15 years after the release of their iconic debut Turn On The Bright Lights, post-punk luminaries Interpol aren’t slowing down. Their latest, Marauder, is an incendiary album that feels desperately urgent – in part due to it being recorded live to tape with minimal overdubs. We spoke to the band’s frontman Paul Banks about recording the album and pushing through nostalgia.
Tone Deaf: Marauder has been out for a couple of months, I’m curious how having a little distance, what your feelings are?
Paul Banks: You spend a lot of time writing and recording an album and then once it’s out, it’s all about the live thing. So I’ve been experiencing the record in that context. I feel really great about it, but I’ve been focusing on the live performances of the songs we’re playing. It’s almost easier for me to comment on a record that’s like ten years old – with Marauder, I’m really excited about what we made but I can’t say it’s changed that much in my mind.
I guess it’s a process that’s difficult to disengage from right away once it’s done.
Paul Banks: It’s like the snapshot of where I left it in the studio, but there were 15 months ahead of that working on it. My experience of the record is the inverse of everyone else’s. It gets released and people can listen to it on repeat, and I have not done that since the release. I haven’t really listened to it.
Watch the clip for ‘If You Really Love Nothing’ by Interpol below
You recorded with Dave Fridmann – in the past you’ve been a little hesitant to bring in outside producers, so I’m curious what that process was like.
Paul Banks: It was really seamless and rewarding for us. I think his way of communicating with us as a band was very simpatico. I think that’s one of his high level talents, because I imagine he’s that way with every artist he works with. With us, it felt like, this guy really understands what we’re doing musically, and also has a great facility with the language of music.
Sometimes it’s difficult to express sonic concepts in words so you just kind of scramble and struggle to describe what you’re looking for. Fridmann seemed to be able to pick up anything you were trying to indicate. So his feedback into our process always felt very succinct and very on point
There’s a real immediacy and liveness on the record. Was that something that came through for you to?
Paul Banks: Yeah, I think that was the concept going into this record; keep it minimal. I think he heard our demos and kind of thought, okay, you guys are playing these songs in rehearsals at a level where we could go to tape and expect no fuck-ups, and no need for overdubs if we get the right take. That was when he suggested we record direct to two-inch. You get into this world of, like, this is committal, so let’s get it right.
When you’re working in Pro Tools you could just punch every bar if you want, but you can’t do that if you’re recording as a group to tape. Personally I wanted what we were accomplishing in rehearsals to be really faithfully reproduced, I wasn’t looking to get a lot of layers going. We intentionally kept the keyboards to a minimum. As a group, we were all of the mind of making a stripped down, raucous, rock record.
The lyrics on this album are a bit less oblique than in past Interpol records, but there’s still a lot of narrative elements, you take on characters or different perspectives. I’m curious whether you have an idea about whether a set of lyrics is going to come from a personal standpoint or a more detached point of view going in?
Paul Banks: I don’t really have any kind of value distinction between the two things. Putting an honest first person eye in front of something doesn’t make it any more about the human experience to me. You know what I mean? You can say a lot when you’re projecting those things onto a character. You’re utterly free. So honesty in that sense is almost like a limitation.
Watch the video for ‘The Rover’ by Interpol below
Last year you did the 15th anniversary tour for Turn On The Bright Lights, I’m curious what it’s like playing those songs in a different context?
Paul Banks: It was unique to play all of them, and in sequence. It felt like a celebration of that work that, to me, artistically and creatively, is still very enjoyable to play. None of that material makes me wince, I just enjoy it. It just felt like a celebration and a way to vibe with our fans, the timing was really nice. To reconnect in the live arena leading into a new album just felt good.
The time that album was made means there’s a level of nostalgic and romanticism that I feel like can be potentially constraining. I’m curious how you reconcile that nostalgia with being an artist who is still making art and pushing forward?
Paul Banks: For me, there’s not much need to reconcile. Because of the timing, we were deep into writing this new record when we went on that tour. It wasn’t like, we now have nothing to offer moving forward so let’s look back. We’re a band that’s still very active and we feel very active, and therefore it’s okay to look back and not have to reconcile that sense of “fuck, where’s the future?” because we already had one foot in what the next step for the band was going to be.
You’re playing at the Opera House in Sydney which is obviously a fairly iconic space.
Paul Banks: I’m kind of hung up on architecture and I feel like to be in such an iconic space… I think it really fucking matters. It’s wonderful when you get to play in a historic space like that. I can’t think of many that compare. To be inside a structure that’s not just iconic by name but also a real landmark architecturally, it’s great. I’m stoked, we’re all stoked.
Interpol play Sydney Opera House on Saturday, January 5. Marauder is out now.
