It’s been one hell of a year in 2014 for Tokyo Police Club. They released their 3rd full-length album Forcefield, played at the Juno Awards, got involved in a new charity project, created a YouTube series and are right now in the midst of a cross-Canada tour ending next week at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall.
And yet the band’s guitarist Josh Hook says Tokyo Police Club have no plans of slowing down post-tour, planning instead to jump right into writing and recording new material.
“The big thing for us is we are not gonna’ wait as long as we did for this one, we are going to try and put something out quicker,” says Hook, referring to the three years between their 2011 album Champ and this year’s Forcefield.
“Whether it’s an album or whether it’s an EP, we just want to have a quicker turnaround time between when we make something and then it sits on your shelf for a year and a half while other people figure out what to do with it, and I think we are going to at least experiment with cutting out that middle step and releasing things faster,” Hook adds. While fans can look forward to hearing new music from TPC without the long wait they had last time, the band’s focus remains the tour for now.
“Taking all that time off we weren’t sure exactly what the reception would be, if people would be happy to see us again or if they were just gonna’ give us a ‘what gives,’ but I’m happy to say it was the former,” says Hook.
“It’s nice to be back in Canada, it’s been a long time since we’ve done a Canadian tour, or at least a proper one, we’ve had really great turnouts and really great crowd enthusiasm!”
While Hook says this tour has lacked the crazy nights in Whistler and late night hot-tubbing of previous tours, the band is enjoying traveling the country, and through their new YouTube series, “Web Based Content,” they have been able to build closer connections to their fans, answering fan questions in their videos.
“You have so much time (on tour) either traveling or just hanging out at the venue, and it’s sort of another creative outlet,” says Hook of the videos.
“They are fun, it’s just us killing time and we get some really funny ideas in them, it’s another outlet for everyone.”
The YouTube videos, the album and the tour are not the only things keeping TPC busy this year. Keyboardist Graham Wright designed a t-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project, a group who works with many indie rock artists to create unique t-shirt designs with benefits going to help a charity of the band’s choice. Tokyo Police Club took this opportunity to raise awareness for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST), a Canadian non-profit organization that empowers girls and women to consider a future in science and tech.
“It’s something that we are all on board for, you get a lot of requests all the time for doing benefit shows or a charity cause here or there and a lot of the time it doesn’t work out, so when it does work out, you really like to jump on it,” says Hook.
Working with groups meant to empower women is nothing new to the group. They have spent a lot of time helping out with Girls Rock Camp in Toronto as well, encouraging young girls to pursue their interests in music.
With 2014 coming to a close, we’ve never been more excited to see what the New Year brings for Tokyo Police Club.