Tokyo Police Club
Words: Marisa Brickman
Photos: Cameron Cook
There’s something about good rock music that makes you want to dance around and kiss boys. Something about it that transcends any age bracket and defies any one genre classification.
You won’t be kissing Tokyo Police Club because they all have girlfriends, but the music will make you want to pucker up and grab the nearest nerd. It’s indie at the core, with a pop sensibility and a hyperactive freakout vibe.
TPC’s music occasionally delves into psychedelia and prog with the synthesizer jams, but the barely legal band are a product of kids weaned on science fiction, Weezer, the Strokes, and Led Zeppelin, and who have special spots in their hearts for Blink-182 and System of a Down.
The eight-song EP, A Lesson in Crime (out on Paperbag in the US & Canada and Memphis Industries in the UK), has left everyone with only a taste of what’s to come. A full album is in the works, expected to be released sometime later this year.
In the meantime, the boys are busy touring the UK and US and playing tons of festivals all over the place. We caught up with them in early Spring before a show at London’s KOKO.
How old are you guys?
Graham: 19.
Dave: 19.
Greg: I’m a ripe old geezer at 21.
Josh: I’m also 19.
Are you guys childhood friends? Tell us about your relationship with each other.
Graham: I’ve been good friends with Dave since we were in grade four. I’ve known Josh for as long, but we’ve only been friends since about grade seven. He was better at [American] football than me, and that was just too wide a social gap to bridge. I met Greg in grade nine. He was playing “The Entertainer” on a harmonica, though he assured me that he could also drum.
Dave: Yeah I remember the first time we played drums with Greg we were trying to cover Radiohead’s “Just” but it really fell apart right after the opening guitar part.
Greg: Graham and Josh and I were all in a high school musical together. That’s where I really got to know them. Dave, I remember thinking, had an uncanny resemblance to Ben Kweller and so I gave him the nickname BK. It only lasted a couple days, and I think I was the only one who called him that.
Josh: During recess football, Graham would always fill the position of the guy who hands the ball betwixt his legs to the quarterback, so we were familiar with each other’s work for some time. I first took notice of Greg on a ride home from school when he played the beginning of “Paranoid Android” on another student’s guitar and portable amplifier. Dave and myself very briefly brushed paths through a grade six group project on Warhammer [a Dungeons and Dragons type game, Warhammer is set in a fantasy world where you can control a wide variety of armies, from the human realms of the mighty Empire and the chivalrous land of Bretonnia, to the hordes of Orcs that reside in the forests and mountains of the world, or the insidious ratmen known as Skaven whose vast tunnel-empire lies below the enclaves of other civilisations. Building up your army by collecting and painting our range of miniatures, you can re-enact exciting battles on the table top, fighting your opponents’ armies to see who is the greatest general].
What were each of you doing before you were in the band? As far as jobs and school? How were you making money and what were you studying?
Graham: Before we started seriously working at being musicians, I was taking a year off from school and working at a bookstore.
Dave: I was at McGill [in Montreal] from September to December of 2005. When I came home things started to take off.
Greg: I was in my second year studying television production at Ryerson University in Toronto.
Josh: I had taken a year off and was at work.
I’d say that Toronto hasn’t had as “rocking” an indie band since the Constantines. Are you guys friends with or inspired by them?
Graham: I’ve never met them, or seen them play live, which I’m told is the best way to experience them.
Dave: I’ve seen them live a bunch of times and they’re amazing. I remember in their show, at one point, each member held a tambourine in the air and played in unison while the singer sang overtop. I decided we could swipe this idea and so the early versions of “Cheer It On” featured a four-part tambourine intro. This sounded significantly more terrible than the Constantines version.
Josh: After going to one of their gigs you get to thinking ‘How can we make our show that amazing?’ And even though you could never come close, it gives you huge motivation.
Greg: That song “Some Party” they have is awesome.
What local bands have influenced you guys?
Graham: We aren’t technically from Toronto. We grew up and live in a suburb called Newmarket. There aren’t a whole lot of likeminded bands around here, so we spent our formative years sheltered from any immediate influences. Nowadays, Toronto bands like Born Ruffians and the Meligrove Band give us a run for our money regularly, which keeps us on our toes.
Dave: Mike Small [from the Meligroves] is the genius behind the Toronto scene. I just know it!
Greg: This band called We’re Marching On from Guelph had a huge impact on us when we saw them at Pop Montreal in 2005. They had such a frenetic live show and I think we tried to capture that energy when we started seriously playing live.
Josh: I’m keen on both Germans and We’re Marching On.
Are there any bands you guys like that might seem like a surprise to people?
Graham: I have a soft spot in my heart for Eve 6 and Blink-182. I think that a lot of the time these supposedly un-cool radio bands are writing better songs than a lot of the more legitimate bands. Or maybe I just never entirely got over my early teenage tastes.
Dave: Led Zeppelin? I guess that one’s kind of obvious considering how much I parade my bare chest around on stage.
Greg: I think the new System of a Down records have more merit than I care to let on.
Josh: The New Radicals. That single they have from a while ago is just great.
Were you ever into emo – like Cap’n’Jazz, Promise Ring, Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker-type emo? Your music reminds me so much of all that stuff. But I think you’re all a bit too young for that. Maybe Weezer’s more your speed?
Greg: Are At The Drive-In considered emo? I was pretty into them in Grade 11. I always thought emo was just a term used to describe music with emotionally blunt lyrics. I think Pinkerton was fairly emo and that’s one of my all time favorites.
Graham: I liked that one Promise Ring song, “Stop Playing Guitar”. I used to like the Get Up Kids a lot. Does that count?
Dave: Not really.
What influences you besides music? What are you into?
Graham: I’m a bit ashamed to say that right now I’m a bit obsessed with astronomy, which as a musical inspiration is about the most direct route to prog that you can take. Still, did you know that if you held a grain of sand up to the night sky at arms length, the area covered by that grain of sand would contain something like 10,000 galaxies? How can you not be inspired by that?
Greg: Love and girls. Oh, you got me! I’m so emo.
Josh: Science more than anything.
You all have girlfriends? Does that make it easier or harder being on the road?
Graham: The only part of touring that I don’t like is being away from my girlfriend for extended periods of time. Not only do I get desperately lonely, but I rack up an outrageously high cell phone bill to boot.
Greg: I’m horrible at talking on the phone, which means being away gives me lots of practice at writing cheesy love emails.
Josh: My cellular carrier loves it when I’m on tour.
What’s up with the name? Do you have some sort of fascination with Tokyo? Ever been there?
Dave: Well it was going to be the Tokyo Book Club but we swapped it at the last second.
Greg: We’re not doing the book club anymore? I spent all that time translating Izu No Odoriko!
Graham: We’ve never been to Tokyo, but we’re looking forward to going. I wonder what they’ll think of our name?
Josh: A myspace friend of ours is from Tokyo and she said that Tokyo will love our name. Have no worries, padre.
Are you self-proclaimed geeks? Why do geeks usually make such good bands? Any geek heroes?
Graham: I won’t speak for the others, but I’m the biggest geek I know. Why do geeks make good bands? Maybe its because we have such overactive imaginations.
Dave: Let’s see. Weezer, Radiohead, Weird Al, 50 Cent. We’ve a legacy of geekiness to continue.
Greg: I’m the drummer, so I can’t possibly be a geek. That’s why the rest of the band is afraid of me.
Josh: Now I can tell everyone! My girlfriend and I were Christmas shopping at the Eaton Center in Toronto and while in line at HMV we noticed Natasha Stillwell [known widely from Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet], two people in front of us. We were debating who should go say hello when she finished and left. She’s a hero for both of us.
I guess you’re onto something with your astronomy. Sci-Fi is the new cool. The Klaxons here in London are all over it. Are you particularly interested in Sci-Fi literature or films?
Graham: I love the popular Sci-Fi stuff, like Dr. Who, Star Trek, and the Star Wars films. I’ve never been able to make the leap to the classic books, but maybe someday I’ll get there.
Dave: Yeah but in five years romantic comedies will be the newer cool.
Greg: I can’t wait for the Han and Leia/Honeymooners crossover.
Josh: Yeah, the usual Sci-Fi films are a constant favorite.
Who recorded the EP? Tell us a bit about the making of it.
Graham: Jon Drew, who is a wonderful man and another big Star Wars fan. We recorded it all in three days, and mixed in one. Needless to say, it was an experience. Jon made it easy for us though, and when we said things like ‘Make it sound more thin, and blue,’ he was somehow able to translate it into proper English, and do exactly what we wanted.
Dave: Advice for any new band going into the studio would be to know exactly what you want before you go in.
Greg: Also, be very well-rehearsed. The sooner we finished our takes the sooner we could play Nintendo. Also, make sure the producer has all the coffee he needs.
Are you recording a new record anytime soon? Who are you going to be working with? Any ideas you can let us in on?
Graham: We’re trying to write new songs at the moment, but we’re in the early stages so it’s impossible to say who we’ll be working with or what it will sound like.
Josh: You’ll know when we know.
Dave: All the percussion on the new album will be made with spliced-up rhythms from samples of pianos falling on wildlife.
Greg: We want to make a statement with this album, really say something about the world we live in. All we can say is, we’re thinking about calling it Iraqi Democracy. It should be out in the early summer.
Website: tokyopoliceclub.com