Japandroids chat about new album, tour

Vancouver’s Japandroids are the musical equivalent of a batter who hits a home run with his team down to its final strike.

The duo, which combines ‘70s arena rock anthems with punk energy, had decided to break up when it put out its 2009 debut, "Post-Nothing." But, shockingly, it found an audience and the band spent two years playing to bigger and bigger crowds.

Japandroids' second album, Celebration Rock, is a leap forward in songwriting and already looks like it will be an even bigger success. amNewYork spoke with singer/guitarist Brian King.

From a technical point of view, everything is exactly the same as on the first album. We recorded at the same studio, with the same engineer using more or less the same equipment. Where we tried to improve is in the songwriting … When we made the first record, we didn’t have an audience. We were just doing it for fun. This time, we were conscious that people were waiting to hear it and that forced us to think about it in a different way and try a lot harder.

I certainly felt that way after "Post-Nothing." After we started touring, I felt more confident in writing lyrics. It really exposes you – the things you think and feel. Over years of touring, I realized people liked what I was doing and that’s where the confidence came from to put myself out there a bit more this time around.

I think the album is very positive and celebratory; that’s why I called it "Celebration Rock." What I infer is that it just makes people happy. Everybody has records in their collection that they listen to when they need to feel a certain way. There are records you listen to when you break up or before you go out at night or on Sunday when you don’t want to get out of bed. I don’t think our record has to be limited to a single mood, but I hope it belongs in that spot in your collection so when you need to feel a certain way, that’s the one you go to.