Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.08.2012, Qupperneq 36

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Monday - Friday 9:00 - 20:00
Saturday 10:00 - 17:00
Sunday 12:00 - 17:00 i c e l a n d i c d e s i g n
CONCERT
P R E V I E W
Japandroids
MAKE UP THE BREAKDOWN
Tell us about your story. Is it true
that the band almost broke up
before your debut was released?
We were very dedicated to the band
for a number of years before anything
kind of happened, really. Recording, self-
releasing, setting up all our own shows.
With ‘Post-Nothing,’ we thought it was
going to be more of the same. There was
nothing to indicate that anybody had any
interest in putting out our record. We
just thought that this was it, we might
play in another band and another band
after that and eventually maybe some-
thing would happen. But it did not look
like it was going to happen with Japan-
droids.
Then you got offered to perform
at Pop Montréal and CMJ in
2008—was that a turning point
for your band?
Those shows changed everything
for us. Those were the final two shows
that we planned to play as a band. Being
from Vancouver, f lying out to Montreal
and then New York to play shows was a
really big deal and exciting. We consid-
ered that as ending the band on a high
note. Because no one else we knew had
got to f ly out to those cities to play shows.
The show that we played in Pop Mon-
tréal, there were only about 20 people at
the show, but one of those people hap-
pened to write for Pitchfork, and some-
one else in the room happened to have
a small record label and liked our record
and wanted to release it. So having those
two people in the same room to see us
play really helped to expose us to a lot of
new people. The person who had the re-
cord label convinced us to stay together
a little longer, because he wanted to re-
lease our record. As soon as he did, the
guy from Pitchfork wanted to review it.
That's when things really started to take
off. We decided we could stay together a
little longer in order to get to go on one
tour because that was a one thing we’d
always wanted to do. One tour turned
into two, turned into three, turned into
going to Europe, turned into going to
festivals and the next thing we knew it
was two years later and we had lost our
day jobs. We knew that after the tour was
over we would have to go back to them,
so we toured as much as we could.
NOT A LOT OF MONEY AND FAME IN
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
You’ve described Japandroids
as being a two-piece trying to
sound like it’s a five-piece band?
We never planned on being a duo;
it wasn’t like we wanted to be a duo like
The White Stripes, The Kills or Death
From Above 1979. We always wanted to
have more people to play with, but we
just couldn’t find those people. Most of
the bands we listen to had four or five
members. We wanted to sound like
bands like The Replacements or The
Rolling Stones, bands that had two gui-
tars, bass and a singer and a drummer.
Is it hard to be in a rock band to-
day?
It’s harder than it was when I was
growing up in the ‘90s. When you
turned on the TV or the radio all you
ever see or hear were rock bands, but
now what’s really popular isn’t domi-
nated by guitar, there’s more pop music,
hip hop and R‘n’B . If you just wanted
to make money and become famous, you
would be a DJ. You really have to love
rock ‘n’ roll to be in a rock ‘n’ roll band
today. There is not a lot of money and
fame in it anymore.
NASHVILLE
How was making ‘Celebration
Rock’ different than making
‘Post-Nothing’?
It was totally different. When we
were making ‘Post-Nothing’ we were
a local band just making an album for
fun, because that was a cool thing to do.
We did not have a following, fans or a re-
cord label and had never been on tour.
We placed no expectations on ourselves.
When it came time to make this record,
we had a lot of fans, a record label and we
felt a lot of pressure.
You wrote the album in Nash-
ville, how did that influence the
album?
We were working on the album in
Vancouver for some time and it was go-
ing really slow—we were getting really
frustrating and uninspired. So we decid-
ed to do something really different from
what we had done before. We wanted to
go to some place that was far away from
our home. We decided to rent a house in
Nashville, Tennessee, drive down there,
take all of our instruments and set them
there. It turned out that we wrote songs
there really quickly. The first single off
our record, “The House That Heaven
Built” was the first song that we wrote
there. So it worked really well for us.
Why Nashville?
For a number of reasons. First, we
wanted to go somewhere in the South
of the US, because we really like it there.
We also wanted to go somewhere that
was far away, far from home, where we
didn’t know anyone. If we would have
gone to a city where we knew people, we
would have ended up hanging out, par-
tying and not working. We did not know
anyone in Nashville, and we had to get
to know the city for ourselves. That was
really inspiring.
What can an Icelandic audi-
ence expect from your Reykjavík
show?
We are only ever as good as the audi-
ence we play for. The more the audience
gives to the band at the show, the more
and more the band gives back. We are al-
ways ready to give a bit more. If we show
up and the audience are excited and have
a lot of energy, then it’s going to be a re-
ally wild show. Because we have never
been there before and I don’t know if or
when we might come back, we only have
this one chance to make it a really mem-
orable night—so we are really going to
go for it. We are going to play longer and
play more songs that we do usually. It
will be an epic night, I can’t wait!
- ÓLI DÓRI
Japandroids is a two piece rock ‘n’ roll band from Van-
couver, Canada, who have been playing up a storm and
winning new fans for the past few years. And now they’re
coming to Iceland, playing a show at Gamli Gaukur that
will for sure be the stuff of legend! We called up one half
of the band, guitarist/vocalist Brian King, and asked him
some questions about touring, their new record and rock
duos in the modern world to help you get acquainted and
hyped for the show!
36 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 12 — 2012MUSIC
The House That Heaven Built Japandroids are playing
Gamli Gaukurinn!
22
AUGUST
20:00
DOOR OPENS
Gamli Gaukurinn
Tryggvagata 22
gamligaukurinn.is
supported by
Sudden Weather Change.
2.490.-
presale at www.midi.isISK
The albums
Post-Nothing (2007) Celebration Rock (2012)
Japandroids self-produced their debut
album, ‘Post-Nothing’ in the summer
of 2008. In January of 2009 they were
signed to an independent label in
Canada and shortly after their song
“Young Hearts Spark Fire” was named
as one of the tracks of the week by
tastemaker website Pitchfork.com.
Later that year Polyvinyl Records
re-released the album worldwide, to
widespread critical acclaim.
Recently released, ‘Celebration Rock’
is heavily influenced by a mix of punk
and classic rock. The band cites The
Replacements, The Hold Steady, Bruce
Springsteen and The Rolling Stones
as an inspiration for the album. Once
again, the band was met with critical
acclaim and the album was short-listed
nominee for the 2012 Polaris Music
Prize.