We recently connected with TV ART and have shared our conversation below.

TV, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

Getting our music recorded

So we formed in the fall of 2022 and from the start had an interest in eventually getting our music recorded, we never doubted that we would be able to do it as our lead singer had previously recorded music so that he could get into the UC CCM Commercial Music Production program. We started our first round of recording Jan 2nd of 2023 and we had planned to stay with our then bassist Patrick Bentley’s parents house so we could record in their basement, we had set aside that first week to just sit in the basement and record. From the start we had issues with one of our members sleeping much later than expected and when we finally did get to the Bentley residence it was intimidating for all of us that had not recorded before as every little imperfection in our playing was on full display. That evening we recorded about half of one song and then the next morning decided we did not like what we recorded and decided to scrap it, When we started recording again we were much more efficient but still wanting it to sound great it took all of us many takes and when we finally finished the first song “Pants Theme” it was time for dinner which meant we had used almost eight whole hours to finish our first song. The next day we were much quicker and finished our song “Songbird” by lunch time, we then started on our third song “Loving You”. This was also finished within the day all except for the drums which we stopped doing after 8PM as we did not want to annoy the Bentley’s that were so kind as to have us all there in the first place. For dinner we went to Cici’s pizza then went back to Patrick’s house so that he could do some more takes of the bass part. That night everyone started feeling a bit off except for Lucas. The next day however Lucas woke up feeling a little strange but that did not deter him from doing the drums first thing in the morning, once he was done we started work on another song but everyone also started feeling worse throughout the day except for Will who was fine through all of this. At the end of this day however we had to play a show and regardless of how we all felt we were not going to skip out on our responsibilities so we played the show and decided to call the recording session there as we were all feeling worse and worse.
The next time we recorded was with our friend Steve who ran the record store “Black Plastic” we did all the recordings for the entire album fairly quickly as we were doing live recordings, meaning we were all playing at the same time. The vocal recordings took some time to be finished and then all he had to do was mix the final product. We waited a few months to contact him about the mixes as he was having some major developments in his life that we felt he needed to worry about first, then in late October we emailed him about the progress as it had been about four months since we had last. spoke and he had informed us that he had lost his entire business which saddened us greatly and so we told him that we completely understood if he would want to just. give us the mixes and we would have it mixed elsewhere. He insisted though that he would finish them, we have not heard back since then.
This brings us to today where we have started rerecording the album and our new material so that we at least have something to show for all of our work. The Album certainly has a story in just the recording situation alone and I think it and we are better for it.

TV, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

TV ART is a group of friends who met because they all wanted to make and play music. It all started when the singer and rhythm guitarist Will Fortune met Zeke Cajigal skating while Zeke was visiting in Columbus while Will attended Capitol University. Time passed and Will Fortune moved to Cincinnati to study music production, he met back up with Zeke since he lived and went to school in Cincinnati, this time he asked him if he knew anyone who played guitar or any other instruments and wanted to be in a band, Zeke told him that his best friend Patrick Bentley played guitar and he was returning to Cincinnati after being away on internship the semester before. The two finally met and Will showed Patrick some demos he had, Patrick was impressed and was down to develop these further. Then one day while Will was skating he yet again met another new face Blake Panstingel who was going into his second year at UC and played guitar, Will asked him if he played drums and he told him he unfortunately did not play drums, though his roommate Lucas Vanderpool did and so early that September the four started practicing and developing their music so that they could play their friends Zeke’s birthday show. Six months later they added their friend Elliot Pippin to play keys for the band and then six months after that Patrick had to leave the band to pursue his career at NASA as an Elasticity engineer, he was replaced by Nathan Reder who is a long time friend of Elliot. They have since gone to places like Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, Woodward Theater in Cincinnati, and Madison Live in Covington, Kentucky. Their music is different from others in the Cincinnati scene because of how many different influences they have coming together to form some music that makes people dance and feel good. Their influences range from things you would closely relate them too such as Mac Demarco to things you would not think they come close to such as Tsunami and they even draw from artists such as Chalino Sanchez. They have two singles out right now on their spotify from the Bentley sessions at the beginning of last year and are currently recording what will be their debut album hoping to be released this spring.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Our Social media was built mostly from performing live which was a big surprise to us as growing up with the internet and watching major figures on the internet come and go made us believe you had to put out consistent content to keep an audience and stay relevant. After a year in the scene and just posting mostly to our Instagram we have found that people stay relatively loyal to you if they like what you make. We have also found that to grow your audience you do still have to be active as we did take a little break this past summer from doing a lot of shows since we had been doing 2-4 shows a week for about eight months straight and it was definitely wearing us down with us all still being in school and all of us having jobs. Our following did not dwindle during this time but it did stagnate slightly, this did not deter us though as we are back in the saddle since the new year and are back consistently doing shows and performing whenever we can.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

In order to support the creatives in your community the biggest thing people can do as an audience is to show up, that is the biggest way to support for no money at all. Most shows if they are in a bar or in a basement are free so if you like a band and want them to succeed just show up to the show, it will show the bar owner that more people like this one band and that will allow that band to not only get more gigs with that bar but owners talk and it will help bands get opportunities to play at other venues because the owners trust that they will get business by having that band there. In Cincinnati at least some owners own multiple locations so it is even better for them if you go so that you can watch your favorite band go from playing in a basement to playing in a place like Woodward Theater. This goes for artists as well, they are at shows but if you like an artist go to their exhibit or buy some of their art, you will not only be getting something you like but you will be supporting that artist to be able to create more. Live events are the lifeblood of artists these days whether it be music or any other form of art since streaming does not pay barely at all. so go out and support your favorite artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/televisionart
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xxtv_artxx/
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@tvart4362
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3nM0PtoQEX4txTyo37pYP8?si=sTa7EU_ORv-0thesT-Xvjg https://tvart.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
All photos provided were taken and edited by Lauren Delligatti @laurendelligatti on instagram.