-- Joe D'Angelo, with additional reporting by Gideon Yago
The latest in the line of bands bringing it from the Big Apple, Interpol aren't lost up in their own hype.
The sharp-dressed foursome's debut LP, Turn on the Bright Lights, has been out less than a month, but Interpol has been anointed with the "next big thing" tag since signing with indie label Matador in April. Equally high expectations came from abroad even earlier, thanks to a limited edition EP for Scottish label Chemikal Underground in 2000, airplay on London's XFM radio and rigorous touring the following year. Reviews of Turn on the Bright Lights, have been overwhelmingly positive, with many industry pundits pegging Interpol as the band that could help Matador resurrect the cache it held when home to indie-rock darlings Pavement and Guided By Voices in the early- to mid-1990s.
While good reviews and a downtown buzz sit just fine with singer/guitarist Paul Banks, drummer Sam Fogarino, guitarist Daniel Kessler and bassist Carlos Dengler, it doesn't provide the rush of simply turning regular joes on with their music.
"That's the only thing that's really tangible," Fogarino said, "as far as immediate reaction or getting something back. Reading something in a magazine is like, 'Yeah, wow, great,' but when you play in front of people and they're very excited to see and hear you play, that's very immediate. That hits you way deeper than words in print. [Critical acclaim] is easy to dismiss, and it's not what should propel the band to move forward."
Just because acclaim is not the most important thing to the members of Interpol doesn't mean what the critics are saying isn't without merit; the band harbors confidence with nary a hint of arrogance. They know a good thing when they see it.
"I knew when I joined Interpol that it was the only thing that I really cared about," Dengler explained. I had little to no interest in college, and I never had any intention of doing anything else from the beginning. It became clear to me very quickly that this band has a lot of potential and is something special."
Interpol's music takes its cue from the '80s post-punk scene in the U.K., anchored by bands like Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen and Bauhaus, and updates the dated synth pop with aggressively driving, guitar-rooted rhythms. That nearly every mention of Interpol in print is accompanied by parallels to these groups, which are admitted influences, doesn't baffle the band, but it is beginning to bother them.
"We like all those bands quite a bit," Kessler said, "but people think they're more of an influence than they really are. They're not any more of an influence than, like, 50 other bands... I think [the comparisons] are very surface, but I can see where they're coming from; Paul does have a voice that's in a similar register as [Joy Division's] Ian Curtis'. But it's not something we're trying to do. And musically, we have a sense of atmosphere and mood, and obviously bands from that era did as well."
Interpol formed in 1998 while three of its members were attending New York University — Fogarino joined later, replacing the original drummer — but they're not your typical college band. Unlike many groups that form during their members' period of higher education, Interpol didn't get together in order to gain admittance into bars or score girls. They've always held much more ambitious aspirations.
"It was a pretty passionate thing from the beginning," Kessler said. "I don't think any of us would do a musical project without putting some serious effort and consideration into it. It was never like, 'Oh, let's go jam.' It was always about doing something beyond goals of writing songs and playing better. Ultimately, as far as the effort put into the songwriting, it was always very serious and with a specific purpose."
Whether that purpose pans out remains to be seen, but Interpol is making their way towards the spotlight by way of the shadows.
"Everything is so cliché nowadays," Banks said, "even in stuff that is slightly less than mainstream. Exploiting the darker angle of things is a way of doing something that's different."
Interpol tour dates, according to Matador Records:
- 9/17 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
- 9/18 - West Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour
- 9/19 - West Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour
- 9/20 - Tucson, AZ @ Solar Culture
- 9/22 - Austin, TX @ Mercury
- 9/23 - Dallas, TX @ Gypsy Tea Room
- 9/25 - St. Louis, MO @ Rocket Bar
- 9/26 - Bloomington, IN @ Vertigo
- 9/27 - Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
- 9/28 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
- 9/29 - Montreal, QC @ Jupiter Room
- 9/30 - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Club
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