THE RADIO DEPT. with NIGHTBOX at the Horseshoe (370 Queen West), Sunday (May 29). $15. HS, RT, SS, TM. See listing.
It’s no surprise that Radio Dept.’s last Toronto show sold out. Considering the band’s reputation for reclusiveness, many in attendance probably thought it would be their only chance to see them live.
Less than four months later, following a successful North American tour, their first ever, the elusive, stage-shy dream-pop trio is already returning for a mini-tour centred around an appearance at Washington’s Sasquatch Festival.
So why has the Swedish band suddenly changed its tune?
“The boring answer: we couldn’t afford touring before,” says key member Martin Larsson over the phone from Stockholm. “But when we toured North America last year, every show sold out. That’s made us think that maybe we could tour there some more.”
It’s in character that it’s taken the band this long to warm up to the idea of regular touring. Stubbornly committed to their own snail-like pace, the Radio Dept. have never seemed interested in playing by music industry rules.
Take their latest album. Only their third official LP, Clinging To A Scheme was first pegged for release in 2008, but it took until 2010 to finally drop.
“At the time, (singer-guitarist) Johan (Duncanson) and I lived four hours apart,” recounts Larsson. “We’d take breaks that lasted two weeks at a time, and each time we’d write, like, seven new songs. And those always felt better than the last songs, so we’d discard the stuff we’d already recorded and start over.”
Their label, Labrador, sent delay notice after delay notice, frustration palpable behind a veneer of forced optimism. They called the band “indie as fuck,” a term that may have seemed playfully endearing at the time, but there was also a very real undercurrent of annoyance.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle,” admits the soft-spoken Larsson. “You need a label to achieve a lot of things, but we’ve always just wanted to do things our own way.”
Nearly unanimous acclaim for Clinging To A Scheme’s warm, wistful bliss-pop has propelled the band to a new state of visibility, and for once they haven’t been too shy to capitalize on it. Already the band has put out a career-spanning singles compilation called Passive Aggressive and will soon re-release all three of their LPs on vinyl.
They’ve even started work on the next album, but this time around they’re keeping their mouths shut about the release date.
“We’re not making that mistake again.”
music@nowtoronto.com
