Tokyo Police Club Interview
Tokyo Police Club
ON TOUR NOW!
Find Tickets for D.C. and Atlanta
http://www.tokyopoliceclub.com
MP3: "Citizens of Tomorrow"
Tokyo Police Club has proven that you can get more than 15 minutes of fame with just 16 minutes of music. These young Canadian rockers have taken their EP “A Lesson in Crime” all around the world. They’ve played Coachella, Letterman, Glastonbury, and Lollapalooza is lined up next. After a few stints around the country with Cold War Kids and Art Brut, TPC is finally ready for its first headlining tour in the US. We had a chat with guitarist Josh Hook as the band prepares to invade America.
TALive: Hey Josh! How are you? What are you up to now?
Josh Hook: Hey, not too bad. Right now we just pulled up…. We are doing a Sirius satellite radio session in I think it's called Pendleton, Indiana. And right now the band Dappled Cities is doing one before us so we are just waiting outside. Some of us are reading, unloading equipment.
TALive: Oh, very cool that’s actually how I first heard your music. We have Sirius in the office and your music pops up quite a bit.
JH: Oh, sweet. That's good to know!
TALive: So you’ve got a pretty insane tour coming up. Is this your first headlining tour?
JH: This is our first headlining tour of the States, yeah. So we’re really looking forward to it. We’ve done a couple tours like, a few days with Art Brut, a big tour with Cold War Kids. Although it's great sometimes to support bands, nothing is like headlining your show. You get to (it sounds boring but) connect to YOUR fans instead of being swept off the stage right after you play.
TALive: How do you prepare for a headlining tour differently than an opening slot?
JH: We don’t have that many songs. Normally it would be a question of length, but our opening set is normally, your given half an hour 40 minutes, and our headlining set is somewhere in the range of 45, maybe 50 if we talk a lot.
TALive: I’ve spent a lot of time in Toronto actually, and something that really struck me was that Canada has a government-enforced policy to ensure that a certain percentage of programming on radio and TV is Canadian in origin.
JH: Right, CANCON.
TALive: How do you feel about that policy as a Canadian artist? Do you feel like it helps you gain exposure? Do even notice the regulation in effect?
JH: Yeah, you can definitely notice it. There’s a radio station here called The EDGE, and on their Thursday 30 countdown, if you see it on their Web site, you can see all the Canadian flags. Most of the time, it’s about 30 per cent that you’re supposed to play, and most of the time it’s almost exactly 10 artists on there. Luckily we are one of those most of the time. As a Canadian artist, it’s always great, getting a little extra help. I can totally understand, too, “oh they don’t work as hard” or whatever because they have these Canadian content laws. I don’t know. I think it’s a matter of, and not sounding arrogant, but just making good music. If you make good music it will find its fans regardless of how much the government says to play on the radio.
TALive: Right, well you don’t get played on the radio just because you are Canadian. There are still certain standards you have to achieve.
JH: Yeah, there’s a lot of terrible Canadian music, and just because we have to play 30 per cent we don’t play that!
Click to read the rest of our interview!
TALive: Back to the tour you have lined up, it looks like a lot of hours on the road. You are still young guys, I am sure you get bored easily. What do you do to entertain yourselves when you’re stuck in a van for hours?
JH: When we’re stuck in a van, normally one of us always has to drive. In the States two of us are able to drive. So, one of us is always doing that which can be a little entertaining. The rest of us we all have laptops so you’ll normally see three of us shut off in the back watching TV shows or something. It’s pretty anti-social when we’re in the van. But when we get out at a rest stop or whatever to fill up on gas, we like to try to keep ourselves in tip-top shape. So we have a hackeysack that we normally kick around and that’s about it.
TALive: I saw on your blog that you were planning on bringing some hockey sticks along on this tour. JH: Yeah, I think that blog was premature. We’re still very rusty, and challenging other people to come play us isn’t a great idea at this point.
TALive: Oh, I don’t know about that. In the States anyway you might still have an edge.
JH: Yeah, that’s true. We’ll just intimidate them with our…um…nothing. I don’t know where that was going.
TALive: Ha, your Canadian heritage.
JH: Yeah! Haha, we have hockey on our five-dollar bill that should be good enough.
TALive: You guys have already accomplished so much in terms of festivals, and Letterman…all those landmark events that bands work toward. What do you still hope to accomplish?
JH: I think we just hope to keep up with the pace we’ve set for ourselves. I don’t think anybody is planning to be huge or the biggest band in the world or anything. This is just sort of a step-by-step thing and we’ll take thing things as they are given to us and we’ll work really hard. And whatever comes of our hard work we’ll do. Personally, I hope we get to play Conan because I’ve been a huge fan for so long. That would make my career. I could quit then and be happy.
TALive: As a band coming out of the Myspace generation, how have you utilized those online networks to help promote your music and get it out there?
JH: Well actually, a lot of us were kind of oblivious to the whole Myspace thing when it first started. We just heard the words thrown around at school. Eventually we decided to get one, not really as a joke, but a “let’s just see what this is. Maybe it’ll be fun.” Then it just really took off on its own. I guess we really underestimated at the beginning how powerful that tool could be. It has definitely become our most…and I think for any band that has a Myspace, even though it’s just a user community it’s still a huge market and a huge promotional tool. We get infinitely more hits on our Myspace, and more questions coming through our Myspace than we do through our Web site.
TALive: Are there certain dates you are especially looking forward to this summer?
JH: This summer I’m really looking forward to playing lollapalooza. That should be fun.
TALive: Very cool, any other bands playing Lollapalooza you want to check out?
JH: Um, actually this is kind of weird one, but I was watching TV and I saw this girl, I think she’s called Kid Sister. It’s really cool kind of rap-ish stuff. Anyway, I’m going to go check her out I don’t know how many people are going to come with me. Besides that, I think we are playing before Silverchair. We all grew up with “Frogstomp,” so that might be cool to see.
TALive: Well, you mention growing up with Silverchair and your bio talks about how you grew up, like so many kids, dreaming of one day being in a band. When you were young playing air guitar or whatever, what were you listening to? What inspired you start playing?
JH: We all lived in Newmarket, so whenever there’s a concert it always goes to Toronto. So we’d always have giant fieldtrips together. And our first concert with Radiohead… and that was a really dumb move because every concert was nowhere near as good. But that was really a turning point: August 3, 2001. We just kind of left that we didn’t even talk on the hour drive home. Nobody talked. And the next day we’re just like “alright, let’s do this,” and we formed a band before anybody knew how to play instruments just based on that.
TALive: There was a lot of talk in your early interviews about parents being frustrated that you had to quit school to do the band thing. Now that you are touring the world and playing Letterman, has the disapproval diminished?
JH: Yeah, it was different for everybody’s parents. My parents were always really supportive. I guess the most opposed were Greg’s parents just because he was two years older and he was half-way through University, so he had a little bit more to drop out of. I had just come out of high school. I’m the young one. But it’s interesting, when we played Letterman his parents actually made the drive down one day to see it. So that was a reassurance that they know it’s not a complete waste of time…. that their son is actually doing something.
TALive: Maybe you were finally playing a medium that they were familiar with.
Yeah! We can say things like “we’re playing Coachella” and nothing. But then when you say “Letterman” it’s like “oh yeah, funny man on TV.”
TALive: Well good luck on the tour and we are looking forward to having you back this summer!
JH: Yeah we are looking forward to coming back! We were there with ENON two times before and it was much fun so we are looking forward to it.>
ON TOUR NOW!
Find Tickets for D.C. and Atlanta
http://www.tokyopoliceclub.com
MP3: "Citizens of Tomorrow"
Tokyo Police Club has proven that you can get more than 15 minutes of fame with just 16 minutes of music. These young Canadian rockers have taken their EP “A Lesson in Crime” all around the world. They’ve played Coachella, Letterman, Glastonbury, and Lollapalooza is lined up next. After a few stints around the country with Cold War Kids and Art Brut, TPC is finally ready for its first headlining tour in the US. We had a chat with guitarist Josh Hook as the band prepares to invade America.
TALive: Hey Josh! How are you? What are you up to now?
Josh Hook: Hey, not too bad. Right now we just pulled up…. We are doing a Sirius satellite radio session in I think it's called Pendleton, Indiana. And right now the band Dappled Cities is doing one before us so we are just waiting outside. Some of us are reading, unloading equipment.
TALive: Oh, very cool that’s actually how I first heard your music. We have Sirius in the office and your music pops up quite a bit.
JH: Oh, sweet. That's good to know!
TALive: So you’ve got a pretty insane tour coming up. Is this your first headlining tour?
JH: This is our first headlining tour of the States, yeah. So we’re really looking forward to it. We’ve done a couple tours like, a few days with Art Brut, a big tour with Cold War Kids. Although it's great sometimes to support bands, nothing is like headlining your show. You get to (it sounds boring but) connect to YOUR fans instead of being swept off the stage right after you play.
TALive: How do you prepare for a headlining tour differently than an opening slot?
JH: We don’t have that many songs. Normally it would be a question of length, but our opening set is normally, your given half an hour 40 minutes, and our headlining set is somewhere in the range of 45, maybe 50 if we talk a lot.
TALive: I’ve spent a lot of time in Toronto actually, and something that really struck me was that Canada has a government-enforced policy to ensure that a certain percentage of programming on radio and TV is Canadian in origin.
JH: Right, CANCON.
TALive: How do you feel about that policy as a Canadian artist? Do you feel like it helps you gain exposure? Do even notice the regulation in effect?
JH: Yeah, you can definitely notice it. There’s a radio station here called The EDGE, and on their Thursday 30 countdown, if you see it on their Web site, you can see all the Canadian flags. Most of the time, it’s about 30 per cent that you’re supposed to play, and most of the time it’s almost exactly 10 artists on there. Luckily we are one of those most of the time. As a Canadian artist, it’s always great, getting a little extra help. I can totally understand, too, “oh they don’t work as hard” or whatever because they have these Canadian content laws. I don’t know. I think it’s a matter of, and not sounding arrogant, but just making good music. If you make good music it will find its fans regardless of how much the government says to play on the radio.
TALive: Right, well you don’t get played on the radio just because you are Canadian. There are still certain standards you have to achieve.
JH: Yeah, there’s a lot of terrible Canadian music, and just because we have to play 30 per cent we don’t play that!
Click to read the rest of our interview!
TALive: Back to the tour you have lined up, it looks like a lot of hours on the road. You are still young guys, I am sure you get bored easily. What do you do to entertain yourselves when you’re stuck in a van for hours?
JH: When we’re stuck in a van, normally one of us always has to drive. In the States two of us are able to drive. So, one of us is always doing that which can be a little entertaining. The rest of us we all have laptops so you’ll normally see three of us shut off in the back watching TV shows or something. It’s pretty anti-social when we’re in the van. But when we get out at a rest stop or whatever to fill up on gas, we like to try to keep ourselves in tip-top shape. So we have a hackeysack that we normally kick around and that’s about it.
TALive: I saw on your blog that you were planning on bringing some hockey sticks along on this tour. JH: Yeah, I think that blog was premature. We’re still very rusty, and challenging other people to come play us isn’t a great idea at this point.
TALive: Oh, I don’t know about that. In the States anyway you might still have an edge.
JH: Yeah, that’s true. We’ll just intimidate them with our…um…nothing. I don’t know where that was going.
TALive: Ha, your Canadian heritage.
JH: Yeah! Haha, we have hockey on our five-dollar bill that should be good enough.
TALive: You guys have already accomplished so much in terms of festivals, and Letterman…all those landmark events that bands work toward. What do you still hope to accomplish?
JH: I think we just hope to keep up with the pace we’ve set for ourselves. I don’t think anybody is planning to be huge or the biggest band in the world or anything. This is just sort of a step-by-step thing and we’ll take thing things as they are given to us and we’ll work really hard. And whatever comes of our hard work we’ll do. Personally, I hope we get to play Conan because I’ve been a huge fan for so long. That would make my career. I could quit then and be happy.
TALive: As a band coming out of the Myspace generation, how have you utilized those online networks to help promote your music and get it out there?
JH: Well actually, a lot of us were kind of oblivious to the whole Myspace thing when it first started. We just heard the words thrown around at school. Eventually we decided to get one, not really as a joke, but a “let’s just see what this is. Maybe it’ll be fun.” Then it just really took off on its own. I guess we really underestimated at the beginning how powerful that tool could be. It has definitely become our most…and I think for any band that has a Myspace, even though it’s just a user community it’s still a huge market and a huge promotional tool. We get infinitely more hits on our Myspace, and more questions coming through our Myspace than we do through our Web site.
TALive: Are there certain dates you are especially looking forward to this summer?
JH: This summer I’m really looking forward to playing lollapalooza. That should be fun.
TALive: Very cool, any other bands playing Lollapalooza you want to check out?
JH: Um, actually this is kind of weird one, but I was watching TV and I saw this girl, I think she’s called Kid Sister. It’s really cool kind of rap-ish stuff. Anyway, I’m going to go check her out I don’t know how many people are going to come with me. Besides that, I think we are playing before Silverchair. We all grew up with “Frogstomp,” so that might be cool to see.
TALive: Well, you mention growing up with Silverchair and your bio talks about how you grew up, like so many kids, dreaming of one day being in a band. When you were young playing air guitar or whatever, what were you listening to? What inspired you start playing?
JH: We all lived in Newmarket, so whenever there’s a concert it always goes to Toronto. So we’d always have giant fieldtrips together. And our first concert with Radiohead… and that was a really dumb move because every concert was nowhere near as good. But that was really a turning point: August 3, 2001. We just kind of left that we didn’t even talk on the hour drive home. Nobody talked. And the next day we’re just like “alright, let’s do this,” and we formed a band before anybody knew how to play instruments just based on that.
TALive: There was a lot of talk in your early interviews about parents being frustrated that you had to quit school to do the band thing. Now that you are touring the world and playing Letterman, has the disapproval diminished?
JH: Yeah, it was different for everybody’s parents. My parents were always really supportive. I guess the most opposed were Greg’s parents just because he was two years older and he was half-way through University, so he had a little bit more to drop out of. I had just come out of high school. I’m the young one. But it’s interesting, when we played Letterman his parents actually made the drive down one day to see it. So that was a reassurance that they know it’s not a complete waste of time…. that their son is actually doing something.
TALive: Maybe you were finally playing a medium that they were familiar with.
Yeah! We can say things like “we’re playing Coachella” and nothing. But then when you say “Letterman” it’s like “oh yeah, funny man on TV.”
TALive: Well good luck on the tour and we are looking forward to having you back this summer!
JH: Yeah we are looking forward to coming back! We were there with ENON two times before and it was much fun so we are looking forward to it.>
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