Interpol (band)

Interpol
Background information
Origin	New York, New York, USA
Genre(s)	Indie rock Post-punk revival
Years active	1998–present
Label(s)	Capitol Records Parlophone Records EMI Music Group(Japan)
Website	www.interpolnyc.com
Members
Paul Banks Daniel Kessler Carlos Dengler Sam Fogarino
Former members
Greg Drudy

Interpol are an American rock band, formed in 1998 in New York City. The members of the band are Paul Banks (vocals, guitar), Daniel Kessler (guitar, back vocals), Carlos Dengler (bass, keyboards - commonly referred to as Carlos D.) and Sam Fogarino (drums). The band's debut album Turn on the Bright Lights was critically acclaimed, making it into the NME top ten albums of the year for 2002. The follow-up, Antics, was both a commercial and critical success. The group recently released its third album, Our Love to Admire. Interpol are one of many bands associated with the New York indie music scene, being one of several groups that emerged out of the post-punk revival of the 2000s. The band's sound is generally a mix of bass throb and choppy, sparse guitar, drawing comparisons to post-punk bands Joy Division,^[1] The Chameleons, Kitchens of Distinction and Echo and The Bunnymen.

Name origin

There is confusion about the origin of the name Interpol. An article in SPIN magazine said one of Paul Banks' classmates would tease him by saying “Paul, Paul, Interpol,” pronouncing the name "Paul" with a Spanish accent. Yet guitarist Kessler said the band initially played many shows without a name. "I got to the point where I was like, ‘Guys, we’re getting decent crowds, but like ... we don’t have a name, so no one knows who to go see again,’” Kessler said. The band considered Las Armas and The French Letters[1] as names before adopting Interpol. They also famously performed a little publicized show at the Luna Lounge in New York under the pseudonym Cuddleworthy.

Formation

Interpol playing in Las Vegas

The roots of the band stem from New York University, where all of the original line-up were students. Guitarist Daniel Kessler had “been looking to put a band together for a while” when he met drummer Greg Drudy on campus. Kessler later added Carlos Dengler on bass, after meeting him in a history class. Kessler had previously met Paul Banks whilst in Paris, and approached him to become lead singer when he ran into him on the street. In 2000, after releasing the Fukd I.D. #3 EP, Greg Drudy left the band, and Kessler recruited Sam Fogarino, whom he knew through Fogarino’s job at a local vintage clothing store. Fogarino had previously turned down the opportunity to replace Sara Lee Lucas as drummer for Marilyn Manson before moving to New York, and was the original drummer for The Holy Terrors - a South Florida band widely admired and respected by many local musicians in the area.

Career

Demos (1998-2001)

After self-releasing several EPs between 1998 - 2001, in early 2002 the band signed to indie label Matador, an independent label famous for breaking highly respected bands such as Pavement. The first release, a self-titled EP containing rerecorded versions of PDA and NYC — possibly to incorporate Fogarino’s distinctive drumming, as Greg Drudy had left the band shortly after the release of Fukd ID #3 — was released on June 4 2002 to widespread critical acclaim in the indie music scene, which built anticipation for the full-length album.

Turn on the Bright Lights era (2002-2003)

Turn on the Bright Lights was released on August 19 2002, again on Matador, and is widely considered one of the best albums of that year, making it into many 'Top 10 of 2002' lists and being named Pitchfork Media's "Album of the Year." Recorded at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the record sold exceptionally well for an independent release, and the band toured extensively, receiving a good deal of media coverage, making television appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, Last Call with Carson Daly and featuring on BBC Radio 1 and the NME Awards Tour in the UK. The album title is taken from a lyric in the song NYC: "it's up to me now / turn on the bright lights."

Paul Banks, Interpol playing at Roskilde Festival, Denmark 2005 at Arena Stage

Antics era (2003-2005)

The band regrouped in late 2003 to begin sessions for the follow-up album, again decamping to Tarquin Studios to record. On September 28 2004, Antics was released on Matador. The album achieved far greater commercial success than Turn on the Bright Lights, perhaps due to the lighter, more accessible arrangements and bigger hooks featured in songs such as Slow Hands, Evil and C'mere. The record garnered much critical acclaim and was once more a popular choice on critics' Top 10 lists for 2004. The record also saw Interpol record their first UK Top 40 hits with Slow Hands, Evil, and C'Mere charting at 36, 18 and 19 respectively. The album's title comes from an unused lyric Banks wrote during the recording process. The album was eventually certified as going gold in the UK. Interpol toured once again after the release of the album, playing more dates than ever before and at bigger venues. The Antics tour stretched on for almost 18 months, including a number of shows playing as undercards for U2 and The Cure, and the band reported feelings of exhaustion to Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe at a concert in Sunderland. Perhaps due to this, the band took a year off after touring finished. Whilst on the road, the band had also released the one-off track Direction, written for the official soundtrack to HBO's Six Feet Under, Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends. The track was written during soundchecks on the bands European tour, and was recorded the day after they returned to New York. Their song "Evil" was featured in season one, episode five of the hit show Grey's Anatomy.

Our Love to Admire era (2007-)

In late March 2006, drummer Sam Fogarino confirmed that the band were back in the studio working on new material. In an interview with Pitchfork, Fogarino stated "[the process is] moving right along where I think it should...we're all pretty much on fire about it". Fogarino also dispelled rumours that the band had signed to major label Interscope, but also confirmed that they would be leaving Matador in search of a new label. An update to their website in June confirmed that the band had been working on the follow-up since the turn of the year, but did not confirm a name for the album or comment on the mounting speculation that they were imminently to sign to a major label. On August 14, it was widely reported that Interpol had signed for Capitol Records, a fact confirmed by Matador on September 1 in a press release on their website. The band toured Europe, Canada and the US playing small venues and experimenting with new material. On April 23 2007 it was revealed that the album would be released on July 10 2007, and the following Wednesday the band posted a message to their official Messageboard, revealing that the album was entitled Our Love to Admire. Throughout Spring and early Summer there was constant speculation that the record had been leaked, with fans crowding message boards and the band's last.fm page requesting details and confirmation of the leak. Despite this groundswell of anticipation, the record remarkably remained out of the public eye until June 21, when an unknown source leaked the album in full. Despite the leak, the album secured an impressive #4 debut on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart. Our Love to Admire represents a departure for the band, being both the first record they have recorded in New York City (at The Magic Shop and Electric Lady Studios), and the first time they have included keyboards in the arrangements from the start of the songwriting process. As a result, the album is more atmospheric and diverse than its predecessors, with fewer tracks in a similar vein to Slow Hands and Evil, and some experimental songs such as Lighthouse. The band plans to tour the album extensively, beginning with the summer festival circuit throughout the United States and Europe. In August 2007 Interpol headlined one of the days of the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. Our Love to Admire was released in the UK on July 9th on Parlophone, on July 10th in the United States on Capitol, and in Japan on July 11 on EMI Music Japan. EMI has also released a special tour edition of Interpol's latest album "Our Love To Admire"^[2]. This special version features a bonus DVD which contains six live tracks, recorded at the London Astoria earlier this year, plus the promo videos for "The Heinrich Maneuver" and "No I In Threesome".

Discography

Albums

• Turn on the Bright Lights August 19 (2002) - Matador
  (#158 US, #101 UK)
• Antics September 27 (2004) - Matador
  (#15 US, #21 UK)
• Our Love to Admire July 6 (2007) - Capitol
  (#4 US, #2 UK)

EPs

• Demo Tape (1998, self-released)
• Fukd ID #3 (December 11, 2000, Chemikal Underground)
• Precipitate EP (January 1, 2001, self-released)
• Interpol EP (June 4, 2002, Matador)
• The Black EP (August 26, 2003, EMI)
• Interpol Remix EP (November 22, 2005, Matador)
• Interpol: Live In Astoria EP (November 27, 2007, Capitol)

Singles

Compilation tracks

• "A Time to Be So Small" on This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation (2001, Arena Rock Recording Co.)
• "Direction" on Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends (2005)
• "Specialist" on Music from the OC: Mix 2 (2004, Warner Bros.)

References

Source

• Raftery, Brian. "Night Falls on Manhattan". SPIN. April 2005.

External links

• Official website
• Interpol at MySpace
• Video Interview: "What is really important to you?"
• Audiojunkies interview with Interpol
• Lazy-i interview from January 2003
• Interpol Online
• "The Heinrich Maneuver" review
• IMPOSE interview
• Lollapalooza 2007 Live Performance Video
• Interpol Concert Chronology
• Interpol live show review 2007 on Three Imaginary Girls
• Live photos in Paris