Few bands sum up a time and a place quite like Interpol. With their angular post punk and jet-black suits, they were more NYC than NYC, leading a whole scene out of the city’s coolest clubs and into the mainstream.
Founding member Daniel Kessler (guitar) formed Interpol with friend Paul Banks (vocals, guitar), Greg Drudy (drums) and Carlos Dengler (bass). Drudy left in 2000, replaced by Sam Foggarino on drums. The quartet signed to Matador and released their debut album in 2002.
Turn On The Bright Lights became an instant classic of the era, a brooding, nocturnal record that tapped into the jagged corners of Joy Division, the suave menace of The Afghan Whigs and the inscrutable poetry of The Smiths. Tracks like NYC, Leif Erikson and Obstacle 1 positioned Interpol as the urbane counterpoint to the scruffy Strokes at the forefront of New York’s new rock movement.
Creating a defining moment with your debut leaves little room to grow on your follow-up, so Interpol wisely used Antics as an opportunity to refine rather than radicalise or improve. The hype may have been more measured but the quality proved they were in it for the long haul, with three songs charting in the US.
Interpol made the jump to a major label for their third album, 2007’s Our Love To Admire, but were back on Matador – albeit without Carlos Dengler – for 2010’s Interpol. Another long gap followed while the members pursued their own solo projects outside of Interpol, including Banks’s solo material under his own name and his Julian Plenti alter ego, and Foggarino’s work with EmptyMansions.
Banks, Foggarino and Kessler came back together for 2014’s El Pintor, but it would be another wait for the band’s sixth studio album, during which time they celebrated the 15th anniversary of Turn On The Bright Lights with a tour and reissue. Marauder arrived in 2018, followed by an EP of bonus tracks in 2019.
The band's seventh studio album The Other Side Of Make-Believe arrived in 2022. The following year, Interpol were a major part of the acclaimed Meet Me In The Bathroom documentary, which was based on the book of the same name and told the story of the meteoric rise of the New York scene in the early 00s.
