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TV Girl

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Brad Petering's sample-collage project: lifted loops, spoken-word snippets and flat, unbothered vocals about relationships going wrong. Bedroom records that found a mass audience years later.

TV Girl began in San Diego in 2010 as a casual project between friends Trung Ngo and Brad Petering, taking its name from a Beat Happening song. Their self-titled debut EP included "If You Want It," built on a loop from Todd Rundgren's "Hello It's Me," which brought a takedown notice from Rhino Entertainment and an early lesson in the risks of the sampling method.

The lineup shifted through the early years: the Benny and the Jetts EP in 2011 brought in drummer Jason Wyman and multi-instrumentalist Joel Williams, and a free 2012 mixtape came bundled with a downloadable coloring book. By 2013's Lonely Women EP, Ngo and Williams had left, leaving Petering as the sole founding member and lead vocalist, joined by keyboardist Wyatt Harmon.

The records that followed, including French Exit, kept the method intact: chopped loops from old pop and soul sides, dialogue clips, drum machines, and vocals delivered without much visible effort. French Exit's twelve songs circled loss, lust and love; outtakes from the sessions later surfaced on a 2020 EP.

TV Girl kept releasing steadily afterward, with Who Really Cares in 2016, Death of a Party Girl in 2018 and Grapes Upon the Vine in 2023, alongside collaborative records made with other artists.

Years after their original release, "Lovers Rock" and other tracks including "Not Allowed," "Cigarettes Out the Window" and "Taking What's Not Yours" circulated widely on TikTok starting in 2022, pulling the back catalogue onto charts in several countries in 2023 and taking the band from small rooms to sold-out venues.

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