ALBANY — Canadian band Tokyo Police Club will be performing Saturday, May 7, on the Main Stage at Washington Park as part of the Tulip Festival. Reporter Allison Fry interviewed lead guitarist Josh Hook about the band and Saturday’s show.
So I have to ask, because our associate editor is dying to know, how did you guys come up with the name for the band?
“For the longest time we were kind of self conscious of our name, and we invented all these amazing stories. The truth of our name is that we got it from from an Internet name generator…We were sort of that time so it seemed true to use the Internet.”
How did you guys get started?
“We were playing in a previous band before this one with one other member. It was a high school band; it was cool to have something you could do after school every day. When that stopped the four of us got back together again.”
Have you played a show in Albany before?
“We have actually! We’ve played Albany before and it was the last day of that tour too. And we’ve been through there a bunch. We’ve been to Ithaca, Rochester, Syracuse, and of course Buffalo is very close.” (They’re from Toronto.)
Is there a difference between playing outdoors and playing a regular venue?
“There is definitely a difference, but not a bad difference. People go to a festival because there are a bunch of different bands….There’s a challenge of giving them a reason to care about your band; a challenge we really embrace. Not to say at our own shows we slack off, but festivals are fun.”
So last month was the 10 year anniversary of your first EP, how has your music evolved over the years?
“When you’re in it you’re sort of too close to it to step back and take stock of it. It’s just about being more confident in those initial decisions and when you have an idea just go with it.”
You guys just released a new EP a few weeks ago titled Part One. Can we expect a new album from you soon, or maybe a Part Two?
“There’s going to be a part two coming in September or late August. We like EPs, nothing against full lengths, but we started our career with an EP. When that came out we got a lot of great exposure with it. There might be a part two or three, we might never release another album again, keep going up to part seven until someone tells us to stop. It let’s you give attention to each song. There are some really great statement concept records where the whole thing is amazing and that’s really cool, but EPs are nice and tidy and precise. No room for filler, it has to be all killer.”
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/255018517″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]
