Public Access TV

“It wasn’t like ‘let’s start a band,” says Public Access T.V.’s 24-year-old singer and main songwriter John Eatherly. “We were already playing music and hanging out together all the time. We were all doing different things, playing as hired guns for anybody just to pay the rent, and then one day I came in with these songs I wrote and we all just knew this was something we wanted to do for real.”

After uploading only one song on SoundCloud, NME declared, “Meet New York City’s hottest new band.” The group played their first live show ever shortly there after at the legendary East Village bar Niagara, to a packed crowd of NYC press, who’s who, it girls, and record label representatives. Before anyone could pin them down they headed to England to hone their sound out on the road. Better still, they toured under the fake band name “The iLL Herbs.” Regardless of the name, the tour was a smashing success, culminating in their performance at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton.

What followed was a whirlwind of activity. The band hit the studio to get some new songs down, and then went right back out on the road, sharing stages with Weezer, Wavves, and Gang of Four. They released singles “Monaco” and “In the Mirror”, and the EP Public Access. Everything was moving forward.

Then, in March 2015, while on tour in California, the band flicked on the TV to see live pictures of their Manhattan loft on every single news channel. Their home was on fire from a gas explosion and had collapsed into rubble. “We wrote there, rehearsed, recorded, lived, everything,” says John. “It was home…and then it was completely gone.”

Demoralized and thousands of miles from NYC, PATV did the only thing they could think of. They stayed out on the road. As John says: “We told our agent to book as many gigs as possible – because we didn’t want to deal with the reality of the situation. We actually had nowhere to go.”

That chain of events set PATV on an entirely new and fruitful path. Among those frantic gig bookings were slots on European festivals, UK house parties, and dates with The Strokes, FIDLAR, Palma Violets, and Hinds.

In the fall of 2015 the group released their double A-side single “In Love and Alone” / “Patti Peru” to critical acclaim. Zane Lowe debuted “In Love and Alone” on Apple’s Beats 1 and exclaimed, “We love Public Access T.V.” before giving the track his signature stamp of approval by playing it twice in a row.

Before the end of the year the band signed to NYC label Cinematic Music Group and finished recording their debut album. Upon hearing the news, NME declared, “When their album drops next year, expect to have your mind fully blown.” No sooner had the album been finished than the band hit the road again for a second tour with their friends Hinds. This time, a sold out UK tour that also included a handful of headlining dates supporting their new single “On Location.”

Public Access T.V. was named “Top 10 Best Artists” at SXSW 2016 by both Entertainment Weekly and NME. Both listing the group as one of “the buzziest” bands at the festival. That, and they played Governor’s Ball and Bonnaroo 2016, all before their debut album has even been released.

On September 30, 2016, PATV’s debut album Never Enough was released on Cinematic. But before you can pin that on them, they’ll be back out on the road playing dates worldwide.