Over 18 months later, having performed nearly 230 shows across five continents, the band met the inevitable fate of those fireworks – they fizzled and faded into the night sky. The celebration had ended, and the party – at least for the time being – was over.
“We toured that record for almost two years straight,” says Brian King – the singing and guitar-playing half of the band – on the line from his home in Mexico City.
“We basically set out to play as many shows as we could in as many places as possible. The end of that tour was a really natural breaking point for us – we were burnt out, and we were physically and mentally exhausted. We weren’t angry with each other. We didn’t want to break up. It basically just dawned on us that we had done nothing but Japandroids for something like five years straight. If we were going to continue with the same amount of enthusiasm and excitement that we’d always had, then we had to take a break.”
Between the end of 2013 and mid-2016, barely anyone outside of the two-piece’s friends and family saw the band. These so-called ‘lost years’ of the band had fans wondering, year after year, if they were ever going to see them again. Truth be told, King had the same worries behind the scenes – at least, as far as Japandroids was concerned.
“When we got back together, there was even a point where we were actually considering changing our name,” he says. “Our record deal was complete, we’d entered this break period and we honestly weren’t sure about continuing with the same songs and the same kind of sound. We still wanted to play together – we were just unsure how to proceed. Eventually, we resolved to make something that was completely independent of our past together. We wanted to have fun – we wanted to do what was exciting to us.”
That ended up becoming Near to the Wild Heart of Life, the third Japandroids album, which was recorded through the better part of 2016 and released this past January. The album, self-produced by the band, saw them hold true to the sound that brought them to where they are while also having some room to move and try new things. Midnight to Morning, for instance, features the first lead vocals from the band’s drummer, David Prowse; while Arc of Bar doubles as both the longest Japandroids song on record and the first to prominently feature synthesizers. “It’s a very purposeful record,” says King.
“I think one of the biggest problems that we faced was realising how many rules we had in place for ourselves. It was like, ‘This is the kind of song we write. This is how we record it. Thisis how it’s played. That’s what Japandroids is.’ We decided that a lot of those rules were a hindrance. It wasn’t really exciting to us to stay in those bounds anymore – we wanted to break free of them. Whatever sounded good to us that could be a Japandroids song. As long as it was the two of us, that’s all that mattered. I think it’s what keeps us interested in being in a band – being experimental, being restless, being fearless, being unafraid of what you think sounds good.”
Japandroids broke a good chunk of the internet with its surprise return announcement in 2016’s second half, as well as news that they would be endeavouring on a series of headlining shows and festival dates in Australia. The band’s third visit back in December took in intimate club shows as well as both Meredith and Fairgrounds festivals. With a July return on the cards, King promises Australian fans haven’t seen anything yet: “We’re playing more stuff from the new record, and the shows are going to be bigger so more people can come. We’re definitely making an effort to try and make it down there once a year from now on.”
