Next month on October 18, eighteen years of the Vancouver duo Japandroids will come to a close with the release of their fourth and final album ‘Fate & Alcohol’. David Prowse and Brian King met in the early 2000s as students at The University of Victoria in British Columbia. They quickly bonded over a shared love of Wolf Parade and Constantines, bands whose earnest, heart-on-sleeve indie rock would become a blueprint for Japandroids, which they’d eventually form in 2006 as the two found themselves both living and working in Vancouver. “From the moment we started playing,” Prowse says, “there was something that felt special to both of us.”
Today they share the album’s closing track, a heart-racing, hedonistic song of passionate connection that is not dissimilar to the all-encompassing embrace the band’s fans have for their music. Listen to ‘All Bets Are Off’ below and read an excerpt of King’s personal journals from the night this song was written.
“Night off. I could have rested though (of course) I didn’t. The crew were on one and the party was well underway when I arrived. The other patrons didn’t seem to appreciate our noisy and colourful presence (squares), but the boys were blissfully unaware, hurling hot words at one another and making absurd bets with their per diems, like whether or not it was possible to light a cigarette with a pistol shot. I knew where this was going and wanted no part of it.
I slunk to a shadowy corner and ordered a cocktail, spur to my jaded spirits. I was gathering material for a book on bar life and it was the perfect place to watch the hungry hearts of Saturday twist towards the blue emptiness of Sunday morning. Poolroom tigers and night-club kittens, on the prowl for a piece of anything. Cups and lips, quips and quirks, I frantically jotted it all down sparing no detail. Another cocktail? Don’t mind if I do! The night was primed and I felt punk.
Seeing her immediately stripped me of my powers. A thousand thoughts, frozen and kept in cold storage, thawed all at once. She was not the same woman I had known, exuding a subtle elegance and sensuality I had never seen before; she looked breathtaking. Every exquisite nuance like salt on old love-cuts. Chicly dressed too, which added to my agony. The imbalance between us was obvious, making me self-conscious. Still, I decided to let it play out. Cue the music.”
When asked to reflect on their career and all they’ve accomplished, both Prowse and King are hesitant to think in terms of legacy. They consider ‘Fate & Alcohol’ a parting gift to fans, because Japandroids have approached every recording as fans themselves, from influences and ethics to artwork and merch. “I don’t think we’re the most technically proficient band in the world,” Prowse says. “And we’re not the most original-sounding or challenging band in the world. But we’ve always put a lot of passion into what we do, and I think that’s resonated with a lot of people. And I’m really grateful that we could be that band for people, in the same way that so many bands were for us.”
Look back on their body of work and you’ll find songs that feel like they were written for this moment, for an ending. Songs of celebration and adventure and tomorrows deferred, but also, at their heart, songs about the fleeting nature of everything. If Japandroids wrote and played like this—a dream from the start—might end at any second, it’s because they knew it could. All great things do.
Pre-Order ‘Fate & Alcohol’
1. Eye Contact High
2. D&T
3. Alice
4. Chicago
5. Upon Sober Reflection
6. Fugitive Summer
7. A Gaslight Anthem
8. Positively 34th Street
9. One Without the Other
10. All Bets Are Off
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