After two decades, Tokyo Police Club is bringing down the curtains on the band
‘Ending the band took on the same valence as releasing a record,’ says keyboardist Graham Wright
Most high school bands don't make it out of the basement, but that wasn't the case for Tokyo Police Club. The Newmarket, Ont., band helped define an era of indie rock for an entire generation, leading the Canadian charge for the rock revival of the 2000s.
This week in Toronto, Tokyo Police Club is performing their final shows ever. Lead singer and bassist Dave Monks and keyboardist Graham Wright dropped by the Q studio to explain why they're bringing down the curtains on the band.
"It feels like an amalgamation of all these small changes," Monks tells host Tom Power. "There are offspring, there are people living on different coasts and everyone's in a different spot."
Over their nearly 20-year long career, the band members regularly discussed whether it made sense for everyone to keep going, rather than making music on autopilot. Wright says this wasn't the first time the idea of a break up had been discussed.
"In 2018, we had a full conversation, an excited, inspired conversation about, 'What if we told everyone this is our last album and we ended it here with this statement?'" he says. "We didn't end up following that particular thread. And this time, as we entertained ideas for new music and for photoshoots and aesthetics and all those sorts of things, this idea just seemed to float to the top and everyone seemed to get excited by it."
The band announced their separation in January 2024. Wright recalls the preparation and emotions around that announcement.
"I was really interested in the way that ending the band took on the same valence as releasing a record," he says. "It was all the same mechanical experiences as when you're announcing a new single or a new album.… I got the same reward that I got from having a song come out and everyone go crazy about it. And I'd have to remind myself that these people are all so thrilled — I'm getting so much engagement, the metrics are way up — for this obituary."
The full interview with Tokyo Police Club is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Tokyo Police Club produced by Matt Murphy.
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