An Interview with Tokyo Police Club

by Emily Cassel (Journalism), published April 5th 2011

With their uptempo riffing and wild post-punk energy, Tokyo Police Club are a band you definitely don’t want to miss live. Lucky for you, the endlessly-touring Canadians are playing AfterHours on Wednesday (4/6). But before you get a chance to check out their animated live show and find yourself crowd surfing to their dynamic indie rock, we caught up with Tokyo Police Club keyboardist Graham Wright to get the lowdown on the band’s plans for the future, how they like playing in Boston, and Canadian stereotypes.

Tastemakers Magazine (TMM): Tokyo Police Club just played at the Juno Awards last week ‘€“ how was that?

Graham Wright (GW): You guys know what the Juno Awards are! That’s impressive. [Laughs]

TMM: Yeah, we’re all up on our Canada knowledge.

GW: That’s great. It was wild, and we’ve never done anything like that before. I didn’t expect it to be as big as it was. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it really was very slick and very professional and ran very smoothly. It was wild.

TMM: Since you are a Canadian band, do people assume that you guys fit all the stereotypes? Do they expect you to be super polite and say, ‘€œeh’€ a lot?

GW: I don’t know if people actually think that or if they’re just messing with us. People will definitely elbow you in the ribs and go, ‘€œEh? Eh?’€ But I don’t think they’re being serious. And we are pretty polite.

TMM: You’re headed to Boston this week, how does our lovely city rate in terms of where you like to play?


GW: We have had both very excellent and very terrible shows in Boston. I generally don’t blame that on locals of the city. When you have an awful show, sometimes the

stars just align in the wrong way. We’ve played at the Middle East Downstairs like, three times, and they were the three worst shows. And we chose that venue, and the crowd wasn’t bad! I don’t know what happened. After that we were like, ‘€œOkay, we’re never playing the Middle East again. It’s not for us.’€ And then after that we started playing the Paradise and everything started going really really well. And the last two shows we played in Boston at the Paradise, and we did one at the Royale, have all been excellent. So there you go. We’re on the upswing.

TMM: Champ was a bit of a departure from Elephant Shell, was that an intentional thing?


GW: Yeah, that just happened. We’re not that cerebral. Well, in some ways we’re extremely cerebral about the songs themselves. But we’re not really thinking about an overall goal for the sound, or the evolution. That doesn’t occur to us at all. We just go in and we always do the same thing ‘€“ we get in and start writing the song and we just keep writing until we like it and we decide it’s done. I guess what excites us and what fulfills us just changes naturally over time.

TMM: So what is your writing process like when you’re together?


GW: Well I mean, Dave’s going to bring in melodies and stuff. He’s the singer, so he usually starts it. But sometimes Greg will have a drum beat, and we’ll build off that idea. Or I’ll have a keyboard part, or Josh will have a guitar part, or whatever. It sort of comes from everywhere. And then once it’s in the room, it’s a free for all.

TMM: You’ve always said that your relationship with producer Rob Schnapf is great, do you plan to continue working with him in the future?


GW: You know, all those decisions get made on an album-by-album basis. We love working with Rob, we hang out with him, we just hung out with him in L.A. The man is amazing at his job and we love him to death. I can’t image that we’d go wrong working with him again, but at the same time you never know if we just decide we want to try something different or go outside our comfort zone. I think the songs will dictate that more than anything, and we haven’t started writing yet.

TMM: What’s going on with your upcoming solo EP – Shirts Vs. Skins?


GW: It’s actually finished now! It’s looking like it’s going to come out in June, at least in Canada, and hopefully in the states as well. June or soon thereafter. I don’t know. It took me a long time and I’m really excited about it. I hope people like it.

TMM: How does it compare to your stuff with Tokyo Police Club? Is it the same? Super different?


GW: I mean to me, it’s super different. Who knows. Maybe people will listen to it and say, ‘€œOh my God, this sounds exactly like Tokyo Police Club.’€ The songs are short still, that’s the same. But I think it’s a lot more varied, and it’s a lot more all over the map. It was just me, and my friends who own a studio, doing anything that occurred to us in the moment. It’s very orchestrated and lush and there are lots of instruments. I covered pretty much every instrumental group, I think. Except keyboards, interestingly! [Laughs] That’s the only instrument that isn’t on the record. I don’t think there’s a single synthesizer on the entire record. And that wasn’t on purpose, it’s not like I did that to distance myself from what I do. I just found myself never going to that well.

TMM: Subconsciously, you probably needed time off from the keyboard.


GW: Probably. [Laughs] I needed a break. The stuff I’m writing now, I’m way more into keyboards and stuff, but when I was doing this record I wanted it to be organic and rock and roll. Even though it’s not in any way a band playing in a room, and even though it would have to be a 24-piece band with seven guitars playing in a room, I still wanted it to be ‘€“ in theory ‘€“ something that could be played by a bunch of rock and roll musicians with amplifiers.

TMM: Between the constant touring of Tokyo Police Club and your side projects you must be insanely busy. Are you the kind of people who just can’t sit still?


GW: I can’t speak for the other guys, but I certainly feel that way. I would come back from tour, I was living by myself for the first time, and my place would be, ‘€œOh my God, I’ve earned a rest, I’m gonna sit on my ass and watch television.’€ And then I would do that for three days, and I’d just be like, ‘€œWhy am I massively depressed?’€ And I realized it’s ‘€˜cause I wasn’t doing anything. I was just being a bum. So I started purposely overbooking myself, and now it’s the opposite. Now I’m really busy and stressed, but I love it, and I feel fulfilled. It’s way better for me.

TMM: The band recently released a magazine that you put together. Since we weren’t lucky enough to get one of the 200 copies, can you tell us about it?


GW: It was just a different way to be creative. We were doing these tours, we’re coming back to places we’ve always played. We try to keep it fresh ‘€“ and I’m sure the show will still be compelling ‘€“ but at the same time we’re still touring on the same record, so it’s not like there’s a whole new batch of songs or anything. So we wanted to do something different to offer to people who are fans and come out to all the shows and the diehards and what have you. We have a friend who makes zines and we just threw him this idea. And it was fun. In the early days of our band, it wasn’t so much about making music as it was about hanging out, and that was a way we could hang out with each other. As much as we practice, we’d also eat pizza and just shoot the shit, and we’d get there and sit with our instruments, talking for an hour before anything else. And of course, now that it became our job, it’s changed the dynamic of it. [Making the magazine] felt more like the early days of doing music than doing music does at this point. We just got together and hung out and put paint on toothbrushes and did whatever we felt like. It was using different muscles, I guess.

TMM: You successfully avoided the sophomore slump with Champ ‘€“ where do you plan to go from here?


GW: I don’t know! We haven’t decided yet. I think we’re going to keep going. After Elephant Shell we kind of took a break for a minute before we started working on Champ, and I think this time we’re gonna not do that. I guess it seems like a break to you guys, because we stopped touring, but the talk right now is that we’re going to rent a room and start working on some songs. And I don’t know what they’re going to be, maybe they’ll be nothing, and maybe they’ll be an album. It could take six months or it could take three years. It’s such early days, I can’t speculate at all. But the plan is to keep going and try and make some new music.

TMM: So why do NU students need to make sure they come check you guys out at Afterhours?


GW: Our awesome songs. And our fun as hell live show.

TMM: That’s pretty simple.


GW: Exactly. It should be.

Tokyo Police Club will be at afterHOURS Wednesday (4/6) as part of Springfest Week 2011. For the full list of Springfest events check out the Facebook Event.