Interpol
A New York band of Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler, Carlos Dengler and Sam Fogarino, whose debut Turn On the Bright Lights (2002) and its song "NYC" made them central to the early-2000s post-punk revival.
NYU and the Mercury Lounge
Interpol formed in Manhattan in 1997, founded by Daniel Kessler and the drummer Greg Drudy. Kessler met Carlos Dengler in a philosophy class at NYU and reconnected with Paul Banks, whom he had first met in France; they considered the names Las Armas and The French Letters before Interpol. Drudy left in 2000 to focus on Hot Cross and Level Plane Records, and Sam Fogarino joined. In 2001 they recorded a John Peel session after touring behind the Precipitate EP on Chemikal Underground's Fukd I.D. series; Banks says Peel liked the band early. Kessler says Matador rejected them twice before signing them in early 2002, after five years of rejection and struggling for gigs in New York.
Turn On the Bright Lights was recorded in October and November 2001 at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut with Peter Katis producing and Gareth Jones assisting on the mix, and released on August 19, 2002 (August 20 in the US). The songs were recorded live in the studio, to two-inch tape with no computers, in tense sessions short of time and money; Stereogum reports they arrived with about $900 in cash. It reached number 101 in the UK and 158 in the US, and is gold in both; Metacritic scores it 81, Pitchfork gave it 9.5 and named it its best album of 2002, and Robert Christgau gave it a C+.
Antics to the present
Antics (September 27, 2004) reached number 15 in the US and 21 in the UK, Our Love to Admire (July 10, 2007, Capitol) number four in the US and two in the UK, and Interpol (September 7, 2010) was the last with Dengler, whose departure was announced on May 9, 2010. They opened for U2's 360 tour in 2010 and 2011. El Pintor (September 2014), Marauder (August 24, 2018, produced by Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road) and The Other Side of Make-Believe (July 15, 2022, produced by Flood at Battery Studios) followed. In 2012 a tenth anniversary reissue of the debut added a bonus disc with demos, B-sides and John Peel session recordings, including a Peel version of "NYC", and a DVD.
Banks made records as Julian Plenti (2009), with RZA as Banks and Steelz (Anything but Words, 2016) and as Muzz (2020), and Kessler as Big Noble (2014). The band bought back its Matador catalogue on December 10, 2020. They played a free show at the Zocalo in Mexico City on April 20, 2024 for an estimated 160,000 people, their largest. In 2026 they moved to Partisan, with Truax and Curtis becoming official members, and made This Mirror Weighs a Ton (August 28, 2026), produced by Andrew Wyatt and mixed by Dave Fridmann, recorded in New York for the first time in ten years. Setlist.fm lists about 1,410 setlists.
Albums
- Turn On the Bright Lights 2002 · Matador
Their debut: eleven songs recorded live to tape in Connecticut, whose title comes from a lyric in "NYC".
Songs
- NYC Turn On the Bright Lights · 2002
The third track of Turn On the Bright Lights, previewed on the 2002 EP and released as half of a 2003 double A-side.
Sources
- Interpol (band), Wikipedia
- Antics (album), Wikipedia
- Interpol hail John Peel, Clash (2010-09-13)
- The greatest, number 3, Simona Dell'Unto