Tokyo Police Club's Graham Wright Wrestles With His Past on 'Shirts Vs. Skins'

Posted on May 23rd 2011 3:30PM by Jessica Lewis
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Vanessa Heins

For Tokyo Police Club keyboardist Graham Wright's debut solo album, 'Shirts vs. Skins,' the match at hand seems to be between the musician's past and present.

The forthcoming album is full of songs written two years ago, in a time when Wright went through an intense break-up and a lull at home after a long Tokyo Police Club tour. Getting this material out now means Wright has to revisit that unpleasant mindset.

"I was in a really specific place," he tells Spinner. "Even the songs that don't have anything to do with that, I can still find that in there. It's kind of weird now because I don't necessarily identify with the same things, it's changed a bit. It's going to be interesting performing the songs and trying to get back into that head space.

"It's real and was something that happened, and that's what I like about records, they document a real thing. That's what's important to me about these songs even though they aren't necessarily current for me. It's time travel, really."

Two years ago, before the songs on 'Shirts vs. Skins' came to fruition, Wright found himself sitting in his apartment, unsure of what to do with so much alone time.

"When you're in a relationship, you have a built-in structure to your life and it's easy. Then when you're on tour, you have some structure and it's easy. For three years, I hadn't had to really think about how to fill my time ever," he says.

After a "weird redecorating phase" of his apartment, he decided to channel his energy elsewhere.

"I'd find myself sitting in my underwear on the living room floor sanding this eight foot shelf that I wrestled down from my bathroom wall and then I decided it was time to get a less ridiculous hobby, so I started writing songs," he says. "I don't think any of my songs are about redecorating actually -- I missed a very obvious source of inspiration."

Wright's initial response was to write a bunch of "woe-is-me, sad, slow songs," but decided to go with "escapist pop songs" instead. 'Shirts vs. Skins' is the first in a planned trilogy as Wright wrote about 60 songs for the massive project, with the first record comprising of the more upbeat material.

He recorded in spurts at the same studio that Tokyo Police Club records at, utilizing the musician/owners Dean Marino and Jay Sadlowski, and all the instruments they had to offer -- though, surprisingly, no keyboards. He even brought in other Canadian guests Will Currie and Mika Posen. The result is much different than the subdued folk EP he wrote in 2007, 'The Lakes of Alberta.'

Seeing as it's taken years to ready 'Shirts vs. Skins' (Tokyo Police Club's Juno-nominated album 'Champ' and subsequent touring pushed back the release date even further), Wright is restless to get the rest of the series out. In fact, he's even working on a fourth disc, too.

Watch Tokyo Police Club's 'Wait Up (Boots of Danger)' From 'Champ'
"I'm thrilled, we worked hard on it, but the only thing is now I've been living with it," he says. "I'm not sick of it at all, but in terms of being creative, I've moved on; I'm writing a bunch of different songs and I have more things I want to do.

"It's frustrating, there's no way you can make and release records as quickly as I'm writing songs, but sometimes it's just like, 'Ugh, I've got so much more, let's move on.' But just the fact that it's coming out is a new way to get excited about everything."