On April 25th, 2001, Interpol made their first appearance on the U.K.'s famous BBC radio show, Peel Sessions, on the strength of their self-released EPs alone. Their debut album, Turn On the Bright Lights, followed in 2002, and was widely considered one of the best records of that year. Thumbing through their inch-thick book of press clippings, I quickly realized there was little that they had never been asked. "What's with the suits?" Check. "You like Joy Division?" Check. So when I picked up the phone to talk to Interpol's guitarist Daniel Kessler, I had a few oddball queries in mind:
Keith Daniels: Tell me about your first crush.
Daniel Kessler: Hmm I think I was living in England, and I was probably four years old. It's really easy for me to distinguish my memories, because I was born in England. I lived there until I was five and a half, and then moved to the States, so my memories are pretty well sorted that way. I can't tell if it was a family friend, someone's daughter or something like that, but it was just someone I was playing with. Nothing too memorable, just remember going to her house and playing, and that was my first crush.
KD: What was the first time that you got your heart broken?
DK: I don't even know There's no distinct memory of relationships going so wrong as to get my heart broken. Probably just people that I liked that I got the feeling they didn't like me back, but those memories sortof merge into They get nicely categorized and organized somewhere. I don't really remember who it was or when it was distinctly. I was probably pretty young, though, at the same time you develop crushes, [there are] people who get the feeling they don't dig you back.
KD: Which member of Interpol is the most disgusting on tour?
DK: We're all pretty good! There's no pig element. I would never call anyone in Interpol a pig, and the bus doesn't get too bad. Paul can be a bit of a mess, here and there. He's never that bad though.
KD: I've read that you actually encountered some members of the real Interpol. What was that like?
DK: It was just one time somewhere after a show, got approached; some dude saying that he was in Interpol. We just kindof laughed, and he was like, "No, really." Then as quickly as he said it he was gone. This was during a festival in Europe, so it was very early in the day. It was a rainy day.
KD: What would you do if you magically had a vagina for a day?
DK: I'm gonna have to pass on this question. [laughs] I can't answer that.
KD: Were you at home during the recent blackout?
DK: I was not. I was in Australia, fortunately, or unfortunately. Some people seem to have had a rather good time, but I was not here, so I really can't say.
KD: You've probably stayed in a thousand hotels all over the world, so what's the weirdest thing you ever saw on hotel TV?
DK: Oh, shit. There are definitely plenty of weird things I've seen on hotel TV. I can't remember, though. It's really hard. Unfortunately all the hotels sortof merge into one. God, what's something weird I've seen I can't remember right now. If I think of one before the end of the interview I'll let you know.
KD: Let's say we were going to make a cop movie starring Interpol. Every cop movie has the chief who worries about everything, the buy-the-books cop, the reckless cop, and the comic relief. Which member of Interpol would fill each role?
DK: The comic relief I would give to Eric, who plays keyboards with us live. I would probably be the chief who worries about everything. I'd put Paul and Carlos as the reckless cops; they'd be like siamese twins. Let's not over-glamourize this and say that they're They're not the Mel Gibsons in Lethal Weapon.
KD: The new release is called The Black EP. How much of the band's decision was that to put out?
DK: Truthfully We did this session called The Black Session in France right when [Turn On the Bright Lights] came out. It was sortof an interesting event, where Interpol fans won tickets to watch us recording for radio, for the show, which is very much like the John Peel show. Bernard Lenoir, the guy who does it, has had it for twenty something years. It's half recording for his actual show, and half three hundred people watching you. It's kindof a special event everyone's always raved about it. Our French label really wanted to release those tracks, and wanted to add a few tracks on the record and something else that wasn't widely available, so we added the "NYC" demo version. So it was really their idea they presented to us, and we selected the tracks. They wanted to put something out over the summer as well, so it fit nicely.
KD: When will you start working on a new record?
DK: Well, we have this tour that will run us through basically October. After that we'll take a couple weeks off, and then we'll get crackin' on writing. I don't know when we'll start recording. We're going to keep it loose, but hopefully we'll get the record out before the end of next year.
KD: What would you like to do differently this time?
DK: I don't know. We're not the kind of band who thinks so much about those things. They just sortof happen naturally. Your tendencies shift, but they shift subconsciously. It's a natural progression, y'know, rather than one that you're trying to do. We do this all the time, in all the songs we write. The way we've always written is that the song we're currently writing is always different than the one before, in maybe feel, tempo, structure entirely, and that's just natural to us -- but we never really talk about these things. I think there'll just be natural distinctions. Even in the songs that we have right now, and the songs we haven't even started working on that I've been writing, there's already a natural shift. I like to not think too much about music changing. It just happens, and then we'll look back at it. I think that's the best way of keeping it pure.
KD: You guys have been written about in hundreds of magazines, but have you ever encountered someone on the road that made you feel like a beginner?
DK: Well, we met the Asheton brothers from the Stooges, back before the record had even come out, or actually I think the week it was coming out. They were really nice, and they took the time to talk about music and Detroit, because we were about to go to Detroit at the time. Just talking to those guys, and being fans, that was pretty cool. Obviously they have pedigree behind them.
KD: Was this when they reunited for a few shows?
DK: Yeah, I saw them from really far away at Cochella shortly before we were to go on. It looked amazing, and sounded amazing, as you would think. The time I saw them it was Mike Watt on bass and doing the vocals, the Asheton brothers on guitar and drums, Jay Mascis playing guitar, and it was still pretty damn phenomenal. It was one of the loudest shows I've ever seen. Even within that quartet it was something to watch, and with Iggy on it it was going to be a moment.
KD: Would you like to see you guys kicking around in twenty years?
DK: If we're still doing things that are interesting to us, yeah. I think we really have a good way of looking at things. We just look at it from song to song; because that's the way we looked at it for so long before we put out our record. We really haven't changed our direction. One song at a time, and then we'll take it from there. We don't look at an album right now, we're still at the stage where we're writing songs and playing shows, and it's the right speed for us. So if it's still interesting, yeah. We'll see how it goes.
See Interpol's official website for more info.
Keith Daniels: Tell me about your first crush.
Daniel Kessler: Hmm I think I was living in England, and I was probably four years old. It's really easy for me to distinguish my memories, because I was born in England. I lived there until I was five and a half, and then moved to the States, so my memories are pretty well sorted that way. I can't tell if it was a family friend, someone's daughter or something like that, but it was just someone I was playing with. Nothing too memorable, just remember going to her house and playing, and that was my first crush.
KD: What was the first time that you got your heart broken?
DK: I don't even know There's no distinct memory of relationships going so wrong as to get my heart broken. Probably just people that I liked that I got the feeling they didn't like me back, but those memories sortof merge into They get nicely categorized and organized somewhere. I don't really remember who it was or when it was distinctly. I was probably pretty young, though, at the same time you develop crushes, [there are] people who get the feeling they don't dig you back.
KD: Which member of Interpol is the most disgusting on tour?
DK: We're all pretty good! There's no pig element. I would never call anyone in Interpol a pig, and the bus doesn't get too bad. Paul can be a bit of a mess, here and there. He's never that bad though.
KD: I've read that you actually encountered some members of the real Interpol. What was that like?
DK: It was just one time somewhere after a show, got approached; some dude saying that he was in Interpol. We just kindof laughed, and he was like, "No, really." Then as quickly as he said it he was gone. This was during a festival in Europe, so it was very early in the day. It was a rainy day.
KD: What would you do if you magically had a vagina for a day?
DK: I'm gonna have to pass on this question. [laughs] I can't answer that.
KD: Were you at home during the recent blackout?
DK: I was not. I was in Australia, fortunately, or unfortunately. Some people seem to have had a rather good time, but I was not here, so I really can't say.
KD: You've probably stayed in a thousand hotels all over the world, so what's the weirdest thing you ever saw on hotel TV?
DK: Oh, shit. There are definitely plenty of weird things I've seen on hotel TV. I can't remember, though. It's really hard. Unfortunately all the hotels sortof merge into one. God, what's something weird I've seen I can't remember right now. If I think of one before the end of the interview I'll let you know.
KD: Let's say we were going to make a cop movie starring Interpol. Every cop movie has the chief who worries about everything, the buy-the-books cop, the reckless cop, and the comic relief. Which member of Interpol would fill each role?
DK: The comic relief I would give to Eric, who plays keyboards with us live. I would probably be the chief who worries about everything. I'd put Paul and Carlos as the reckless cops; they'd be like siamese twins. Let's not over-glamourize this and say that they're They're not the Mel Gibsons in Lethal Weapon.
KD: The new release is called The Black EP. How much of the band's decision was that to put out?
DK: Truthfully We did this session called The Black Session in France right when [Turn On the Bright Lights] came out. It was sortof an interesting event, where Interpol fans won tickets to watch us recording for radio, for the show, which is very much like the John Peel show. Bernard Lenoir, the guy who does it, has had it for twenty something years. It's half recording for his actual show, and half three hundred people watching you. It's kindof a special event everyone's always raved about it. Our French label really wanted to release those tracks, and wanted to add a few tracks on the record and something else that wasn't widely available, so we added the "NYC" demo version. So it was really their idea they presented to us, and we selected the tracks. They wanted to put something out over the summer as well, so it fit nicely.
KD: When will you start working on a new record?
DK: Well, we have this tour that will run us through basically October. After that we'll take a couple weeks off, and then we'll get crackin' on writing. I don't know when we'll start recording. We're going to keep it loose, but hopefully we'll get the record out before the end of next year.
KD: What would you like to do differently this time?
DK: I don't know. We're not the kind of band who thinks so much about those things. They just sortof happen naturally. Your tendencies shift, but they shift subconsciously. It's a natural progression, y'know, rather than one that you're trying to do. We do this all the time, in all the songs we write. The way we've always written is that the song we're currently writing is always different than the one before, in maybe feel, tempo, structure entirely, and that's just natural to us -- but we never really talk about these things. I think there'll just be natural distinctions. Even in the songs that we have right now, and the songs we haven't even started working on that I've been writing, there's already a natural shift. I like to not think too much about music changing. It just happens, and then we'll look back at it. I think that's the best way of keeping it pure.
KD: You guys have been written about in hundreds of magazines, but have you ever encountered someone on the road that made you feel like a beginner?
DK: Well, we met the Asheton brothers from the Stooges, back before the record had even come out, or actually I think the week it was coming out. They were really nice, and they took the time to talk about music and Detroit, because we were about to go to Detroit at the time. Just talking to those guys, and being fans, that was pretty cool. Obviously they have pedigree behind them.
KD: Was this when they reunited for a few shows?
DK: Yeah, I saw them from really far away at Cochella shortly before we were to go on. It looked amazing, and sounded amazing, as you would think. The time I saw them it was Mike Watt on bass and doing the vocals, the Asheton brothers on guitar and drums, Jay Mascis playing guitar, and it was still pretty damn phenomenal. It was one of the loudest shows I've ever seen. Even within that quartet it was something to watch, and with Iggy on it it was going to be a moment.
KD: Would you like to see you guys kicking around in twenty years?
DK: If we're still doing things that are interesting to us, yeah. I think we really have a good way of looking at things. We just look at it from song to song; because that's the way we looked at it for so long before we put out our record. We really haven't changed our direction. One song at a time, and then we'll take it from there. We don't look at an album right now, we're still at the stage where we're writing songs and playing shows, and it's the right speed for us. So if it's still interesting, yeah. We'll see how it goes.
See Interpol's official website for more info.
VIEW 20 of 20 COMMENTS
still have a wish on that.