A conversation with TV For Cats on turning off-kilter ideas into pop, finding their footing on stage, and embracing the strange details that make their songs stick.

There’s something deliberately askew about TV For Cats. The London-based trio, pulling threads from Paris and Birmingham, make songs that feel bright and immediate on the surface but unravel into something far stranger the longer you sit with them. Built up through months of live shows before ever committing anything to tape, their music carries that loose, instinctive energy, where playful melodies rub up against moments of unease, and nothing ever feels entirely settled. With their debut release, they’re capturing that push and pull in its rawest form.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

ALL: We’re Sammy, Daisy and Gedge, based in London via Paris and Birmingham and we make music that’s strange and wonky packaged in something more poppy and bright.

You’ve spent a while building things live before releasing anything. What made now feel like the right moment to put music out properly?

ALL: We started gigging quite early really, we’d only been playing together for around 6 months when we started! Since then we’ve built a lot of confidence in our sound. When people started seeing us live and asking us to send them some tunes, it made sense to give them a true representation of what we sound like now as a band.

‘Where Did The Time Go?’ captures that doomscroll spiral really well. How conscious were you of writing about that kind of modern, hyper-online anxiety?

SAMMY: Very conscious. Generally I don’t consume as much online media as most so when I do fall into a cycle of it, it really gets its claws in and I guess writing about it helps me get out of it. But also it kinda feels great when you’re in it, and I think the song’s got a kind of sugar coated sound but with an underlying darkness, which replicates the feeling of social media, and online media in general. The line “holy crap, I’m in another group chat” was actually written when I started the TVFC band group chat, even though it’s the only group chat I actually don’t hate.

There’s something quite playful about your sound, even when the lyrics feel heavy. How do you strike that balance without tipping too far either way?

SAMMY: As long as I’m pushing the same weight in both directions it seems to work. Happy and playful songs are an amazing trojan horse for something more meaningful. I would struggle singing those lyrics over a sad sounding song. It would be too awkward, too sincere.

You describe your sound as janky and off-kilter. What does that actually look like in practice when you’re writing together?

SAMMY: I write the bare bones of the songs and get them sounding okay, and then we go and fuck them up in a band room. We play loud and fast and don’t make notes or remember what we’re doing half the time. I think that’s led to the janky and off-kilter sound very naturally.

London’s small venues seem to have played a big role in shaping the band. Are there particular spaces or nights that have stuck with you?

ALL: The Social has been so important for us as a band - we hang out there so much, watching bands, DJing, playing gigs, it’s basically our home. All our friends pretty much live there and therefore so do we.

As a trio, how do you approach arrangements?

SAMMY: All parts are malleable and move with each other. So, as soon as someone is dead set on something, like a mad distorted organ, for example, we can build the rest around that. Generally I let Gedge feel the tone of the sound with her synth lines and then I slot in around them on guitar. And Daisy’s vocals are bright, sweet and beautiful which seems to work nicely to cut through the noise.

You’re playing places like The Social and getting onto festival lineups like Get Together Festival. Has your approach to live shows changed as those opportunities have grown?

ALL: Since starting TVFC we’ve had a few different approaches to the live show. We threw the kitchen sink at it maybe to compensate for being a small band. We don’t really do that anymore, it sounds how it sounds. Getting booked for these amazing shows has definitely made us more conscious of having an exciting live sound. I think we’re tighter, louder, faster and slicker nowadays.

There’s a sense of existential humour running through everything. Do you see that as a defence mechanism, or just how you naturally process things?

SAMMY: Definitely just how my brain works. People like Ivor Cutler and David Byrne have been a massive influence with their fringe approach to mainstream media. I’m glad the existential humour comes off as intended.

This is your first official release as a three-piece. What do you want people to understand about TV For Cats from these two tracks alone?

ALL: We can write proper songs and we look cool

What do you love right now?

SAMMY: When people tell me that Subway pump the smell out

DAISY: cherry blossom on my road, and the band Media Puzzle

GEDGE: that pigeons are having a comeback

What do you hate right now?

SAMMY: tuna sweetcorn on a jacket potato

DAISY: socks that slip down

GEDGE: trying to use websites and failing

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

SAMMY: The Buzzcocks, Singles Going Steady. Too many albums to choose from. This reminds me of jumping around the living room with my mum as a kid and also learning the drums as a tiny kid. My drum teach was The Buzzcocks’ session drummer so I got obsessed. (That or T-Rex, I’m named after Telegram Sam (and Fireman Sam))

DAISY: The Specials - self titled (That and 'Too Much Too Young'). Reminds me of it playing in the house when we used to do spring cleaning with my mum. It’s genius in every way. I went to see ‘Dance Craze’ recently and was blown away by them in that. They had such a magical effect on the crowd.

GEDGE: The Streets - Original Pirate Material. One because I’m a brummy and we are all really proud of everything that comes out of Birmingham. But really because it brings back memories of that era in my household - listening to the radio with my older siblings while they got ready for nights out (just thinking about this brings back the insanely strong smell of Wella hairspray), driving around in their friends cars at night and listening to The Streets through shite phone speakers. I don’t think I’ll ever stop finding new reasons to love and appreciate this album.

When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?

SAMMY: I think they’re catchy but I hope they come back to all the little strange sounds and fleeting moments of weirdness that are probably overlooked on the first listen.

Photography By: Louise Mason

Start Listening To: TV For Cats