Bowery boys’ club

>> NYC’s Interpol play with sparks in the dark

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

All at once, the frothier mouths of the world’s music media have christened Interpol the latest gloom-rock spawn of Joy Division and the Cure, the latest blow-out New York City band to turn back the clock to the ’80s, and the latest new-wave fancy lads, suited and booted for your pleasure. With their debut disc Turn on the Bright Lights, produced by Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Clinic), the quartet both fuels and refutes all these claims, as did guitarist Daniel Kessler in conversation with the Mirror.

Mirror: Nearly every Interpol article repeats the same influences, but what were the first bands to really grab your attention?
Daniel Kessler: I was born in England and my brother was in the Jam’s fan club, that’s my earliest musical memory. The Clash, they’re still one of my favourite bands, the Smiths too. When I moved to Washington, DC, I got into bands like Soul Side, Dag Nasty, Minor Threat and Fugazi, so some of the post-punk elements that people like to attribute to us actually come from post-post-punk bands. We share common ground with atmospheric early ’80s bands, but they’re not necessarily direct influences. We just need a certain sense of depth and mood and emotion. I can’t write a song thinking, “Oh, this sounds jolly, I’ll keep it,” or, “This is kinda gratuitous, but hey, it’s pretty cool.”

M: How does Interpol factor into the current New York scene?
DK: There wasn’t much happening when we started in ’98. It was almost novel to be a New York City rock band, and now they’re all playing the Bowery Ballroom, which has a capacity of about 650. Back in the day, you’d be lucky if you could pack the Mercury Lounge, a 200-250-size club. I’m very happy to be included in this roster of bands ’cause they all have a great live reputation that they worked hard for, but I’m also happy we’ve had some years to mature and get comfortable with what we do. As much as our world is changing right now, our focus is very much the same. Everything else is sort of secondary.

Passion in fashion
M: So what’s with the suits?
DK: Well, it’s not something we’ve really discussed, it’s just our ideal way of dressing. In a way, it reinforces why we’re together. Sam, our drummer, was the last member to join the band, in 2000. He hadn’t seen us play and we never told him what we wore on stage, but when he showed up for his first show, he fit in perfectly. It was like a testament to the fact that he was the right person for the job. We all have this individual style—we actually do dress differently from one another, it just happens that we all wear ties and such—and when you couple that with being in a band, people assume it’s an image thing. I’m not saying there’s no connection, otherwise why would we always wear suits on stage, but we’d probably dress the same way even if we weren’t in a band.

M: So you’d all be in suits as, let’s say, telemarketers?
DK: Yeah, honestly, we would.

M: Do the suits ever inspire negative reactions, like Menswear comparisons?
DK: It’s funny you say that. The other night we played Manchester and somebody yelled, “Menswear!” So I went up to the mic and said, “Menswear?” I don’t know, I think there’s a depth to our music that’s probably not consistent with theirs.

M: How did it go over there, otherwise?
DK: All the U.K. shows were really well attended, we had a blast. We sold out London, we played Reading, then we played a big festival in Belgium where Guns N’ Roses played.

M: Did you meet them?
DK: I did not, but they were pretty funny. Our dressing room was next to theirs, and of course they didn’t show up until really late, but they sealed off the entire section, barring the other artists from using the toilets until Axl got on stage. Then they told us, “Axl is now on stage,” and pulled back the curtain to let us back to our dressing rooms. It was the most stereotypical, rock ’n’ roll thing, it was so funny.

M: Have you had any trouble with Interpol, the international police organization?
DK: Uh, I wanna steer clear of that, you’re making me nervous. No, no real problems so far. We’ve unfortunately gotten a few e-mails meant for the real Interpol, and sometimes they’re pretty out-there requests for help. We wrote back saying, “We’re just a musical group, we can only help you so much.” :

With Howie Beck and Moufette at the Jupiter Room on Sunday, Sept. 29, 9pm, $11.50

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