Brian of Japandroids Doesn’t Get Trap Music

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If you’re a fan of Japandroids then you’ve probably seen them play at least a billion times because they are literally always on tour. They love travelling around so much that even when they’re not on stage you can bet you’ll find them practicing car vinyāsa or sorting out visas on the way to their next show.

Since getting visas to some Asian countries ahead of their next world tour takes time, we grabbed the opportunity to have a chat with front man Brian ahead of the VICE presented Australia and New Zealand tour.

Noisey: Where in the world are you?
Brian King: I’m actually home at the moment in Vancouver, I’ve been here for about a week. We’re just in the middle of having a little time off which is like the first time off we’ve had since Christmas.

Weird, I expected you guys to be touring somewhere. Do you do anything besides tour?
Basically we don’t. One of the only reasons we were forced to take this break was because we’re waiting on some visas. We’re touring Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe this summer so we had to surrender our passports. It’s a forced vacation, otherwise we would be playing shows.

Do you feel relaxed, or just bored?
Mostly we’re just getting ready to tour again. We’re touring for the next four months straight and there’s a lot of logistics that go into making all these tours happen. Most people never really see, understand or think about how much work that goes on behind the scenes to actually get a tour together. We’re obviously also trying to rest a bit because we were on tour for three months which is pretty exhausting. Your body needs a break or you start playing shows below your potential, and nobody wants that.

Yeah your shows look really sweaty and exhausting.
One of the downsides of having the reputation of a being a really energetic live band is you want to meet those expectations every night and play as well as possibly no matter where you are. We’ve had to face the facts in the past that we’re not super humans that can play 365 shows per year, it’s just not possible. We tend to go as hard as we can and right before we are about to spontaneously burst into flames we take a break for a few weeks then go out for a few months after that.

You guys sing loud, do you have some Billy Joel level voice preserving tricks?
As uncool as it sounds we go to great lengths to take care of our voices and our bodies physically because it’s not just our shows, it’s also sitting in a van for eight hours leading up to rocking out on stage. It’s a totally fucked lifestyle when you include everything that happens during the day as well as the shows. I spend a lot of time working on my voice so I sound approximately how I do on the record, that way when people sing along it doesn’t sound ridiculous. There are a few exercises and miscellaneous cocktails involved before shows as well as lots of stretching and horseplay backstage. Then when you throw your body around while performing it’s already used to it.

I saw some YouTube videos of you guys performing with photos taped to your guitar. What’s that about?
Those are pictures of my family mostly, I’ve done that since I’ve started touring because I hardly ever get to see them. It’s nice to look at because it keeps you grounded when things get tough, it’s one of the downsides to this lifestyle.

Are there any secret photos taped elsewhere?
There are! But I’m not going to tell you what they are right now because I have to keep them a secret.

Right. Why is your music fun but sad at the same time?
That’s a hard one to answer because it’s not like we sat down and decided on that sound, it’s actually just a natural reflection how we feel. I mean it not like we’re super young anymore, but we still act like we are and approach life in a certain way, sort of like overgrown children. But having said that, we’ve grown up together and have been through a lot so there’s an element of adulthood and growing up which has created a bittersweet feeling. I mean we’re very enthusiastic, excited people which is reflected in our music, but we’re also able to reflect on adult life and wanting to be happy as we grow up. I’m not sure if it’s a sadness but more of nostalgia with an insane juxtaposition of enthusiasm.

Is that juxtaposition reflected in your album titles?
Yeah there are two sides to that. Because when I named the record Post Nothing it was more of a tongue in cheek name that was suppose to be funny and sassy. Where when we named our record Celebration Rock it was way more serious. People have interpreted that as funny, but to me it’s actually very serious. It’s a very accurate description of the music we are intending to make. We’re not trying to create our own genre, but within the kind of rock and roll music we make within the “rock and roll spectrum” we do have in a sense our own sound. Well at least we do right now. People don’t approach rock and roll in this way, especially in the post Radiohead world. It’s cool to be down, angry, sad, or mopey. Sometimes I see us as totally boring cliché but other times I feel like we’re totally alone in the kind of music we’re playing.

Do you struggle to resign your music to a specific genre?
I mean it stemmed from when we started the band years ago when there was that crazy trend of bands describing themselves as they’re own future genre. Then music journalists would give them these weird made up combination of words and slapped it on the band that supposedly defined something about the music. That doesn’t make any sense. And when we named Post Nothing we were playing with that idea and saying we’re not necessarily anything new or innovative, but rather a mixture of our influences. Someone once called us “shitgaze,” that was actually in the running for our album title.

Can you make up a genre right now on the spot?
Probably not as good as Shitgaze! Hmm, I don’t know. I read articles all the time about musical genres that I don’t really understand what it means. Like “trap”, what is that? I don’t fully understand what trap means or how to define it. If someone asked me, “Who is your favorite trap artist?” I would have no idea what to say.

It’s kind of just rap music that’s about bagging drugs and packing slugs with machine gun snares and heavy bass.
Is that what it is? They can’t call it hip-hop? Every six months hip-hop has a new name. It’s not rap music, it’s not hip-hop, its trap. It’s rap with the letter t. Someone with authority needs to draw a line. So to answer your question about the genre, I’m making up right now, “trock”.

Which means?
Nothing. It’s rock with a t.

You’re on to something Brain.
Thank you. Feel free to use it along your friend groups, spread it around.

Want to witness the constant touring for yourself? Japandroids are playing:

Rosemount Hotel in Perth on the 26th of August

Ed Castle in Adelaide on the 27th of August

Corner Hotel on the 28th and 30th of August

Manning Bar in Sydney on the 31st of August

The Zoo in Brisbane on the 1st of September