Tokyo Police Club
Tokyo Police Club keyboardist discusses the band’s bright future

By Matt Conner


Just over three years ago, drummer Greg Alsop, guitarist Josh Hook, singer-bassist Dave Monks and keyboardist Graham Wright were unpopular and unaware. Now, they’re quickly becoming the critical and commercial darlings of indie rock. As Tokyo Police Club fans are finding out, their music is concise, layered and absolutely infectious.

The Ontario boys’ first taste of mainstream success came by way of the Late Show with David Letterman. Soon after, TPC signed with Omaha’s Saddle Creek Records, home of Bright Eyes and Cursive among others, giving the quartet a well-known label home for its frenetic rock ’n’ roll. Since then, tours with Weezer, more TV appearances and high-profile festival gigs have followed, further placing Tokyo Police Club as one of North America’s brightest young bands. And some of it is still difficult for Wright to get used to.

“Playing Letterman definitely was a surreal experience and still would be,” says Wright. “TV still really freaks me out and I think it's because you do it so rarely that I haven't really had a chance to get used to it. The first time you go into a studio to record, it's crazy because you haven't done that before. But you do it a bunch and then figure it out. Then you play live for the first time and it's scary because it's new, but then 200 shows later you figure that out. But TV, over the course of three years, we've only played three or four times. We don't do it enough to feel at home there and it always stresses me out.”

Yet for all the late night television appearances and impressive tours, Wright says the most surprising part of this journey goes back to the EP that started it all: A Lesson in Crime. The tiny 16-minute offering created such a huge buzz courtesy of media outlets like Pitchfork.

“I was surprised by the life the EP had when it came out,” says Wright. “Albums are supposed to last and you should get a year or so out of them, at least I think. We've gotten that much out of [the new, full-length Elephant Shell]. But an EP, you're not supposed to get anything out of. An EP should only have a few people hear it and then you need to go and make your album. Instead, we ended up touring on it for two years. So if anything was shocking in terms of how long we milked it, it was definitely the EP.”

The weight of the EP’s tremendous success made for some tense studio sessions in the recording of Elephant Shell. As a young band in today’s dime-a-dozen marketplace, keeping a presence on personal playlists and the blogosphere is essential. Thus, the new album needed to deliver on the exciting potential and promise from A Lesson in Crime.

“When we were working on Elephant Shell, there was a lot of pressure to stay in front of people,” explains Wright. “We had such success with the EP that there was a lot of pressure to capitalize on that quickly so people wouldn't forget about us. But I'd like to think that with having Elephant Shell under our belts, people would be more forgiving if they don't hear from us for a while. There's still that pressure, but with every album I think the pressure lessens. You see that with the Strokes. They haven't done anything in two years, played any shows or any recordings. But when they come back, everyone will be ready. They've gotten to the point where it doesn't matter how long it takes, when they are ready, then everyone else will be, too. Obviously, we aren't to that point yet but that's what we want to do.”

To attain that Strokes-like level, the guys in TPC realize they have to keep things realistic and not let the pressure get to them. Instead the focus must be on taking the next step forward and simply being the best they can in the moment.