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Interpol
Background information
Origin	New York, New York, USA
Genre(s)	Indie rock Post-punk revival
Years active	1997–present
Label(s)	Capitol Records Parlophone Records EMI Music Group(Japan) Matador Records
Website	www.interpolnyc.com
Members
Paul Banks Daniel Kessler Carlos Dengler Sam Fogarino
Former members
Greg Drudy

Interpol are an American band formed in 1997 in New York City.

The band's line-up is Paul Banks (vocals, guitar), Daniel Kessler (guitar, vocals), Carlos Dengler (bass guitar, keyboards - commonly referred to as Carlos D) and Sam Fogarino (drums, percussion).

Interpol's debut album Turn on the Bright Lights (2002) was critically acclaimed, making it to tenth position on the NME's list of top albums in 2002^[1] as well as #1 on Pitchfork Media's Top 50 Albums of 2002.^[2] Subsequent records Antics (2004) and Our Love to Admire (2007) have confirmed the band's initial success and turned them into a commercial and critical success^{[citation needed]}.

Interpol is one of the bands associated with the New York indie music scene, being one of several groups that emerged out of the post-punk revival of the 2000s. The band's sound is generally a mix of bass throb and choppy, sparse guitar, with a snare heavy mix, drawing comparisons to post-punk bands such as Joy Division and The Chameleons.^[3]

Aside from the lyrics, their songwriting method includes all of the band members, rather than relying on any given chief songwriter.^[4]

Contents 1 Name origin 2 Formation 3 Career 3.1 Demos (1998-2001) 3.2 Turn On the Bright Lights 3.3 Antics 3.4 Our Love to Admire 3.5 Future Plans 4 Discography 4.1 Albums 4.2 EPs 4.3 Singles 4.4 Compilation tracks 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Name origin

There is confusion about the origin of the name Interpol. An article in SPIN magazine said one of Paul Banks' classmates would tease him by saying “Paul, Paul, Interpol,” pronouncing the name "Paul" with a Spanish accent.

"I got to the point where I was like, ‘Guys, we’re getting decent crowds, but like ... we don’t have a name, so no one knows who to go see again,’” Kessler said.^[5]

The band considered Las Armas^[5] and The French Letters as names before adopting Interpol.

In a recent interview, Paul Banks has stated the band is named Interpol because of the idea of the band being an impersonal, mysterious organization, similar to the International Criminal Police Organization which shares the same name. Principally however, he says it's because the name 'sounds cool.'

[edit] Formation

The roots of the band stem from New York University, where all of the original line-up were students. Guitarist Daniel Kessler had “been looking to put a band together for a while” when he met drummer Greg Drudy. Kessler "had a very hard time finding musicians to play with -- musicians at all, really."^[5] Soon thereafter, the band added Carlos Dengler on bass, after Kessler met him in history class. Kessler had previously met Paul Banks while in Paris, and approached him to become lead singer when he ran into him on the street. In 2000, after releasing the Fukd I.D. #3 EP, Greg Drudy left the band, and Kessler recruited Sam Fogarino, whom he knew through Fogarino’s job at a local vintage clothing store. Like many bands to emerge at the time in New York, the group often wore bespoke designs tailored for them by New York-based fashion designer Craig Robinson.

[edit] Career

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[edit] Demos (1998-2001)

After self-releasing several EPs between 1998 - 2001, the band signed to indie label Matador, an independent label famous for breaking highly respected bands such as Pavement, in early 2002. The first release, a self-titled EP containing re-recorded versions of "PDA" and "NYC" — possibly to incorporate Fogarino’s distinctive drumming, as Greg Drudy had left the band shortly after the release of Fukd ID #3 — was released on June 4, 2002 to widespread critical acclaim in the indie music scene.

[edit] Turn On the Bright Lights

Turn On the Bright Lights was released on August 19, 2002, again on Matador, and is widely considered one of the best albums of that year, making it into many 'Top 10 of 2002' lists and being named Pitchfork Media's "Album of the Year." Recorded at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the record sold exceptionally well for an independent release, and the band toured extensively, receiving a good deal of media coverage, making television appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman, Last Call with Carson Daly and featuring on BBC Radio 1 and the NME Awards Tour in the UK. The album title is taken from a lyric in the song "NYC": "it's up to me now / turn on the bright lights." Their song "Untitled" was featured in the TV show Friends, where it marked the end of season nine.

[edit] Antics

The band regrouped in late 2003 to begin sessions for the follow-up album, again decamping to Tarquin Studios to record. On September 28, 2004, Antics was released on Matador. The album achieved far greater commercial success than Turn on the Bright Lights, perhaps due to the lighter, more accessible arrangements and bigger hooks featured in songs such as "Slow Hands", "Evil" and "C'mere". The record garnered much critical acclaim and was once more a popular choice on critics' Top 10 lists for 2004. The record also saw Interpol record their first UK Top 40 hits with "Slow Hands", "Evil", and "C'Mere" charting at 36, 18 and 19 respectively. The album's title comes from an unused lyric Banks wrote during the recording process. The album was eventually certified as going gold in the UK.

Interpol toured once again after the release of the album, playing more dates than ever before and at bigger venues. The Antics tour stretched on for almost 18 months, including a number of shows playing as undercards for U2 and The Cure, and the band reported feelings of exhaustion to Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe at a concert in Sunderland. The band took only three months off after touring finished. Whilst on the road, the band had also released the one-off track Direction, written for the official soundtrack to HBO's Six Feet Under, Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends. The track was written during soundchecks on the band's European tour, and was recorded the day after they returned to New York. Their song "Evil" was featured in season one, episode five of the hit show Grey's Anatomy.

[edit] Our Love to Admire

In late March 2006, drummer Sam Fogarino confirmed that the band were back in the studio working on new material. In an interview with Pitchfork, Fogarino stated "[the process is] moving right along where I think it should...we're all pretty much on fire about it". Fogarino also dispelled rumours that the band had signed to major label Interscope, but also confirmed that they would be leaving Matador in search of a new label. An update to their website in June confirmed that the band had been working on the follow-up since the turn of the year, but did not confirm a name for the album or comment on the mounting speculation that they were imminently to sign to a major label. On August 14, it was widely reported that Interpol had signed for Capitol Records, a fact confirmed by Matador on September 1 in a press release on their website.

The band toured Europe, Canada and the US playing small venues and experimenting with new material. The album was released on July 10, and secured an impressive #4 debut on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.

Our Love to Admire represents a departure for the band, being both the first record they have recorded in New York City (at The Magic Shop and Electric Lady Studios), and the first time they have included keyboards in the arrangements from the start of the songwriting process. As a result, the album is more atmospheric and diverse than its predecessors, with fewer tracks in a similar vein to "Slow Hands" and "Evil", and some experimental songs such as "The Lighthouse". The band plans to tour the album extensively, beginning with the summer festival circuit throughout the United States and Europe. In August 2007 Interpol headlined one of the days of the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. Our Love to Admire was released in the UK on July 9th on Parlophone, on July 10th in the United States on Capitol, and in Japan on July 11 on EMI Music Japan.

EMI also released a special tour edition of Our Love To Admire^[6]. This special version features a bonus DVD which contains six live tracks, recorded at the London Astoria in 2007, plus the promo videos for "The Heinrich Maneuver" and "No I In Threesome".

[edit] Future Plans

On March 6, 2009, Interpol announced on their website that they were working on new songs for a fourth album.^[7]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• Turn on the Bright Lights (August 19, 2002) #158 (US) #101 (UK)
• Antics (September 27, 2004) #15 (US) #21 (UK) #47 (GER)
• Our Love to Admire (July 6, 2007) #4 (US) #2 (UK) #16 (GER) #1 (IRE)

[edit] EPs

• Demo Tape (1998, self-released)
• Fukd ID #3 (December 11, 2000, Chemikal Underground)
• Precipitate EP (January 1, 2001, self-released)
• Interpol EP (June 4, 2002, Matador)
• The Black EP (August 26, 2003, EMI)
• Interpol Remix EP (November 22, 2005, Matador)
• Interpol: Live in Astoria EP (November 27, 2007, Capitol)

[edit] Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions			Album
		US Bubbling Under Hot 100	US Mod. Rock	UK
2002	"PDA / NYC / Specialist"	-	-	170	Interpol EP
	"Obstacle 1"	-	-	72	Turn on the Bright Lights
2003	"Say Hello to the Angels"/"NYC"	-	-	65
	"Obstacle 1" (re-mix)	-	-	41
2004	"Slow Hands"	-	15	36	Antics
2005	"Evil"	-	24	18
	"C'mere"	-	-	19
	"NARC"	-	-	-	radio-single only
2007	"The Heinrich Maneuver"	18	11	22	Our Love to Admire
	"Mammoth"	-	-	44
	"No I in Threesome"	-	-	-

[edit] Compilation tracks

• "A Time to Be So Small" on This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation (2001, Arena Rock Recording Co.)
• "NYC" in Yes New York (2002, Vice Records)
• "Specialist" on Music from the OC: Mix 2 (2004, Warner Bros.)
• "Direction" on Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends (2005)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Interpol at MySpace
• Interpol Concert Chronology
• Interpol at Allmusic
• Interpol at Discogs
• Interpol at Last.fm
• Interpol discography at MusicBrainz
• Review of Interpol's London Show | July, 2008 at Alexandra Palace
• french message board
• brazillian message board

v • d • e Interpol Paul Banks · Daniel Kessler · Carlos Dengler · Sam Fogarino Greg Drudy Albums Turn on the Bright Lights · Antics · Our Love to Admire Extended plays Demo Tape · Fukd ID #3 · Precipitate EP · Interpol EP · The Black EP · Interpol Remix EP · Live in Astoria EP Singles "PDA" · "Obstacle 1" · "Say Hello to the Angels"/"NYC" · "Slow Hands" · "Evil" · "C'mere" · "Narc" · "The Heinrich Maneuver" · "Mammoth" · "No I in Threesome"