California’s TV Girl have been giving us a steady diet of gorgeous sample rich pop songs over the past few years.  In May they are set to release a new mixtape The Wild, The Innocent, The TV Shuffle, and Brad of TV Girl was so kind to let us in on the history of one fine track from it, “Misery”.  Take it away Brad!

TV Girl — “Misery”

Hello friends and well-wishers. This is Brad from TV Girl. Today I’ll be taking you through a guided tour of our song “Misery” from our forthcoming mixtape, ‘The Wild, The Innocent, The TV Shuffle’, which will be put out early May with the help of Greedhead Music. And away we go!

As I say in the song. I like misery, the word itself and the concept. For something that’s meant to describe intense emotional distress, it sure is a beautiful word. It would make a great name for girls if it didn’t carry negative connotations. The concept of misery is funny to me. If someone I knew was actually in a depressed or suicidal state, I wouldn’t call them miserable. For me, a state of misery is like comically exaggerated discomfort without any real darkness. Misery is spending a summer day in the DMV when the air conditioning is broken. Misery is the period after a break up when you have the perfect excuse to lie around in bed, eat junk food, smoke cigarettes, and listen to melodramatic music. What fun! Look at any song that refers to “Misery.” Not only do almost all of them lack real emotional weight, they’re usually downright upbeat:

The Beatles — “Misery”

The Kinks — “Misery”

Maroon 5 — “Misery”

The Violent Femmes — “Sweet Misery Blues”

And how about the king of comically exaggerated sadness himself:

The Smiths — “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”

I suppose I wanted this song to fit into that tradition of upbeat sadness. When I wrote the song, I was in a more or less miserable point in my life. I had just moved back in with my parents after graduating college with the most cliché of worthless degrees: English. (I used my actual degree as a coaster just to reinforce this reality to myself) Most of my friends had moved away, I was in a long distance relationship with my girlfriend at the time, and had absolutely no idea or prospects as to a job/career. I wasn’t depressed. That would have been way to strong a word. I was a little glum at best, and also fully aware of how common my situation was and how objectively good I actually had it. Living with my parents was great. On demand cable, a fridge stocked with good food, a king sized bed and plenty of time to write music!

I wrote “Misery” during a period hyper-creativity where I was writing 3-4 song fragments a day. I wrote another song from the mixtape, ‘The Artist’, on the same day. I wrote “Misery” on an acoustic guitar in a matter of about 20 minutes and recorded it immediately on my phone’s 4-track app while sitting on the floor of my childhood room. Here is that original demo, including flubbed lyrics and the world’s worst whistle solo:

TV Girl — “Misery (first demo)”

A little later, I recorded a more filled out version. Here’s that demo, complete with the world’s worst fake organ solo:

TV Girl — “Misery (second demo)”

When we moved to LA and started recording this mixtape, I decided to scrap “Misery” because it wasn’t fitting into the vibe of everything else. Then one night I was crate digging some old girl group songs on youtube looking for samples and found these three that worked perfectly together. I made a little loop that basically had the same chords as my “Misery” demos, so I fixed up the lyrics to fit over the new track. Voila! A song is born!

Obviously for any track that uses samples, the original tracks that I sampled from are a huge influence, and there’s nothing I’d like to do more than credit the original artists. Unfortunately, we’ve had a run in with the sample police in the past and decided that it’s best for our own legal safety if we never publicly reveal the samples we’ve used. Let’s just say these aren’t obscure songs. I later found out that Mac Miller used one of the same samples ☹☹☹.

Besides the samples, the biggest difference between the demos and the final song is the addition of a chorus, which borrows the titular line from the Playthings’s “Stop What You’re Doing to Me I Like It.” Which is a really, really great line that perfectly encapsulates the perverse attractiveness of misery itself:

I also was maybe a little inspired by the part in Liz Phair’s “Mesmerizing” where she says “I like it.” How could you not be inspired by that part? It gives me chills. So very good:

So that’s “Misery.” A song that’s a little funny but mostly inconsequential, a lot like misery itself wouldn’t you say?

Thanks so much Brad!