Photo: Press
“We took a long time to record this album and we probably put things under too fine a microscope at times,” says David Prowse, the bands drummer and co-vocalist. In fact, it’s been four-and-a-half years since Japandroids put out their second album, Celebration Rock.
This is the biggest gap in releases for the two-piece Vancouver-formed band. So far, they have made such a great name for themselves for their live sounding anthemic rock tinged punk records. But they definitely weren’t up for repeating their methods the third time around – hence the lengthy gap.
“We cut our first LP, Post Nothing in three days - and it sounds like it. Everything is real fast,” recalls Prowse. “I can hear the nervous energy of these guys who don’t really know how to be in a recording studio.” Celebration Rock follows a similar way of doing things: “It’s a simple document of the band the best sounding live record we could make.”
So why did they opt to invest an obsessive amount of time?
“When we started this record we knew we would take time, says Prowse. “We realised it doesn’t matter how long it takes, the more lasting thing is how good it is. Through our entire career we were going as fast as possible. But most of the way through the making of the second album, we hit the brakes, we realised we didn’t need to go to that fast. So we took that method from the beginning with the new album.”
What sort of impact did this have on the finished product? “Each song has a different sonic world,” answers Prowse. “It has different guitar tone textures from song-to-song and the drum sound changes a fair amount among other things. There’s a lot more care put into arrangements and a lot of sonic flourishes that we had never experimented with before. For instance, there’s synths and a million guitar overdubs. I think it lends itself to making the record better, but in terms of our own psyche, I don’t think we needed to care so much about the finest of details.”
The self-sacrifice has paid off, though. It’s great to see bands push themselves and develop new ways of working. The bolder sound results in an album that helps Brian King, who wrote most of the lyrics, have his words come across in a clearer light. You can hear the Townes Van Zandt influence breathing through the scuzzy rock as the sense of longing is truly felt on album opener ‘Near To The Wild Heart Of Live’. Meanwhile on ‘True Love And A Free Life of Free Will’ in particular, but the record in general, the ability to craft a wall of sound that matches up to the biggest rock albums of the last 20 years is there.
‘I’m Sorry’ shows their ability to want to incorporate experimental effects that show them pushing sonic boundaries and sounding like no one else. ‘Arc Of Bar’ is something entirely new for Japandroids as it features an arpeggiated guitar sample that repeats itself – the mechanical impact effectively induces a trance-like state to the listener. However, the quintessential onslaught of pure energy of old is intact too. But here’s a band who’ve grown in confidence in terms of ability and ambition.
Getting the sound right was largely achieved in the mixing process as Prowse explains: “We spent two weeks just on mixing with Peter Katis, whose work as a producer with The National I love so much. “He has this magic that has more life into the drum kit. And the big thing with Japandroids is Brian is playing his guitar through 50 different amplifiers, so trying to find that balance between all those different signals is a big part of what brings the record together.”
Proceeding to add more detail of this intense working process, Prowse adds: “The initial recording had eight different sounds then we were doing guitar overdubs, synth flourishes here and there. Finding a home for all those, where to place things, how to make things more dynamic , where to have things come in here and drop out there was all part of it.”
Given the newfound complexity in Japandroids’ oeuvre, how will they transfer live? “Finding exactly where, and how to present this is a challenge,” admits Prowse. “We want to honour the recorded material but we don’t want to have someone on bass and keys so we can keep it just two on stage but we also don’t want to have a bunch of backing tracks. It’s a challenge.
Before we played recorded material in exactly way we play it live. It was never a discussion. Now there’s more leeway to do re-interpretations of songs. We might decide to play our old stuff in a different way to make things flow better. We just will make sure it’s not jarring to hear a ripper from Post Nothing then something more tender off the new record. We’re never going to sound exactly like the record.
I get what a slippery slope it is. You start experimenting with sampler here and there it is minimalist and you see how quickly you can go, well ‘Why don’t we trigger this? Why don’t we trigger that?’
I suggest it can be a bit soulless to hear overuse of backing track live. “I feel the same way but I think that’s an outdated form of thinking, says Prowse. “When I hear backing track I feel like the band is cheating - but like I think a lot of audiences respond to that, lots want to hear it exactly like it is on the record and they don’t seem bummed. I got to see band and they’ve got 20 backing tracks and there’s like three people on stage but none of them are really doing anything - one guitar, singing, maybe some pretending to play keyboard. People seem pretty stoked for those shows whereas on some level, this is weird.
Fortunately there’s not a chance of Japandroids ever sounding a sterile as a band who over rely on backing track, even if a robotic hand comes into play. Japandroids live shows are the life and blood of this band and will always be remembered by fans as some of the best they’ve ever seen. Their entire fanbase is built up from word of mouth recommendations from gig goers. With the new album they have a new adventure and new sonic challenges to indulge in keeping loyal fans intrigued at their new turn. Meanwhile they’ll inspire new fans with their soaring new sound. As for the next step? "I’d be curious to see what it would be like to go back to basics on some live one next one rip through a bit more quickly see where that takes it without over analysing."
Whatever they do, the Japandroids touch is a magic one and it’ll ultimately bolster their acclaim as one of the best rock bands of the 21st century.
