Tokyo Police Club
Tokyo Police Club Share New Song ‘New Blues’
Tokyo Police Club has shared a new song “New Blues” today, prior to its official digital release, April 20 on Dine Alone Records – listen + share via Soundcloud – in conjunction with a three-week U.S. tour supporting Matt & Kim, which kicks off tonight in Minneapolis (all dates below). Additionally, the track will receive a limited Record Store Day physical release on flexi disc, available only at the Dine Alone Records store in Toronto and upcoming shows.
Dave Monks, Josh Hooks, Graham Wright and Greg Alsop spent the winter in Los Angeles recording new material with producer Rob Schnapf, who manned the helm on their 2010 album Champ. The songs they brought into the studio came together during multiple sessions holed up in a church in rural Ontario, looking to get out of each members respective, current hometowns… New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, which are always plagued with distractions. The process proved inspiring for the band, who celebrated 10 years of releasing music in 2016.
Bassist/vocalist Monks explained, “It was exciting to hear ourselves in such a big space like that, the drums ring out, the guitars blend and swirl. I think it really affected the arrangements and songwriting. We started to favour simple rhythms, slower tempos (relatively speaking) and energy over details. It was really liberating. I think New Blues really shows how we thrived doing that.”
The decision to work with Schnapf again on the new material was also an obvious one. Monks continued, “I think we all felt like this was the most realized vision for an album we’d had in a while and we knew we just needed a low key recording process to bring it to life. From day one in the studio, we kept recording all the instruments together for every take so it never felt like it was being disassembled. I think all the touring between Champ and now had left us as a much tighter band and it was fun to wield that power in the studio. Sometimes even if just Josh was doing an overdub, Graham and I would get in there and play along too. It made it feel more musical than disassembling things track by track, which is usually the norm.”
Tokyo Police Club will bring this renewed energy back to the stage. Details on the new album will come to light in the weeks ahead. In the mean time press play on “New Blues” and catch them live at the dates below.
Tour Dates:
04/16 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
04/17 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
04/18 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
04/20 – Columbus, OH @ Express Live!
04/21 – Milwaukee, WI @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
04/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
04/23 – S. Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
04/24 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre
04/26 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
04/27 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music
04/28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Street
04/29 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Street
05/02 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
05/03 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
05/04 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
* all dates Matt & Kim