Music

Tokyo Police Club don't "fantasize [about] obscurity"

by Anne T. Donahue

Do not brand Tokyo Police Club as “underground,” especially since the four piece from Newmarket identify with an idea far from it. Having recently released the highly anticipated follow-up to their 2008 full-length debut, Elephant Shell, the band have recently embarked on a North American tour alongside indie-pop darlings Two Door Cinema Club, and have no plans to scale back their ventures in hopes of reaching only a niche market.

“I wouldn’t consider myself to be a fan of counter-culture or underground or anything,” admits keyboardist Graham Wright. “We’re doing everything in our power to reach more people all the time. We have no interest in being a niche, underground band; we want to be successful. We want to play music to reach people.”

“I think the whole point of pop music is to have people hear it,” he continues. “I’ve never really understood the whole underground culture [or the idea of] fantasizing obscurity – it doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. It seems to me if you want to create something that you’re proud of you, you should want people to see it.”

And see it they have. With the band’s sophomore record, Champ, released last year, the reception was that of overwhelming praise and enthusiasm as the group experimented with longer tracks and an evolved sound, showcasing their willingness to grow and change despite an already populated fanbase. Yet regardless of the fixation on the band’s break from their trademark two-minute pop anthems, Wright maintains that the group’s never abided by a time-conscious writing formula, and like the rest of their efforts, their music grew organically.

“Writing excites us,” he explains. “We never wrote songs with a stopwatch – I don’t know how long our songs are until I see them on the CD. But at the same time, something is influencing us to always write short songs and [to] start writing longer songs.

“We didn’t think we were a great festival band because [when] you have 40 minutes to play and you play 16 songs, that’s a lot of information. And no sooner do you start the song [than it’s] over, and it’s hard for people to respond to – and it’s hard for us to share. We weren’t talking about this, we weren’t conscious of it when we were writing, but I’m sure it feeds back.”

In addition to the album and to the current tour, the band have also just released a zine which capitalizes on the DIY ethos Tokyo Police Club was first aligned with. But despite their affinity for abiding by a ‘do what we want’ state of mind, the group’s remained the subject of scrutiny for those cynical of mainstream success.

“When you know that you’re okay with people hearing your music, you don’t have that stigmatized “selling out” or anything like that,” Wright shares. “It frees you to make decisions. Like ‘of course I’m going to go on Desperate Housewives and play my song – why wouldn’t I do that?’ To use one extreme example.”

“I like to say yes. I like to have opportunities,” he continues. “I like to do things and have experiences doing something that’s so awesome that it could disappear any minute. I don’t think it will – I certainly hope it won’t – but if everyone decides tomorrow that they hate our band and we never get to make another record or play a show, I’d feel like it’d be wasted if we’d spent the whole time staring at our feet.”