Tokyo Police Club's Dave Monks releasing solo LP & touring (stream "Love Fades")

August 23, 2019

Tokyo Police Club frontman Dave Monks is kicking his solo career into high gear this year with his debut solo album On A Wave coming October 18 via Dine Alone, surrounded by a lengthy tour. We recently posted “Don’t Go Falling To Pieces” off the new album, and we’re now premiering another song from it, “Love Fades.”

This one’s an atmospheric slow burner, pretty different from “Don’t Go Falling To Pieces” and definitely different from Tokyo Police Club’s usual sound. Here’s what Dave says about it:

“Love Fades” feels like the answer to my first solo EP, which I wrote when I was at the beginning of a relationship. That relationship ended right before I wrote the music for On A Wave.

I had left New York at the very end of 2017, packing up 5 years of my life into my parent’s car overnight and then flown almost directly to LA to spend 12 weeks recording TPC. Once that was wrapped up, I was left sitting back at my parent’s house with nothing resembling my old life. I think playing the chords and the expression in “Love Fades” became a “self-soothing” act for me. I think it really helped me make sense of my story and where I was at in the moment.

6 months later, when I started recording On A Wave, I thought it was too simple to actually go on a record but Rob really liked it. I was totally surprised but was suddenly excited to try it. It became a really open sonic canvas and creating on top of that was a really fun exploration, every nuance felt like a discovery. If I could relate it to one other song in my career, it would be “La Ferrassie” (from the band’s first record, A Lesson In Crime), another song I wrote when I was feeling displaced in life, having just moved away for my freshman year at McGill.

I always want my listeners to be able to hear my personal journey through the music I put out and I think this song puts forth an important truth for me the same way that the blissful romance of my first record represents an important truth. Things are always a little more complicated than we want them to be and, for me, it’s important to let those contradictions exist within us.

Listen below.

Dave’s tour includes a NYC show on November 14 at Berlin (tickets). All dates are listed below.

Dave Monks — 2019 Tour Dates
9/26 – Nanaimo, BC – Port Theatre ~
9/27 – Campbell River, BC – Tidemark Theatre ~
9/28 – Victoria, BC – Capital Ballroom ~
10/1 – Kamloops, BC – Blue Grotto ~
10/3 – Calgary, AB – Palace Theatre ~
10/6 – Red Deer, AB – Bo’s Bar & Stage ~
10/7 – Saskatoon, SK – Broadway Theatre ~
10/9 – Regina, SK – The Artesian ~
10/11 – Winnipeg, MB – The Garrick ~
11/8: Chicago, IL – Subterranean Downstairs*
11/14 – New York, NY – Berlin*
11/15 – Washington, DC – Songbyrd*
11/27 – St. Catharines, ON – Warehouse ~
11/28 – London, ON – London Music Hall ~
11/29 – Waterloo, ON – Maxwell’s Music House ~
11/30 – Hamilton, ON – The Casbah ~
12/3 – Halifax, NS – Seahorse Tavern ~
12/5 – Fredericton, NB – The Capitol ~
12/6 – Montreal, QC – L’Escogriffe Bar Spectacle (L’Esco) ~
12/7 – Ottawa, ON – Bronson Centre ~
12/8 – Oshawa, ON – The Music Hall Concert Theater ~
12/14 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre ~