Interview and Show Review with Soniqloox
- raisedontvband
- Jul 23
- 8 min read
I'm not saying that the TV raised me, but, this is Raised on TV
Sometimes a band name tells you everything. Sometimes it reminds you of your own past. And sometimes, it just makes you want to ask more questions.
Raised on TV does all three for me.
It was a summer evening in hot-ass Las Vegas when I walked into The Red Dwarf.Now, I don’t go out that often and I can hardly remember the last dive bar I visited, but this venue was cozy, almost intimate. The perfect spot for a little debauchery and loud music.
Well, I got the second part right at least.
The mood was alive. The energy felt good. The room buzzed with the promise of something electric. After a few minutes of mingling with like-minded folks, swapping stories about the ins and outs of the Las Vegas music scene, Raised on TV hit the stage and turned the volume all the way up.
They were loud, the good kind of loud though, the kind of loud that makes your whole body feel the music.
But who are these guys? Let’s rewind to the Valley garage where it all began…
Raised on TV is a California-bred indie rock duo with their hearts in the Valley and their gear in the van. Formed by brothers Keaton Rogers and Kacey Greenwood, the band blends surf-psych textures with garage-pop urgency, layering heartfelt hooks over road-worn riffs. Their sound is raw but melodic, shaped fast-tracked sessions and stages ranging from backyard parties to cruise ships. Whether recording in a house in Joshua Tree or tearing through a set in a dive bar, Raised on TV is built for the long drive and the loud night.
SNQLX: You started in a garage in the Valley. How do those early days still show up in your music now?RAISED ON TV: You can take a band out of the garage, but you can’t take the garage out of the band, or something like that anyway. I feel like the garage is at the core, at the heart of our band, and it will always be. That’s where we put in so many long hours, before we ever even played a single show, and it's where a lot of our identity as a band was formed. It’s where we found our sound for the first time. It’s where the cops were repeatedly called on us for being too loud. Songs were played in that garage that were never recorded or played in public, and probably never will be. They probably shouldn’t be. They were just for us to figure things out, and that’s a beautiful thing.
SNQLX: I read that your van broke down in Vegas? What happened? What do you remember most from that day?
ROTV: Yeah it did! That van was breaking down all the time. We had played a show in Las Vegas, and we were heading to a friend’s place to crash for the night that was about 20 minutes away before heading to our show the next day in Riverside, CA. The van broke down while we were driving on the highway. It ended up being something with the transmission. Luckily, we were able to tow the van to a shop that wasn’t too far from our friend’s place, and we began walking there. It was pretty late at this point, maybe 2 am. She had fallen asleep and wasn’t answering her phone or texts, and then she didn’t open the door either, so we ended up walking back to the van and sleeping in the auto shop parking lot. I remember us all singing “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” from Green Day on the walk back to the van to lighten the mood, feeling exhausted, defeated, but trying to stay hopeful knowing we’d figure it out in the morning.
SNQLX: You recorded your first album in just three days. What was that like, and would you ever do it that way again?
ROTV: It was definitely a non-stop, no time to catch your breath, onto the next take, the next song, sort of recording experience. The fast paced way of recording was a rush and a lot of fun, and it could also be stressful, worrying if we got things right or not. Something that was cool about it though was feeling like we were capturing our band at that moment, for better or for worse. In that way, we could do no wrong. We weren’t trying to get things perfect as much as we were trying to get them to be honest. We definitely don’t always record like that. Most of the time we don’t. I’d say that we definitely would again, but it would be cool to be at a really remote studio and record in that style. Somewhere way out there, maybe in the mountains would be awesome.
SNQLX: You’ve recorded in some pretty different places, how does the space affect the sound?
ROTV: The space definitely has an effect on the sound. Of course, there’s the more straightforward effects, like a bigger room adding more reverb to the drums, but different rooms, spaces, and studios affect the sound in all sorts of ways. There’s something to be said for how the space affects the vibe and the feeling of the music and the performers, and that can go a long way. Great gear and equipment can go a long way, but it’s not everything. We’re also living in a time where so many pieces of expensive analog equipment can be recreated digitally, which is awesome, but it also takes away the need for working in an expensive studio to get a “professional” sound. The element of collaboration and working with the right people that can help you achieve the sound you’re looking for becomes the most important factor I think at that point.
SNQLX: You’ve played all kinds of shows. What makes a good one, no matter the size of the crowd or stage?
ROTV: The best shows are the ones where that feeling of connection and of being alive are felt by everyone in the crowd and everyone on stage. You get to that place of letting go and everyone is part of the present moment together. There's magic and freedom in that. It starts with the band and with the music, and then it's a domino effect from there. If the band is fully committed and present, that becomes a contagious feeling that spreads from the stage and out into the crowd. Whether you’re playing a huge space with thousands of people, or a tiny bar with five people, that goal of connection and full commitment doesn’t change. That’s the feeling we chase every time we play.
SNQLX: When people see you live, what do you hope they feel that they might not get from just listening to your records?
ROTV: When it comes to the live show, I hope people enjoy the music and the songs of course, but I also want people to feel something real. I want people to feel that awesome feeling that can only come from a great concert. There’s something about live music that makes you feel more alive, more awake, more present and in the moment. You feel more connected to the people around you, and that’s a great feeling. A great concert can be healing, therapeutic, inspiring, and also insanely fun. So if people can feel even just a fraction of that from our show, I feel like we’re doing something right.
SNQLX: Your songs have a warm, worn-in vibe. Has your sound changed over time, or is that just how it comes out?
ROTV: Our sound has definitely changed over time. When we started, we were much more psychedelic and we’d jam more. We still love that, but I think we try to get to the point faster now. Shorter intros, shorter solos, shorter songs. There have been times where we might mess with keyboard sounds in the studio, or electric drums, or do really layered harmonies, but we usually come back to our more simple electric guitar and acoustic drum driven rock roots.
SNQLX: If someone puts on Strangers in Pictures for the first time, what’s the one song they should start with?
ROTV: Probably the song “Around the Sun”. I think that song really captures what we were going for with that album.
SNQLX: You recently released many of the songs from Make Time to Make Time as acoustic singles. What was the inspiration behind that?
ROTV: We were just trying to mix it up a little and share an acoustic, bare bones, broken down version of the songs from that album. I think a lot of those songs lend themselves pretty well to that style, and they were all written on an acoustic guitar for the most part. It’s also something that a lot of other bands have done, like Deathcab for Cutie for one example, and I think it’s really cool to hear well mixed, well recorded versions of a song that are completely different from the main version off the album.
SNQLX: Do you have any pre-show routines—either solo or as a band—that help get your head in the right place?
ROTV (Keaton): Yeah we do! I try to meditate, even if it’s just for 5 minutes. I try to get my head in a good and positive place. Something I always say to myself is to play like the show we’re about to play is gonna be the last show. What would I want it to be like? To feel like? I’d want to give it everything I had. I'd want to really enjoy it, and also share that joy with everyone there. Of course, I hope that it’s not the last show, and I also try to play like we’re gonna play forever. I think it’s important to keep that idea in mind though, because there was a night where I said that to myself, and then it was the last show we played for over a year due to the Covid pandemic. It was a reminder that you really don’t know what might happen, so you need to savor the moment, savor the show. We also try to have a drink before going on stage, nothing crazy, just something to loosen up a little.
SNQLX: If your van could talk, what’s one thing it would complain about?
ROTV: All the trash that gets left on the floor!
SQNLX: What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed after a show?
ROTV: There’s a few for sure. The weirdest place we crashed after a show might be inside the venue itself. One night in Florida we played this awesome bar, and the owner let us sleep inside the bar after the show knowing we had no decent place to stay at. We partied with the bartender who also crashed there. I slept on some kind of bench, and Kacey ended up sleeping on a pool table.
SNQLX: What’s one piece of gear that absolutely shouldn’t still be working—but somehow is?
ROTV: My DL4 delay pedal. It’s been around a while, and that thing has been dropped so many times. It’s been taken to a repair shop a few times from all the damage too. It glitches out once in a while, but somehow it keeps going.
Raised on TV isn’t just a band that started in a Valley garage—they’re a band that never really left.
They’ve toured in a busted van, slept in parking lots and bars, and played sets like it might be the last time. Their songs aren’t chasing trends. They’re chasing a feeling—honest and loud and full of heart.
There’s something to be said for a band that keeps going no matter what. Who leans into the wear and tear. Who still gets up there with the same fire they had when they first set out to conquer the musical landscape.
That’s what I heard in their set. That’s what stuck with me.
This isn’t nostalgia. It’s just two brothers still making noise because it means something.
This is Raised on TV.
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