersive effects, sample choices and visuals, sometimes stretching an idea successfully across several albums without ever really repeating herself. Her work feels warm, comforting and human – even when set in the dead of space.
You most likely know TV2 for her work as National Network, ESIAFI 1 and carpet dust, or for her rustic, hour-long odyssey 1450kHz at Broken Grove. But her whole catalogue is worth checking out. Several of her releases are certainly iconic in the scene, and can be enjoyed by virtually anybody into experimental art, not just genre heads.
She also comes across as a thoughtful person who takes seriously the art she puts into the world. Reading an interview she did with Soundbleed, I found her comments enlightening, helping unlock something in my brain about why I find these genres appealing. It pushed me toward contacting her for an interview myself, and I was grateful that she accepted. Below is our emailed exchange.
VHF: I'd like to talk about your latest album, under the alias ESIAFI 1, called 月. The album description mentions "new freedom, new responsibilities", and the album cover shows young kids playing table tennis. The voices sampled in the album also sound (to me) like they're emitted from a speaker. Am I correct that this album is set in a school or camp? Can you tell me a bit about the concept and what inspired it?
TV2: The album is an homage to my 11th year of school, especially during the winter of that year. Being 15-16, it was a time I felt a unique sense of freedom, being trusted as an older adolescent but also big pressures and academic responsibilities. It was where I first began feeling a transition into adulthood, a sense that my actions began determining my future in a meaningful way. The blend of emotions during that time is what the album is about.
VHF: I enjoy the interplay on 月 between the music, which is often quite beautiful and moving, and the voice samples on top of it, which can vary between soothing (almost like someone telling a story), more straightforward/news-like, and bouncier/more energetic. Was there a method to how you matched the voice samples with the music? Or was it more instinctual?
TV2: Most of the samples for that album are commercials, so most of the voices you hear are simply that. But there are a few tracks I inserted sampled spoken poetry into, most likely the "telling a story" tracks you're referring to. I wanted this album to have clearer themes than some of my other works and I know there are listeners of mine who actually speak and understand mandarin, so I wanted to have at least some speech in it that related to the themes I was trying to convey.
VHF: Do you do a lot of planning for your albums in general, or is there more of a free-flowing, improvisational mode to their construction? Has your approach to conceptualizing and recording changed at all since you began making signalwave?
TV2: Mostly improvised these days. My album making process usually consists of finding a screencap with a particularly ethereal or interesting feel to it, and then finding and manipulating samples to fit with its theme. My first five or six signalwave albums were different, because they were ideas I had for a long time, which became realized once I started making music. Carpet dust albums also typically are music first, cover second, because I already know how I want them to sound.
VHF: Signalwave is, by definition, a lo-fi experience. But the sound design on your albums always seems very considered and is a pleasure to listen to. The carpet dust albums, for example, sound like you spent a fair amount of time getting a true thrift store ambiance. Your satellitesoft albums are also second-to-none in this respect. Am I overestimating how much time/effort you put into nailing those textures? Or is this a big chunk of the time you spend on the albums?
TV2: Early on it was very time consuming, but in the last three years I haven't spent anywhere near as much time on perfecting the sound/production as I do on just finding samples. I've always used about five or six filters on a track and I know how to use them quite well by now. Carpet dust albums are an exception to this because I want them to sound a very specific way and the compression gets a bit frustrating, especially with the type of samples I use (low-bit-rate Spanish karaoke).
VHF: Speaking of textures, a couple years ago you released an album as "industrial shrines" called cortonwood colliery, which does away with music entirely and focuses on noise and static. I really like this album; it's diverse for a noise album, and it's fascinating in how it shows that the comforts of signalwave can translate to pure textures. Was there anything in particular that inspired you to make cortonwood colliery? Is experimental/noise music something you've been into over the years?
TV2: The main inspiration for Cortonwood Colliery was AM by conflux coldwell. It has such a strong, haunting atmosphere to it without having any real music in it at all, and totally changed my idea of what signalwave could be. eternal intermission by S p o r t 3 0 0 0 (which inspires almost everything I make) was another big inspiration. It feels like it's tapping deep into the technical malfunctions of a TV broadcast with a dodgy signal, and does it in such a subtle and lo-fi way that it just feels real and immerses you into its world. This is vaguely what I was trying to recreate with cortonwood colliery. I don't listen to heaps of noise music but I'm friends with noise musicians, who also inspired me to try making it in signalwave form.
VHF: One more specific release I wanted to mention: Your ESIAFI 1 album 电 is a standout within a catalogue of many strong albums. It's also such a unique aesthetic package (including visual) that other signalwave artists have been inspired to make homages to it. In a way, it has created its own micro-genre. Can you share anything about your process of making that album? What is your relationship like to it now, looking back after about three years?
TV2: It may not come as a surprise that I made 电 during a deeply depressing time in my life. At first I was trying to recreate something similar to 地球卫星, hence its "muted" production sound. But once I found its album cover and made some thick, misty white noise, I quickly realized it was becoming a different world. I was completely immersed in the creation of that album for two months and it became both an escape from, and a reflection of, what I was going through at the time. I am proud of the album’s ability to immerse the listener into its world, and I'm humbled that others have found such personal meaning and comfort in it.
VHF: You started quite prolific and have since put albums out at a more deliberate pace, which is a fairly common trajectory within the vaporwave scene. Do you still listen to signalwave and vaporwave pretty regularly? Are you as influenced by other signal/vapor artists as you were before, or do you find yourself drawing inspiration from other types of sources now?
TV2: I don't listen to vaporwave or signalwave anywhere near as much as I used to, and I'm pretty out of touch with the current scene, but signalwave will always inspire me. Narvon Nights, for example, was my sole reason for making broken grove. I'm probably inspired by the samples I find more than anything else.
VHF: In an interview with Soundbleed, you said that people often use signalwave albums as background noise at first, but then can develop a personal relationship with them. You added: "The personal attachment fans make to these albums tends to be a more driving factor of a project's success than the actual quality of production or effort put into an album." I thought this was an insightful comment because it distills what is so fun about listening to and making vaporwave. Speaking personally, I find this idea very freeing, because it inspires me to act on ideas rather than be overwhelmed and paralyzed. Does that resonate with you? Do you still agree with that past comment or has your attitude changed at all?
TV2: If I didn't start making music through signalwave I don't know if I would've made it at all, so yes that definitely resonates with me. I think it's a simple yet effective way to convey strong, ethereal aesthetics and sometimes personal memories, which is a beautiful thing, and gives it a sense of authenticity that's hard to find in other genres. The downsides are that (in my opinion) it doesn't reward production skill as much as it rewards good samples, which can be demotivating and hinder the artist’s development, and it can become a limiting medium.
VHF: In my interview with CT57, we talked a bit about the pressures that can come from gaining attention for your music, even in a cult genre like signalwave. Have you had any feelings like that? Or do you feel pretty liberated to work on what you want, when you want, etc.? I feel like this can be different for everybody.
TV2: I definitely feel pressure to maintain a level of quality and refinement on the TV2 Bandcamp page that I wouldn't otherwise on my throwaway aliases on frequency subzero, for example. I see this as a good thing, because it makes my work more intricate and fulfilling to make, but I like to think it's still varied and weird enough that I don't feel like I'm stuck in a box.
VHF: What can you share (if anything) about the future of your music career? Do you think making art like this will continue to be part of your life, whether as a necessary creative outlet or anything else? Are you working on anything now?
TV2: Every time I’ve thought "This will be my last signalwave album", I've always made another one. I tend to take long hiatuses until I have an idea, and if I can get it off the ground I become obsessed until I finish it. Signalwave hasn't been my main musical focus for a few years now, but I think it'll remain a creative outlet for the foreseeable future. I am juggling a few ideas at the moment for a next album.
VHF: What is your opinion on where signalwave is now overall, and where it's going?
When I first started making signalwave it was a bunch of loosely scattered albums around a Bandcamp tag from completely anonymous users who preferred to be seen as mysterious internet entities than artists. This was a time when many of the bigger names in the scene were moving onto other things and it felt like it was all coming to an end. Nowadays it's an active, flourishing community of artists who support and learn off each other. There was something special about the sense of mystery in the old signalwave scene, but I also think it's cool that people share their passion openly with each other now. I can't predict signalwave’s future but I hope it gets weirder.
VHF: What sorts of art/media are you into currently? Feel free to share some recommendations for our audience.
TV2: I listen to disorder:
Find TV2’s music on Bandcamp at https://television2.bandcamp.com, or her label Frequency SubZero at https://frequencysub-zero.bandcamp.com.