"I kept seeing this guy and he kept giving me money, and then it finally clicked that I had seen him before," Smith says. "It was in a short version of the film Jump Tomorrow on the Independent Film Channel. He told me he loved my playing and I told him I loved the film. Then he mentioned his roommate who was into recording people and whose name was Dave [Sitek]. About a week later, I decided to play on the street, and on this corner I ran into Dave. It was really weird. It happened in a week in two completely different parts of the city."

Eventually Smith, along with drummer Jaleel Bunton, would be coerced into working with TV on the Radio, at which point the strikingly koala-esque Kyp Malone would've already found membership as well. Also over time, the band would drop excellent releases such as 2003's Young Liars EP and 2004's stunning Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. And yet, as wonderful as these collections of songs are, they pale in comparison to the band's major label debut for Interscope Records, Return to Cookie Mountain, a release that has swept up a whirlwind of hype via a misnamed and improperly ordered leak.

"Personally, I don't even own a computer," Smith says. "And given how long all of this work has gone on, and the switching labels and everything, I was really paranoid every time I walked home with a disc. I would see someone walking toward me and consider smashing it to pieces. I didn't want to be that person who leaked the record. I played it for two people, I think, out of everyone I know."

Kicking off with the glitchy, horn-sampling magic of "I Was a Lover," the record careens about; twisting past the pulsating, invincible first single, "Wolf Like Me," reveling in its own glory until the last remnants of fuzz drift away on "Wash the Day Away." Giddy music this is not. Forsaking a feigned, hopeful outlook, these epic tunes opt instead to be utterly triumphant.

"There is a sense of ... I can't really say for sure," Smith ponders. "Obviously, it's not happy-go-lucky; I don't know if this band has ever been about that. I remember one time we were in London and I went out to the bar. I was bobbing my head, then looked around and thought, 'Why isn't anyone else bobbing their head around?' Then I realized I was nodding to 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' a song no one over there bobs their head to for obvious reasons.

"I don't know that any good music ever says anything happy," he says, laughing for a moment at the seriousness of his statement before continuing. "That's always been part of the wonderful thing about this band and I guess about a lot of serious music, in my opinion. There's nothing worse than hearing some bullshit. Hardcore music fans want to hear some honesty."

Of course, this is also music that begs to be heard by all, hardcore or no. And even if it takes something as superficial (and, albeit, pretty awesome) as David Bowie's guest background vocals on record, well, at least that converts a new listener.

"We were driving one day and Dave got a call from him," Smith says. "I was driving, it was really early in the morning, and I was like, 'Who the hell is he talking to?' Usually at that time, we're asleep or yelling at each other or something. After a rest stop, we get back in the car, and Dave's like, 'I just talked to David Bowie.' I guess it started from there. At one point, they had lunch together, a couple tracks were passed his way, and he decided to help out on 'Province.'"

Malone has been quoted in the past as saying once TV on the Radio figures out what it's doing as a band, it will be time to quit. From the sounds of Cookie Mountain, this is a group that appears knowledgeable of its talent É and revels in it, in fact. In light of this, and pressed with the perhaps inevitable question as to whether there is any new ground left to cover, Smith's answer is as open-ended, foreboding, and bittersweet as TV on the Radio's best songs. "That's a damn good question," he says. "I've always seen myself as a peripheral member, and I don't want to step on any toes. I want to be a contributor, not a collaborator. However, I do think there's a lot of room to thrive and grow. But that's for time to tell, and realistically, nothing lasts forever."

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