Band with P.E.I. connection 'appreciative' of Juno nom

They've played on the Late Show with David Letterman and at many prestigious festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Glastonbury. All that was almost a decade ago, when Tokyo Police Club were one of the hottest young alternative rock bands in North America.

Now the band is nominated for a Juno for 2019's best alternative album for their latest recording, TPC.

"It feels great to be honest," said Greg Alsop, 33, the band's drummer. He's married to Islander Kailea Switzer (yes her dad's Ron Switzer from platinum-selling band Haywire) and the couple recently moved to Charlottetown, bought a home and had a baby.

"We have been doing this since 2006 now and sometimes it can feel like your most relevant work might be past you already," Alsop said. "But to get a nod like this, especially this late in our careers, feels promising and worthwhile and just like it's all kind of worth still doing."

'Things started off really well for us'

"This late" in their careers? While they're not yet grizzled veterans of rock, the four men in their early 30s see themselves as "journeymen" of the business, said 32-year-old keyboard player Graham Wright — not outstanding, but solid and reliable.

Tokyo Police Club's star rose quickly its first few years. The four childhood friends from Newmarket, Ont., caught the tail end of the indie rock wave that gave rise to bands like Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene. In fact they were nominated in the same Juno category in 2011, but lost to Arcade Fire.

"People were looking at Canada for who's the next exuberant band of tambourine-playing lunatics," Wright said. "We were among that crop, and things started off really well for us — especially in retrospect I realize now.

"It's almost like it happened to somebody else," he added. "It's been so long since we were the 'hot thing.'"

People attended their shows and purchased CDs steadily, establishing a solid fan base, moving out of their parents' homes and quitting their day jobs.

"Everything that happened was sort of crazy and wild and new," Wright said.

Since then Wright said the band has had "your standard 21st-century rock and roll career" of touring around and putting out records, and repeating, and trying to stay on top of the changing digital music landscape.

They were not-quite-famous — not getting award nominations, not cracking top 10 song lists — but making a living.

"Now we're a little older and a little wiser and a little more appreciative," said Wright.

'How much longer do we have?'

They don't get a lot of radio play, but fans continue to buy their music and come to their concerts. The band is their full-time job, and they've made a living from their music for 13 years.

"We have no reason to complain," said Alsop. "We have great fans who've stayed with us all these years. And we're still really into being in the band and feel lucky to be able to do this as our careers."

That being said, Alsop admits the band members were having some doubts before recording TPC.

"You start to wonder if you're still relevant. I mean, rock music in general has kind of been put on the back burner."

The industry has changed a lot over the last decade — people are listening to hip-hop and pop music, and there's a big resurgence in the popularity of country music, he points out. Their brand of energetic guitar-driven rock (influenced by Tom Petty and the Strokes) is just not as cool as it used to be.

"It feels like — how much longer do we have?" Alsop wonders.

"There was a time when we weren't sure if we were going to keep doing the band," said Alsop, but they decided to "pull together again and find inspiration."

The band worked hard on TPC, he said, and feel validated by the Juno nomination.

"We basically doubled down and recommitted in a big way. So even getting a nomination feels like OK, we're not totally out to lunch," Wright said. "Of course winning would be even cooler."

Long-distance affair

Being based in Charlottetown doesn't hamper his ability to be part of the band, Alsop said. It's closer than Los Angeles, where he lived the last few years, commuting to meet the band for week-long stints of writing and recording, or months of touring.

They all lived and worked in Toronto until 2013, when Alsop married and moved to L.A. Other band members scattered to New York and rural Ontario, although the other three are now back inside Toronto city limits.

But they kept the band going long distance, and it worked.

"We've been doing it long enough now that fortunately we don't really need to practice that much," said Wright.

They get together to work on music before a tour, and take care of the business side of things with conference calls and emails.

"We have the luxury — we can afford to get a flight and get a hotel, so that stuff's pretty easy," Wright said.

The last few years they found an old converted church by Lake Huron where they hole up together for writing retreats, driving out from Toronto with all their gear, inflatable mattresses, and "enough coffee and beer and food to last us," Alsop said. "We would just make music for an entire week with no distractions, and that worked great.

"You can spend a lot of time just wasting time when you have endless time, but when you only have a short amount of time to make it work, you have to make it work," he said.

'A good place to call your home'

The band is doing its first tour of the Maritimes since 2006. Back then they played on P.E.I. at The Guild and Hunter's Ale House.

"That was our first show on tour, ever, was here on the Island," recalls Alsop, who had just turned 21 at the time. This time their show is planned for the P.E.I. Brewing Company April 12.

"The East Coast is something we've been trying to do for a long time but it always just felt like one step too far in a tour routing," Alsop said. They've dropped in to Halifax Pop Explosion and to New Brunswick for festivals here and there.

The band will fly to P.E.I. in early April to write and record in Alsop's new production studio in Charlottetown before they head out to Moncton, Fredericton, Halifax, and on to Quebec.

P.E.I. is "a good place to call your home and your headquarters," said Alsop. He plans to start recording and producing other musicians, as he continues to record and tour with Tokyo Police Club. The band might slow down its schedule and take longer hiatuses, he said, but for now they are all committed to continuing.

The Junos will be handed out Sunday, March 17.

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