Tokyo Police Club will be at Sneaky Dee’s on Saturday.

Tokyo Police Club didn’t mean to make an album about robots — it just kind of happened that way.

“It’s an accidental concept album,” explained keyboardist Graham Wright of the band’s debut, A Lesson In Crime. “We wrote one song about robots, and that was the thing that people latched onto for the artwork. But then, listening back to the way we sequenced the album, we sort of looked at each other and said, ‘Oh no, it’s all about robots!’ But I think we’ve made peace with it.”

Tokyo Police Club’s sparse, Strokes-influenced sound is surprisingly assured for a band whose members are barely old enough to drink in the clubs they’ve been playing. But maybe that’s because they’ve been together for such a long time. Wright, singer-bassist David Monks and guitarist Josh Hook met in Grade 4, and they started the band with drummer Greg Alsop in high school in Newmarket.

“We all learned how to play music together,” said Wright. “We bought instruments, and for the past five years we’ve been learning to play them together. So the musical dialogue between us has always been there.”

The band recorded a rough demo in Wright’s basement — “stupidly and untechnically, with one mic in front of the drums,” he recalled. But they had strong ideas about the way their songs should sound.

“It’s weird, because a lot of the songs were written on guitar, but there is no rhythm guitar on most of the album,” said Wright. “Dave will write the song with chords and strumming, but then we’ll take it all out, and instead base it around a bass line or a keyboard riff.”

The band won over Magneta Lane’s Lexi Valentine, who took them under her relatively experienced wing and introduced them to her label — and before they knew it, Tokyo Police Club were driving in the fast lane.

“I don’t want to say we’re in the same position as Magneta Lane, but we’re starting young and things have been moving very quickly for us,” said Wright. “The first time we met Lexi, she took us into a semi-circle and gave us a big pep talk. It’s been great to see how Magneta Lane deal with everything — it helps us have an idea of how to stay grounded and remember the reason we’re doing this, which is to have a great time.”

TPC also make sure their fans have a great time at their shows, with the help of cupcakes, flags, signs and various other props.

“It started as a lark,” said Wright. “Back then there was no pressure because no one was coming out to see us anyway. So we’d wave a red flag or write our names on signs. It’s important to us to not take our show too seriously. We’re having a good time, and we don’t want to be sullen. We don’t mind having a bit of ridiculousness, because it makes things more memorable and more fun.”

Tokyo Police Club play Sneaky Dee’s Saturday.