Interview: Daniel Kessler of Interpol
By Maya Marin
Noisetap Editor
Earlier this year, New York rockers Interpol released their highly anticipated third album
Our Love to Admire (their first with Capitol Records) and are currently on tour. What does lead guitarist Daniel Kessler have to say about recording the new album, playing larger venues and the future of the band? Read on to find out.
In a recent interview Paul (Banks, lead vocals and guitar) says that there was a lot of pressure on the band when recording Antics to measure up to the huge success of Bright Lights – but somehow you were able to release yourselves from that same pressure when recording Our Love? Does he speak for the entire band when he says this? For me, I don’t think we actually had pressure to…I didn’t feel pressure, I should say, for any of these records. I feel like we were pretty prepared when we were making
Antics, personally, because we never really stopped writing from when we were making Bright Lights ‘cause we were very conscious of the fact that we were about to start touring and we knew our writing was about to change and be challenged by touring and doing interviews and attention. Then we kind of started writing really very quickly so we basically never put down the writing pen and that essentially just kind of helped us remember why we were doing this in the first place. So I didn’t really feel any pressure with
Antics as much as…well there’s always a certain amount of pressure when making an album, not so much from worrying about it being good or people liking it, but more from the fact that it takes a lot of work to make something come out the way you want it to and things can get lost, very much, in the mix and in the recording studio. There’s always that pressure to make sure that it comes out right, something that you can basically own up to the world but I didn’t feel pressure per se as far as success or expectations from others.
You released Antics very quickly after your last major tour which gave you very little time to record that album, but you had a lot more time with Our Love. How did taking more time change or affect the recording process?I would say that it changed the recording process in the sense that…I mean we worked with someone else, Rich Costey, rather than producing it ourselves. We were producing with someone else and so this changes when you’re…having a dialogue with someone else and trying to create the best sound possible. It’s not really the time. I think the time…for us…for some reason sometimes we just take a long time. I don’t know what it is. We were pretty prepared for this record as we were for all our records. We don’t walk into a recording studio until all our songs have an identity and sort of, you know, we can play the songs. We’ve essentially rehearsed them, we write them in a rehearsal space and we know they’re ready to record when we can really feel them…and it’s up to you to make sure those moments come alive in the recording and that sometimes takes time. And I don’t know why this record took more time but it wasn’t due to difficulty or complications. Maybe there was just more to it. People took a little time off in between. Who knows why.
Which of your albums do you, personally, feel the most connected with and why?Oh, they’re all my children (laughs).
And you love them all equally.(laughs) I think artistically, you should always be the most connected to the last thing you did or what you’re doing right now so for me, (
Our Love to Admire) is what I most identify with because that’s me now. And I think the next thing I do will probably be the next thing that I’m most connected with. That said, I never want us to be one of those bands that are sort of like “yeah we were trying to do this” or “I don’t know why we did that.” To me, these are all moments of expression and I enjoy playing all these songs and when I listen to all these records I don’t cringe…They’re moments in time and moments that I always stand behind, but you’ve always got to keep moving forward, and the last thing we did is the closest to where we’re at now.
You’ve definitely been a major influence on today’s music scene, as there weren’t a whole lot of bands out there with your sound when you first started--unlike now when bands are even being labeled as Interpol imitators. What was the band’s reaction to this movement that you helped create?(laughs) Probably
that (referring to the laugh)…I don’t know, we don’t really think on those terms. It’s kind of funny when you go away for a few years and you come back. I think more so now than ever we really don’t pay attention to what people are doing in other bands. And probably as a collective decision I think we’re just…you get so busy that when you’re just not doing band stuff you just fall into (other) things that interest you. It just happens. And we collectively don’t read music magazines to find out what’s the latest and who’s the newest and we don’t do that. And I’m happy that we don’t do that because it’s just not that interesting so if there are bands that you come across that you like as a fan then…I still like, I buy records all the time, I’m still into it but don’t look at what the other guys are doing unless I’m already a fan and it’s flattering to think that possibly people might like us enough to be influenced by us, but I haven’t really taken notice. But as I said, you go away for a few years then you come back and you start getting questions about influencing other bands that sound like you. It’s not like I’ve noticed that because I’m in a bubble. I don’t listen to the radio and I don’t have TV and I don’t go reading up on the newest thing. So I like being in my bubble I guess you could say.
So in your bubble, who are you listening to right now?Umm…In my bubble I am listening to Liars because we just toured with them, I love them, they’re a great band. And just a bunch of thing that are a little bit different. A lot of electronic music. Yeah. Not so many rock bands. I like the new Spoon record and the Blonde Redhead record too.
Oh yeah, you’re touring with Blonde Redhead soon.Yes, exactly, we’re really excited to tour with them. They’re good friends of ours.
So you’ve now moved from the clubs to playing some pretty large venues. Has that affected the way you approach performing?No. Well, I mean, a bigger stage is a bigger stage so it’s going to affect our movements, but ultimately it doesn’t. In my opinion, a special show is a special show and it could be in the biggest room in the world or the smallest one. So it doesn’t really affect it. So, surprisingly, the bigger stages, as much as it affects the intimacy, I don’t think it necessarily loses it. It just changes it, for me at least. Maybe to a concert goer it’s a bit different, but to me, I like it. I still think there’s room to connect with everyone who comes to the shows as a general mass of people moving with what you’re doing and you can kind of really feel the energy when it’s roaring in a big room.
Do you think the fact that you’re playing larger spaces might actually affect the band’s songwriting or maybe the production? Well, yeah, I think. We just played Madison Square Garden, we just played the Forum in L.A. Those are big venues and you can’t come in with the same lights and stuff like that, you do have to bring in more production. It doesn’t mean that you’re gonna all of a sudden have fire shooting out of the ground or a little Stonehenge moment…you’re gonna do whatever in that environment feels comfortable to you and it just happens that we’re very associated with lights, and have always been since we got a lighting person. You know, it’s part of our music and the person we work with is really the only lighting person we have and…we’ve worked with someone else in between, but he’s the first person we’ve had. And the lights really move in conjunction with the changes in the song and that’s kind of something that I would always like to be there and so if you’re playing a bigger venue, the lights should be a little bit bigger, but ultimately it should be the same principle.
Describe your most memorable on-stage moment.That’s a tough one, you know. Coachella’s very memorable because it was our first show in the U.S. in over two years and it was a memorable one. There was like 50,000 people there and I didn’t know what it was gonna be like and how I was gonna feel. I can’t really say, though, because I’ve had a lot of very memorable experiences. Playing Madison Square Garden in my home town…The Forum was special and Mexico City, that’s always special, that’s always one of my favorite places to play….there’s a lot. One day I’ll sit back and I’ll kind of look back, but right now it’s harder for me to do that. I keep looking forward.
Yeah, I see. You know, a lot of artists mention Coachella.Well for us we were away for so long so there was a lot of expectation and anticipation. But it was great. A really wonderful experience.
I can imagine, after a hiatus.A hiatus, yeah. It was a big first show to have.
So, looking to the future, are you interested in doing any collaborative work with any of the artists or bands you admire? If so, who would you like to work with?As a band or as an individual?
Both.For me, it’s hard to say. As a band, I think we’d be very interested in working with multimedia, specifically with film. It’s something we’ve always wanted to do.
Yes, and I know that Carlos (Dengler, bass) has been working with film. Yes, that’s definitely an aspiration of his, but as a collective, I think we’ll want to do something. But individually, the songs usually originate with me. In fact they all pretty much originate with me so like, for me, I get my kicks by just starting them off. I really like writing songs. That’s my favorite thing to do, and ultimately we grow them into Interpol songs together. And I really get a lot of satisfaction from that…but ultimately down the line I’d like to work with some other people. I’ll talk to friends in bands that I like in time, but for right now, all my energy is focused on Interpol and these are the people I want to be working with as far as collaboration.
