Northwest CanCon

The Japandroids engine is running full throttle right now, but 12 months ago the band was on the verge of breaking up.

After two years of hard work, Brian King and Dave Prowse had little more to show than a couple of self-released EPs, and they figured the band had hit a dead end. Less than four months later, that had changed dramatically. Then, just as their rocket ship launched, the band suffered a setback that literally could have killed it.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW:

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Brian and Dave formed Japandroids three years ago, basically so they could rock out on stage, and man, do they ever! There really is no other word for it. Throughout their show, Brian thrashes his way around the stage like every song is the climax of an AC/DC guitar solo. Dave is more restricted by the nature of his instrument, but he rocks as hard as any drummer I’ve ever seen. Just when you think they’ve exhausted themselves, they do it again on the next song.

To have [an international tour] die overnight was pretty crippling to morale … but we decided to keep going because we were getting such positive reception from the record. —Brian King

Between them, Brian and Dave make enough noise for a four- or five-piece band. (One can only imagine what they’d be like if they added the female singer they’d originally planned for the group.)

Check out our photos of Japandroids rocking at Holocene.

If we hadn’t played outside of Vancouver I don’t think anything would have really happened for us. —Dave Prowse

Download the interview.