Japandroids – Saved On The Verge of Breaking Up – Founded in 2006, Japandroids is one of the young indie bands one can found out there. Interestingly, this band scored a record deal despite on the verge of discontinuing in 2008. Since then, it has numerous tours starting from the record deal in 2009 to the present day.
• About The Band
Japandroids is founded by Brian King and David Prowse, two schoolmates of the University of Columbia, in 2006. They actually first met in the university back in 2000. After discovering a mutual interest in music, the two decided to form a band.
Both members are pitching in as vocals, but King handles the guitar while Prowse handles the drums. The style of their song, most fans would describe, is a combination of half-rock and half-punk. This style is soon welcomed by many for being fun and full of taste. Their songs make great hits, just as how online gambling business makes big hits among players.
The name Japandroids itself was a combination of band name ideas from both members. Prowse suggested Japanese Scream, while King suggested Pleasure Droids. Cannot settle with one, Prowse and King just combined those two ideas into one. Sometimes, they also spelled the band name without vowels as JPNDRDS.
• Breaking Up
Making the band takes a lot of effort. First of all, Prowse had to move to Vancouver and transfer to Simon Fraser University in 2003. Since they are still eager to form a band, King followed Prowse to Vancouver after his graduation in 2005.
However, since the city lacked the opportunity to conduct live music shows nor to join the local music scene, Japandroids had to set up independent concerts regularly. They started these shows from 2006 and continued to do them as regular as possible.
However, since the show schedule clashes a lot with King’s geology studies and the lack of prospects, they decided to dissolve the band by the end of 2008.
• The Record Deal That Changed It All
A few days into 2009, they were offered a contract by Unfamiliar Records, a Canadian label. It was unforeseen that they accepted the offer, but they reluctantly did and continued their live shows. However, after Pitchfork awarded their song “Young Hearts Spark Fire” as the ‘Best New Track’. They released the album Post-Nothing and took off from there.
Indeed, Japandroids is not your regular band. It was founded by two people, who stayed faithfully without any new addition. It almost broke up after two years of career, too. Not even the members can imagine that they will take off, goes to 500 shows worldwide, and able to compete with new and old indie bands alike.