x
• New: Extra features for registered users, register to see your homepage.
• SxSW 2008: See the best online coverage of this year's festival - click here for news and pics

Interview: Tokyo Police Club, MP3s

07th April 2008 | by Aidan Williamson

All good things take time, so how do bands fare in the world of instant exposure, blog spotlights and flickering fame? We caught up with Tokyo Police Club's keyboardist Graham Wright to find out the Club's thoughts on this modern world.

In an upstairs room at Emo's in Austin, Texas, during the bustle of the SxSW festival, Strange Glue resisted the distraction of the surprise Stills show that had just started downstairs and spent some time with the Canadian garage-rock band.

Amidst the echoing cacophony of "Logic Will Break Your Heart", Wright began to describe the allure of the SxSW festival. "This is our second year [at South by South-West], last year we did, like, five shows and this year we have six days where we're doing three shows, so it's really relaxed, and that's exactly the way I like it."

"Last year was sort of our year where we were making contacts. We were looking for a record label, we didn't have any of that in place at that point. But now we really have a home for our album, we have everyone on the team. So this year, yeah, it's really more about just... I mean, it's always really great to play for people, 'cause you're always gonna play for people who haven't heard you before and obviously that's hugely important, but it's also a nice chance for us to have a vacation from Toronto and sit in Austin for a few days. We were having huge snowstorms [in Canada] the day before we left."

Obviously, Canada is not most people's go-to response when discussing fertile music grounds, but the second most famous country in North America is turning around all these perceptions, "I think [the Canadian music scene] helps us." explains Wright, "A few years back, there wasn't really a Canadian music scene, but it's exploded now, and it's not, it's not so much a scene anymore. A lot of the bands have gotten international success, so it's not like bands play together in a city anymore. That really helped us, 'cause like, ten, fifteen years ago Canadian bands could never get noticed outside of Canada. It just never ever happened unless you were Celine Dion or something. But y'know, bands like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene sort of were able to bring it through to the States, the U.K and Europe, everywhere. Then people started paying more attention to Canadian music. Then we came along at a time when people would say 'Hey, this band's Canadian, well, maybe they'll be good. I'll give them a chance.' which is obviously great for us."

Things switch from the present, to the future now as the topic turns to the band's forthcoming album entitled "Elephant Shell", the obvious question to rise, is of course, huh? "We had written a song on the record called 'In a Cave' which was originally titled 'Elephant Shell'. It has that in the lyrics. And we had a lot of trouble picking an album title. We just... I don't know, we had a hard time finding something that we wanted to represent the album. We ended up picking the thing that had no other connotations, y'know. Everyone keeps saying 'What is that? What does that mean?' and that's sort of the point. That's good for us, 'cause when people say [Elephant Shell] all they'll think of is our album."

"It's a logical progression from [The Smith E.P]. The songs are still very short, the whole record's less than twenty minutes long, but at the same time, we were a little more ambitious with layering stuff, and more dynamics. They're very much scrappy, close-together, minimal songs. The new record was written after touring, so I think they make a little more sense in front of an audience."

He continues, "Any progression that we made in terms of songwriting really happened naturally. There was a while where we were freaking out about whether or not we should try to progress or try to stay the same. But in the meantime we were progressing because we were growing as people, or touring and like, finding new bands and all of that informs you as a musician. So I'm really content to keep on doing what we do and see where we end up, because that's a lot of the fun for me. I didn't know the record was going to sound like it did until it was finished. There were always new ideas coming in and that led to, i dunno, it led to a record I was really happy with. We were following a path, and yet we didn't know where it was going to lead until we got there."

What we can know though, is where the path came from, the autobiography of one Graham Wright begins; "I always loved music, my parents were both music teachers. At Christmas time they'd always have their friends over and we'd do like, a carol sing. Then when I was like five or six I got this wooden fake guitar from someone's garbage and I'd play along with the radio and just pretend that I was a rock star. Then one day I was talking to Josh and the other guys and I said 'I wanna be in a band' and he said 'Us too!' so I said 'Why don't we just do it?' Music has always been my favourite thing, I love music more than anything else. Like most music lovers, you look back over your life and so many periods are defined by what you're listening to, so it was always natural that we were going to start doing that ourselves."

"We started playing together when I was like, nine, we were all really young and at that point we could barely play at all, so it was just about coming up with anything that we thought was good. Super simple, silly little songs, but everytime we wrote one, we'd be like 'Oh my God guys! We just wrote a song, guys! This is the most amazing thing.' Then we'd be so excited that we'd go and write another one. So that has always driven us, the excitement factor, when you finish something and you have that big smile on your face. You've created something that you're really proud of."

As applause sounds throughout the dressing room from another well received Stills song, Strange Glue asks about how high the band wants to fly, "I don't see anything wrong with success, y'know, for successes sake. There's bands out there that really consciously want to keep it small, and I mean, that's fine! Whatever they want to do. If we can be successful doing what we do, then that's great. I'm never happy with what we've done, I'm never satisfied. Any milestone we achieve, I'm happy there for five minutes, but then I'm looking towards the next one. So in that regard, i'll never be satisfied until all 8 billion people in the world are Tokyo Police Club fans, and that's never gonna happen. So for me, it's a constant, continual battle to that point. But at the same time, we're never going to compromise ourselves to get there faster. We're gonna make the songs we write, that's all we can do, and if those songs resonate with people and propel us to the mainstream then we're happy with that."

"Bands like the Arctic Monkeys and the Black Kids, literally, their demo was getting reviewed on [all the big music sites], it must be freaky for these people, it wasn't so much for us, because we were allowed more of a slow build, we didn't get thrown out into the big mainstream and get so hyped during our start and I think that's fortunate. It's crazy to see these bands go from zero to being thrust out there so quickly. I hope that they flourish, and I hope that they succeed, but it's easy to see how they're not ready. They burn so brightly so quickly, but they don't have time to grow. Music used to be kind of an apprenticeship y'know. You'd work your way up, you'd spend months on the road, years on the road, touring, making records, honing your skills and whatever. Even we get a bit of that, obviously a lot less than some bands, but it's crazy to see a band that have never gone on tour before, suddenly on their first show, they're playing for hundreds of people."

"I'm constantly yearning for the past, I'm one of those people that's convinced that it used to be better, but it is how it is, that's the point the industry is at now, bands can't control that, it's just what people are doing right now. Perhaps young bands are going to get great fast and maybe we're gonna see tonnes of 20-year-olds headlining arenas. It'll be interesting to see where it all leads, I mean, we could be heading towards an implosion, I hope it's not that though."

Thanks to this world of modern technology, we have two MP3s made available for you to enjoy from the band's body of work. Short, sharp and organic would serve well in describing the next few minutes of music entering your ears, should you choose to click the play button.

MP3: Tokyo Police Club - Cheer It On



MP3: Tokyo Police Club - Nature of the Experiment

Comments

Tanya Sharp

commented 1 month ago

I cannot wait for Elephant Shell, the wait will be soooo worth it.

pocoyo

commented 1 month ago

""Bands like the Arctic Monkeys and the Black Kids, literally, their demo was getting reviewed on [all the big music sites], it must be freaky for these people, it wasn't so much for us, because we were allowed more of a slow build, we didn't get thrown out into the big mainstream and get so hyped"

It's so true, all these bands like Black Kids and Vampire Weekend have done absolutely nothing. I bet two albums down they'll be a lot further back than TPC.

Lovin the new stuff guys!

Lee

commented 1 month ago

Elephant Shell is a bit bland. Not a patch on A Lesson in Crime.

The bee

commented 1 month ago

How do you know Lee? Its not out til May? :-D

Cranky

commented 3 weeks ago

I've just got hold of this album, and it is the shizzle. Great stuff!!!

tommo

commented 3 weeks ago

Nice interview,indeed,WTF have Black Kids done yet except make sweaty Radio1/NME journos quiver like Jane Austen.At least T.P.C have released more than one single.