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Tokyo Police Club
 "Honestly, touring is a bit of a chore except for the 40 minutes or so that you are on stage performing and the 30 minutes afterwards, during which you get to hang out and chat with the audience. Meeting new people and making friends is always the highlight of touring. It's what we look forward to the most, so I would say every show has been successful in that way."
During their tour of Europe, I spoke with Tokyo Police Club vocalist and bass player David Monks, concerning their debut EP, the concept of worldwide touring and how the recent burst of fame is treating the band. The group is set to soon depart on a high-scale tour throughout the United States with Cold War Kids and they have also been booked to make a pit stop at the acclaimed American music festival, South By South West in Austin, Texas.
"Touring Europe has been amazing - we had no idea what to expect when coming over there but the crowds have really been surprising and welcoming. The next two months should entail a lot of cheap motels, good food and terrible food. We are really looking forward to drawing on the great crowds that Cold War Kids draw through the States. We love the band and can't wait to finally be able to see them live."
And is Monks excited about playing at SXSW this year alongside some pretty big groups such as The Stooges, Interpol and Bloc Party?
"We love Austin and Mexican food. I hear some good bands play there too," Monks enthuses.
One might wonder what the group has been getting up to recently while not gigging throughout the world. Well, the Tokyo Police Club boys, from the small and quaint Canadian town of Newmarket, Ontario, don't necessarily grasp the well-known image of the disorderly touring band.
"We've been avoiding the streams of water that leak in through our van's decrepit roof and taking in a card trick or two performed by our manager, the astounding David Blaine."
The four have claimed that they became a group randomly, after plugging in their instruments and jamming for the fun of it. Nevertheless, not long after, they found themselves playing shows in the Toronto area and eventually being signed with Toronto label, Paperbag Records. Tokyo Police Club have gained considerable popularity throughout North America and the UK and having played a mountain of recent shows - and looking ahead at plenty more in the coming months - the band has had the opportunity to play with a variety of bands all over the world. I question Monks about his favourite bands to play music with...
"That's hard to choose. We don't like to play favourites. Everyone we have met and played with has been a total pleasure but in order to suck up a bit and skew things in our favour we are going to say The Grates. They were all lovely."
The Australian/New Zealand special edition of 'A Lesson In Crime' is soon to be released and with the booming success of the mini-album overseas, the Aussie public can afford to hold high expectations of its release. With all of the commotion over Tokyo Police Club at the moment, I question Monks on how the band is taking it all in and what tracks are in the running to be released as singles in Australia.
"Living at home in our suburban Toronto houses, we don't see much of what is happening. Then we go on tour and it all seems to have unfolded serendipitously...Cheer It On was chosen as a second single in the UK but I guess we'll just have to see how things go in Australia before we decide on anything certain. We'd love to see any of the songs on the EP become singles, so maybe we'll push for something different in Australia...We really hope to visit Australia by the fall."
On the topic of a second release, Monks speaks about the writing process at the moment and how the tunes are coming along. Tokyo Police Club apparently have "Five or six [tracks] on the table and hope to go into the studio in June," which should be exciting news for fans of the group and which will surely see the guys pay Australia a visit sometime in the near future. Fingers crossed, Adelaide.
'A Lesson In Crime' is out Sat 10 March through Universal
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