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<\/a>Cars in music have been around since the invention of rock and roll, but the cars plastered on Girlfriend Material\u2019s social media accounts don\u2019t fit the stereotype of \u201ccool.\u201d Almost every day Wright posts an image of a car parked somewhere on the streets of Toronto. Many of the cars are covered in rust, dirt, or snow, depending on the time of year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an element of very, very light political subversion to be like, \u2018Look at all these boxy-ass cars from the early 1990s, they\u2019re cool,\u2019\u201d says Wright.<\/p>\n
The name of the band\u2019s debut album, Cool Car<\/i>, came from a spontaneous thought Wright had while working on the album, but it\u2019s only one example of the music industry standards he\u2019s questioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they invented this music and all the tropes and all the shorthand that you\u2019d use, like \u2018Baby, baby\u2019 or whatever skips a sentence to communicate an emotion, [that\u2019s] very handy, but you\u2019re also like, \u2018Hmm, the \u201950s, not a great time for opinions, culture, and society,\u2019\u201d says Wright. \u201cHow much of that is baked into the traditions that we\u2019re following up on? You can never really untangle it all but I find that so interesting to try and wrangle with.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the success of his previous band, Tokyo Police Club, Wright re-evaluated his relationship with music. He played in Tokyo Police Club for 10 years; near the end of that band\u2019s run, the business side of running a successful band outweighed the music side and it felt like work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you take the music out of the job of being in a band it\u2019s kind of a crappy job; it\u2019s just that the music is so good that it easily makes everything else worth it,\u201d says Wright. \u201cYou really have to remember what the focus is supposed to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience of being in a successful touring band gave Wright confidence to change gears with his current project in the way he writes and does music business. Girlfriend Material is intimate and casual, and developed from the intention of putting the fun back into his music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try not to be totally off the cuff with Girlfriend Material,\u201d he says, \u201cbut consciously, especially at the beginning, I had been thinking too much about music; now I\u2019m not going to think at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright\u2019s new perspective of the industry also led him to change the boundaries of how a band is supposed to promote their work. He says creating a body of work and something bigger to look back on in the long term has more impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could tell the promotion was working when people started showing up saying, \u2018This car isn\u2019t even remotely cool, what\u2019s wrong with you?\u2019\u201d says Wright. \u201cI was like, \u2018Ah, here we go!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n