Two guys make a band

THAILAND DOESN’T get much in the way of live acts from Canada though that doesn’t mean that the North American country’s music scene is less evolved than that in any other nation. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Take rock duo Japandroids from Vancouver. With just a drum kit and a guitar, Brian King and David Prowse conquered the global scene with their ground breaking debut, “Post-Noting” and their latest release “Celebration Rock” is among the best-selling Top 50 Canadian albums of all time.
The boys toured extensively throughout 2009 and 2010, playing more than 200 shows in more than 20 countries, and quickly gained notoriety for their extremely energetic live performances.
Next week, they’ll march into Bangkok to win Thai hearts. Drummer David Prowse chatted with us while they were packing their bags.


WHAT ARE YOU GUYS UP TO NOW?
We just finished a month of touring in the US and Canada, playing a mix of club shows and outdoor music festivals. We’ve basically been touring all over the world for well over a year at this point, and things are finally starting to wind down for us. It’s a bit surreal playing some cities we pass through so often and realising it will be a while before we get to go there again. We’ve had about two weeks off and now we’re heading out to do one last tour of Europe. We then have another week off before heading out to Asia.

“CELEBRATION ROCK” HAS BEEN NAMED ONE OF THE TOP 50 CANADIAN ALBUMS OF ALL TIME. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
Well, when we finished making “Celebration Rock” we were very proud of it, but you can never really tell how it will be received. We were just hoping that people would like it as much as “Post-Nothing”. It became very clear almost from the moment that the album was released that it was going to be much bigger for us than “Post-Nothing” and that’s been incredibly exciting. As time goes on, you get a little more comfortable with the fact that so many people know about your band, but it’s still pretty surreal. I don’t think we’ve fully realised all the things we’ve accomplished and all the acclaim we’ve received over the past few years. We’ve been too busy touring and living life to fully understand how much has happened and how far this record has gone.

ARE YOU STILL LOOKING FOR A LEAD SINGER?
After being a band for seven years, I don’t think we’d want anyone else to sing, since it would change the band’s identity so drastically. But there are many singers and lyricists that we both idolise – Karen O, Nick Cave, Frank Black, Craig Finn and Paul Westerberg to name just a few. It’s weird for me to imagine any of those people even realise our band exists, but it would be an amazing experience to work with any of those people.

HOW DO YOU SPLIT THE WORK BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU?
Well, since Brian is the guitarist and the main lyricist and vocalist, things always begin with him. Usually he’ll have a bunch of different guitar ideas and vocal ideas, and then we’ll spend a very, very long time figuring out how the drums should go and how the different little pieces fit together to become a full song. We spend a long time working on our songs, and quite often end up throwing songs away after spending weeks working on them. I have a lot of demos from our time in this band, and there are so many great song ideas that never became actual songs for one reason or another.
 Sometimes pieces of one song end up in another song, and some songs have transformed so much from the original idea that you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s the same song if you heard the original demo. I’m sure there’s an easier way to go about writing songs, but that’s been the way we’ve written since the band first started.

WITH JUST DRUMS AND GUITAR, DOES IT SOMEHOW LIMIT YOUR SONG WRITING?
Obviously, there are certain kinds of songs you just can’t write when there are only two of you. For example, the melody of the song has to come from the guitar or the vocals, which limits how complex our melodies can be. The advantage of being in a two piece is that it gives each of us a lot of freedom to make as much noise as we possibly can and do whatever we can to fill up the sound. So while it limits what the band can do as a whole and the type of songs we can write and perform, it also gives us each a lot more freedom as individual musicians.

 WOULD YOU CONSIDER INCLUDING OTHER INSTRUMENTS IN YOUR MUSIC?
Maybe. I think for now we’re pretty happy with what we can do with this set up, but adding more instruments could be inspiring and help us grow as musicians and songwriters. We’ll see.

WHAT’S THE MUSIC SCENE LIKE IN VANCOUVER?
Well, we don’t spend that much time in Vancouver any more! We also seem to be on tour. I haven’t had an apartment in Vancouver since January, and over the past year I’ve probably only spent about eight weeks there in total. We still have a lot of friends there, and know a lot of people making great music - Gold and Youth, Jay Arner, Apollo Ghosts, Tough Age, Movieland, White Lung, and many others. Vancouver is a bit of a strange place to be a musician – it’s very expensive, and music venues have a lot of trouble staying open, especially music venues that host local acts that don’t have mainstream success. I love that town, but it can be a frustrating place for a musician, especially for my friends who haven’t been as lucky as I have
 been in terms of getting some commercial success and attention outside of Vancouver. But despite all the obstacles, there are still a lot of really interesting, creative
 people doing a lot of cool things in that town.

OF ALL THE PLACES YOU’VE BEEN, WHICH HAS BEEN YOUR MOST MEMORABLE GIG SO FAR?
It’s hard to pick just one show. This year has been such a blur of crazy adventures and new friends and amazing crowds all over the world. I think the most exciting shows are usually the ones when we play somewhere new for the first time. It was pretty incredible playing shows in Brazil, Eastern Europe and Asia in the last 12 months. Those were all places I never dreamed of playing with this band, so it was incredible to have a chance to see those places, play shows, and meet our fans out there.

WHAT’S THE PLAN FOR BANGKOK?
Like I said, it’s incredibly exciting visiting and playing new places. I never in a million years would have dreamed that we’d get to play in Bangkok. As far as the show itself, we’ll be doing the same thing we always do - playing with as much energy as possible until we can’t play another note out of sheer exhaustion. We’re really looking forward to it!
 

GET YOUR KICKS
Japandroids perform on Wednesday night at Route 66 on RCA . You have to be at least 20 years old to get in.
Tickets are Bt1,400. Call (02) 262 3456 or check www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.
For more about the band, visit www.Japandroids.com.