I reviewed the album back at the beginning of this website and instantly fell in love with them, so have a read, take a listen and hopefully you’ll do the same.
Hi Guys, how’s it going? Been up to anything interesting?
Life is pretty swell. We’ve been touring pretty much non stop since the
summer, playing all over the US and Canada. We’re on the ninth week of this
current tour. We got to London last week and played our first ever shows in
the UK – four in a row, and now we’re at the tail end of our longest break
since the end of August – 5 days. It was much needed. Tomorrow we start our
tour opening for A Place to Bury Strangers – two weeks all over the UK!
For those unfamiliar with your work, could you please introduce yourselves
and give a brief description of the band’s sound?
I’m Dave. I play drums in a band called Japandroids with my pal Brian. He
plays guitar. We’re from Vancouver, Canada. We write pop songs and then try
to play them as loud as we possibly can. We are going on tour forever.
So you’ve recently signed to Polyvinyl Records for the US/European release
of your debut full length “Post-Nothing”. Can you tell us how that came
about?
Well, the record was originally released in Canada and given a limited US
release by our Canadian record label, Unfamiliar Records. They managed to
get the record out to a lot of press and blogs and stuff, and a few American
labels came knocking on our door soon after that. We eventually chose
Polyvinyl because they seemed willing to let us to do whatever we wanted and
seemed like very straightforward, honest, good people. Things have gone
fantastically well ever since.
Polyvinyl has a lot of heritage when it comes to great indie rock, were you
both familiar with the labels output before you signed?
We had certainly heard of the label, but we weren’t super familiar with that
many of their bands. I am a big fan of Architecture in Helsinki and Of
Montreal, and Team Boo by Mates of State is one of my favourite records, so I
was excited about working Polyvinyl. But I must admit we seemed like a bit
of a strange fit since all those bands are so much poppier than we are. But
then when you go back further in their catalogue and you see they like loud
stuff too. Braid was the first band on the label, and they’re definitely a
band we feel like we fit well with stylistically.
Prior to the release of “Post-Nothing” you self released two eps, did this
have any impact on signing to a label? Did it turn out to be more of a
hassle than a labour of love?
Well, I should explain that we chose to self-release simply out of
necessity. If we didn’t put out those EPs ourselves, nobody else was going
to do it.
Self-releasing your stuff kind of sucks, but it was a very important aspect
of our life as a band. It is very difficult to get anyone to take you very
seriously when you haven’t been signed to a label. It’s also very time
consuming and it costs a lot of money and is very stressful at times
figuring out how you can pay for everything, especially when you know you
won’t be getting the money back any time soon.
Now that we have a label, we still like to do a lot of things ourselves
(all the album and merch artwork and design, for example) but it’s nice to
not have to worry about coming up with the money to press your records, or
having to personally mail your record out to different blogs and magazines
yourself (not to mention researching all the different places to send
records and looking up each individual address). I think that “DIY”
beginning was really helpful for us since we learned what it takes to put
out a record and can appreciate all the stuff our labels, publicist, and
booking agent do for us.
I also found it odd that on your website you cite Mclusky as an influence; I
never really noticed it before I’d read it. Do you listen to many other UK
bands? I can never gauge how popular some bands get in the US. What other
artists in general do you draw inspiration from?
We actually play a cover of “To Hell with Good Intentions” quite regularly!
Brian and I have a very good friend from Britain who introduced us to quite
a few bands from the UK – Super Furry Animals, Spiritualized, Doves,
Libertines, and many others. None of those bands were ever nearly as big in
Canada as they were in the UK, but they all enjoyed some success in Canada,
for sure.
Brian and I listen to a lot of different music from one another but there
are some bands that we agree on as being great. Hot Snakes, the
Constantines, the Sonics, the Clash, Spiritualized /Spaceman 3, Mclusky. I
don’t think we have ever consciously tried to sound like a specific band or
started our band thinking “I want to sound like this”. Brian is trying to
develop a very unique guitar sound, and I’m not sure if it really sounds
much like anybody else. I just try to play as hard and as energetically as
possible. We rip a little bit off a lot of different bands, whereas I think
many bands are more on the same page in terms of who they’re trying to rip
off, which ends up making them sound a lot like one specific band.
Are people surprised when they find out that you’re a two piece? I know I
was, the album definitely pulls off the illusion of a full band very well.
Yeah, people are often surprised that we’re just a two piece. We really try
to make as big a sound as possible, so if people are surprised by it being
just two people, we’re happy!
Were there ever any intentions to make the band more than a two piece for
live shows etc? Recent performances on sites like Pitchfork etc show that
you can more than handle it live.
We thought about having a “lead singer” for a while, since neither of us can
sing all that well. We gave up on that idea quite some time ago, and have
been pretty happy with the two piece format ever since.
So you’re currently in the UK, how are you finding it? Did you have any
preconceptions of what it’ll be like?
The London shows were a lot of fun, but a bit nerve-racking at first. We
weren’t really sure how much people knew us and how many people would show
up. The crowds have been great though so we’re really excited about hitting
the road and playing all over the UK!
Do you think the glowing review in the NME helped out much with attendance
at the shows?
To be honest, I have no idea. The NME is quite well known in Canada as the
“big” music magazine in the UK, so I’m sure it helped. I don’t really know
how many people would have come otherwise, since we’ve never played the UK
before.
Finally, any amazing bands you’ve discovered as of late?
We played a show with Neon Indian a little while back and I thought they
were rad.
Actually all the bands we’ve toured with recently – the Coathangers, Mt. St.
Helen’s Vietnam Band, Real Estate – were all really good. I haven’t really
been listening to much music besides all the bands we play shows with.
Luckily I like all of them!
Japandroids debut album “Post-Nothing” is available now from Polyvinyl Records and the band return to these shores early next year, dates are below.
Monday 22nd February – Freebutt, Brighton
Tuesday 23rd February – ICA, London
Wednesday 24th February – Cockpit 3, Leeds
Thursday 25th February – Deaf Instuite, Manchester
Friday 26th February – King Tuts, Glasgow
Saturday 27th February – Korova, Liverpool
Tickets on sale Wednesday 4th November
