>>PREVIEW
TOKYO POLICE CLUB
Thursday, June 15
Broken City
When, within a year, a band is able to graduate from high school, drop out of college, get signed to one of Canada’s premier indie labels after a show they didn’t expect to play and end up touring the country in support of an EP that is sitting at No. 2 on college charts in Canada, that band should probably expect some questions about just how the hell they did it.
"We didn’t plan any of this," says Tokyo Police Club’s singer-bassist David Monks laughing. "(a) we didn’t plan on getting a record deal and leaving school and (b) we didn’t plan on it happening this quickly."
Perhaps "quickly" is a bit of an understatement. This Toronto-based quartet has turned their unique mixture of playful indie rock, darker lyrics and a few beats you can dance to into one of the most interesting (and unexpected) stories of ’06. And one of the most heartening (or perhaps, for the aging scene vets that can be found in every city in Canada who can’t seem to buy a break, depressing) is the youthfulness of the band. Almost all childhood friends, they have moved from the freshman classrooms of university to the sweaty stages of small clubs with ease.
"I’ve known Graham (Wright, keyboardist) and Josh (Hook, guitars) since Grade 4 and we met Greg (Alsop, drums) in high school and played music all through high school," explains Monks. "At the end of the summer of ‘05 we thought ‘OK, we’ve had our fun for the summer. It’s time to call it off for the band — I was going to McGill, Greg was going to Ryerson and that was that. Then we played Pop Montreal, which was a total fluke – we didn’t really expect to play! They all came up and stayed in my little dorm (in McGill) and practised in there and it was pretty ridiculous."
The performance caught the eye of Paper Bag Records, and the label invited Tokyo Police Club to play a showcase for the label in November. The band was signed and recording a scant three months later. "The funny thing is that I didn’t leave school knowing Paper Bag was going to be there," Monks confesses. "It was more of a blind leap Greg and I took leaving school. In hindsight it might not have been the smartest thing to do, but I’m glad now that we did."
The band is attracting a lot of buzz not just for their meteoric rise, but also for the songwriting that’s fuelling it. They straddle a line between dance rock and the style that has defined so much indie music the past couple of years – think Wolf Parade, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, etc. – and in doing so sound far removed from both camps while still evoking them.
This strength is coupled with Monks’ beyond-his-years songwriting. Avoiding so much cliché, Monks weaves tales of robot overlords and lost love, dark thoughts and sunny moments. Delivered with playfulness, fragility and tenderness, Tokyo Police Club’s EP, A Lesson In Crime, is dense with stories and characters sprung from some surprising places.
"I think there’s a lot of romanticism involved with things that aren’t boy meets girl. When I was at school and taking a lot of science and anthropology courses, that affected my songwriting in a much more literal way than most people think," Monks explains.
"I like to have some morbidness in the narrative. I just find if you really mark out the more morbid points in your songs or the desperateness of your songs, when you make a positive statement it really stands out more. The contrast makes things more… it polarizes the songs more. It comes from my personality more than a conscious effort to put a sort of jovial nature in my song. It’s just not done often enough and it’s such a valuable thing – having a lightheartedness to your songs."
And playfulness is something that Tokyo Police Club seem to have in spades as they ride this wave of critical and popular acclaim, and it’s not just an endearing PR tactic.
"So many bands bite off more than they can chew trying to be these life-changing bands — we’re not trying to be that. This is what we have and we’re really matter-of-fact about it." |
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