Interpol

Interpol are a quartet from New York perhaps best known for their color-scheme. Their first two LPs featured red/black/white artwork, and the band themselves are forever clad in a black wardrobe that borders on Hitler Youth Chic.

This visual representation suits their sound: a moody, gloomy brand of rock heavily influenced by English post-punk acts like Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, and the Cure, but still sounding distinctively like Interpol.

"I think that we have a sound," vocalist/guitarist Paul Banks told Pitchfork, in 2007. "I think that you can always hear when it's Interpol, and I think that's because of the personalities in the band."

Background

In 1998, when attending NYU, guitarist Daniel Kessler "individually approached everyone who is now in the band," including Banks, who he'd met at a summer program in Paris. "I had a pretty good feeling that he was someone who could contribute greatly to what we were doing."

The 'we,' in the beginning, were Kessler and original drummer Greg Drudy. Kessler first invited Carlos Dengler to play bass, and then approached Banks, who was, at the time, performing as a Neil Young-inspired singer-songwriter.

"I was never in a rockband before Interpol, and I only joined Interpol because it was really good s**t," the never-modest Banks told me, in a 2004 interview. "Daniel was the only person I’d met who was writing compelling, original music —other than me— so, I was sort of pulled towards him in spite of the fact I wasn’t looking to work with other people."

Initially, the calm Kessler and brash Banks butted heads as Interpol set out on the slow path to discovering their identity. Banks "became the singer because [he] happened to be the guy with the lyrics."

Initially playing under an array of names, they eventually settled on the name Interpol. Their early recordings and shows had, Banks would later offer, "monotonal qualities," because he "wasn't really a singer in a rockband, [but] just someone shouting lyrics."

"It was always therapy, just rehearsing with the band and making a lot of noise," Banks told me, in 2003. "I think it prevented me, through my college years, from smashing a lot of things in fits of rage. If I hadn’t been able to go and play with the band and turn the guitar up really loud, I think I would’ve had a lot of repressed anger."

Beginnings

Playing around New York between 1998 and 2001, Interpol set out to follow "good kinds of career strategies." Meaning, though they self-released early EPs, they were holding out for a big label to sign them. Diligently sending out demos whilst endeavouring to build a local following, they discovered very few labels "were even interested in the slightest."

"We just didn’t want to sign with a bad label, or a label that couldn’t promote the music," Banks recalled. "The majors certainly weren’t knocking down the door for us at that time, because rock wasn’t really a marketable thing in ’99, compared to as it is now."

Their first official release, the Fukd ID #3 EP, came out on Scottish indie imprint Chemikal Underground (home of Arab Strap and the Delgados) late in 2000. After its release, Drudy departed Interpol, and was replaced by Sam Fogarino; whose experience and skill served to 'tighten up' their sound moreso.

Eventually, New York mega-indie Matador Records signed the band in early 2002, but only after the label had already turned down Interpol's first three submissions. "Being on a label like Matador in the US, this great label filled with great artists, that was enough for me," Kessler said, of their early ambitions.

By the time their debut LP, Turn on the Bright Lights, was released in 2002, Interpol had been together for exactly four years. The recording took the band "a long time to be even remotely happy with it," and their hopes for it were of the 'solid' variety. "If we had been angling for some sort of massive fame," Banks would offer, to Pitchfork, in 2007, "we would've written different music."