They’re not Japanese, they don’t work for the constabulary, but they do make bloody good music. Yes, Canadian foursome Tokyo Police Club are back with a new album, ‘Champ’, and are hitting the road and hitting it hard. Bowlegs caught up with bassist Dave Monks, as he travelled to the Latitude Festival, for a chat about the new album, Canadian bands and the life and death of reindeer.

Bowlegs: So you’re on your way to the Latitude today. Are you excited about playing?

Dave Monks: Yeah, we heard it’s really good. We’re only going to be there really briefly unfortunately.

Bowlegs: It’s just a whistle-stop visit then? In and out?

Dave Monks: Yeah, but we might be able to go and see a couple of other bands.

Bowlegs: Is the festival season something you enjoy?

Dave Monks: Yeah. It’s kind of seasonal, but it’s a nice break from clubs. It’s a good gauge of how you’re being perceived in an area.

Bowlegs: Festival season is quite big in the UK, is that same over in Canada?

Dave Monks: It’s kind of a newer thing in Canada. There’re a couple, but there’s not that many long standing ones.

Bowlegs: How does playing at festivals compare to gigging in clubs for you?

Dave Monks: You kind of want to play the party version of your set. You don’t want to open with anything too dramatic. It’s good like that; it’s fun. I enjoy having a few years of touring under my belt at festivals, because it’s always a fly by the seat of your pants kind of show. You never know what kind of sound check you’re going to have, or what kind of gear is going to be waiting for you there. I feel like we’re experienced enough to handle it though.

Bowlegs: Do you have a favourite festival?

Dave Monks: I definitely do. What’s everyone’s favourite festival (he asks the band)? I just polled the band and our favourite festival is Hove in Norway.

Bowlegs: Did you eat a lot of herrings over there?

Dave Monks: I think there was great steak over there.

Bowlegs: Nice. Bowlegs always remembers Norway for its great reindeer sausage.

Dave Monks: We have a different reindeer story.

Bowlegs: Does it end well?

Dave Monks: We were in Alaska for one day and we played in a school, and they had a reindeer farm at the school because, of course, it’s Alaska. We went to see the reindeer and one of them was giving birth as we arrived. And we just stood there for around half an hour watching a reindeer give birth, then went and got reindeer steaks.

Bowlegs: Nice! How poignant. Moving on to your new album, ‘Champ’ – it’s been two years between albums, has that time allowed you to develop your sound, or have you been too busy touring?

Dave Monks: We made a point of not touring. We pretty much stopped touring ‘Elephant Shell’ in March 2009 and didn’t resume touring until May 2010. So we really took a big chunk out of our schedule to write and record ‘Champ’. ‘Elephant Shell’ had been a really rushed process, so we wanted to make sure we gave this one enough time.

Bowlegs: Did the process for making ‘Champ’ change at all from ‘Elephant Shell’. You said your debut was rushed, but how else did they differ?

Dave Monks: A lot of material for ‘Champ’ had been accumulated, even before ‘Elephant Shell’ was mixed. We just worked on a song here or worked on a song there. And when March or April of 2009 came around the finish line was already in sight at that point, so we just really buckled down and ended up having a whole bunch of songs to work with. And instead of spending three weeks in Toronto recording it we spent three months in LA recording it.

Bowlegs: Did you find you were challenging yourself more because of the success of your previous releases?

Dave Monks: No, we kind of just let all of that go. That was a mentality we fell into before, just trying to top ourselves. But we did whatever felt good, and as ideas came we weren’t over critical of anything, and that just naturally let the music do its thing.

Bowlegs: How was it working with Rob Schnapf?

Dave Monks: He was amazing. He bought a lot of clarity to the record and made it a smooth ride and kept things organised. It was good to have someone with a black and white opinion about things and that way you’re not running around in circles. He’s got a lot of really good experience and he knows when to help the songs by highlighting their strengths.

Bowlegs: Just finally, Canadian music seems to be going through a surge in popularity in other countries, especially the UK. Why do you think that is?

Dave Monks: I don’t know. Canadian bands … Canadian bands … I think it’s because of a combination of a few things. It seems to be about song craft over anything like trippyness and stylishness – it’s generally unpretentious. And I think they’re really hard working. Canada’s a really hard country to tour. It’s a lot of day long drives and stuff. Maybe it’s an ethic thing. I don’t know, but it’s also pretty inexplicable.

Bowlegs: Which Canadian bands should we be looking out for?

Dave Monks: We’re all really excited about the Born Ruffians. Their record’s amazing.

Read the Bowlegs’ review of the band’s latest album ‘Champ’