Everything is AMAZING: Life On The Road With Tokyo Police Club

At this point, you probably know that Tokyo Police Club are not Japanese. They’re actually Canadian (check out how they spell “Favourite Colour”), and made a pretty big name for themselves playing festivals like PopMontreal, Toronto’s Edgefest and Osheaga in Montreal in support of their breakout EP, the 16 minute long A Lesson In Crime.

Bouncy and punchy as ever, TPC’s flavor of indie rock has always smacked of enthusiastic youth—they make the kind of songs you play to a car full of friends, whether you are all pumping your fists along to their more anthemic fare or staring introspectively out of your respective windows.

Their latest, Champ sees the quartet suspended between youth and adulthood. They’ve grown up a bit in their 5 years together on the road and in the studio, but they still haven’t quite figured it all out. “Breakneck Speed,” the first single speaks of that “out of the woods” feeling one encounters as you come roaring out of your teen years, just as you turn and stare into the abyss of adulthood: “Super fun. At the movies drunk and young // Double knots that came undone, but the big bad years are gone //…I’m still amazed you made it out alive after what you did.”

We swapped emails with guitarist Josh Hook as Tokyo Police Club preps to swing through Boston next Thursday when they play at the Royale.

–Jessie Rogers

So how’s tour going? Looks like you guys had some good times at Coachella.

The tour is going great–currently we’re in Dallas mid-tour supporting Passion Pit. The crowds have been AMAZING every single night. After a couple years of writing and recording it’s nice to be back on the road in full tour mode. Coachella was really enjoyable–the first year we played we were in the Mojave Tent and this year we were put on the Coachella Stage, which was an incredible experience. We also got to spend the weekend in the area and check out a lot of each day, which is always preferable to a quick in-and-out sort of deal at such a great festival like Coachella.

When you hit Ontario, you’ll be playing with The Flaming Lips and Spoon. That must be pretty cool—are you fans? Do you still get star struck?

YEEEAH! We are all looking forward to this show! We’re all pretty big fans of the Flaming Lips. The first time we got to see them was 2003 when Toronto had a huge benefit concert (Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Guess Who, Rush, Justin Timberlake) to help the city after the SARS outbreak. The line-up was impressive, but we just wanted to see the Flaming Lips. We camped out the night before and made 6 rows away from the stage. I think they played 3 or 4 songs (most of the earlier bands only had a 15-20 minute set) from Yoshimi and it was AMAZING. So worth it. We also played the same day as them at Osheaga Festival (in Montreal) a few years ago and got to see an entire Flaming Lips set, which was an absolutely incredible use of confetti. By far one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen. We’ve watched UFO’s at the Zoo a few times on this tour already.

You were big on the festival circuit before you even released a full album. Do you prioritize your live performance over recording? When you are recording a song, do you think about how you are going to play it live?

Throughout the writing and recording process of Elephant Shell we were getting really cool opportunities for tours/festivals/one-off shows here and there that we didn’t want to turn down so we wanted to make the most of the EP as different places got to it. While it was really amazing to get to do all of the shows we did, it wasn’t the best way to make a record. For Champ we were able to make writing and recording time top priority so we could stay immersed in the ideas for the entire process. Since we have the core parts of the song completed before we record it, we don’t really have to think about translating a song from the recorded version to a live setting.

You just released Champ, five years after you first formed as a band and a lot has changed. Successful tours, critical acclaim, new labels… is any of that reflected in the making of the album or in its content?

I think reflected in this album is a conscious effort to not musically corner ourselves and write parts we think we should be playing. Instead we just played what we each thought was best for the song and came out with what I think is a much more confident album.

Are you excited to play Boston? What can we expect when at the Royale on July 1?

Definitely! A band that is really, really excited to be back on tour.