| UNE ENTREVUE AVEC PAUL D'INTERPOL. Bristol Louisiana 17.10.02 Under a sweaty curtain of dirty blonde hair, front man Paul Banks places a cigarette in his mouth and lights up. All around him ‘PDA’ clatters and swells like a hurricane in a sea port, his ship buoyed by the rhythmic pounding made by his band mates. Calm and detached he returns to his guitar, flicks his hair to the side and adds his noise to the storm. Rewind to a few hours before the gig and we're being lead into the poshest backstage room Transdis has ever seen. There’s actual sofas, with velvet cushions no less. And a rubber plant. Very tasteful. But strangely enough Paul doesnt look out of place, seeing as he's dressed like he should be attending lectures in 1950’s Oxford. Hey ho lets go... The axe wielding granny incident at the Libertines’ place – did that really happen or did NME make it up? yeah but it was a hammer, it wasn’t an axe, um, they did lie. Other than the fact that it was a hammer, and not an axe, it didn’t even overstate anything. When we walked out of the apartment she was sitting on her stoop, mumbling to herself. I think she was crying, then she just started shouting incoherently. Then she eventually said “I’ll bash your fucking skulls in”, and we were like “woah, OK” and then she just walks inside and comes out with a fuckin hammer. What the hell did you do to upset her?? Well it was half six in the morning, and they had a balcony off the back, and I remember thinking fuck this neighborhood must be deserted cause there’s houses all around and here we are and there’s music playing and what not, and I’d supposed they (the Libertines) would let us know if we shouldn’t be out here talking, because they probably know how the neighbors are because the sound does carry. I was conscious of the fact that it was really early in the morning and we were all out on the balcony but apparently they’ve had run ins with this woman before – its not even the fact that they’re bothering her its just that she’s crazy. The only thing I think is strange about that is that we’re not friends with the Libertines, I’ve met them, like, twice. Those two occasions were on that very evening, so they’re not buddies of ours. I think it’s kind of funny we were put in the NME because of some other band. Silent Chris: What do you think of their music? The first time I saw them live they played with Ikara colt and British Sea Power. And by the time they came on I’d been really stoned through Ikara colt – I’d been blown away by how good they were and I think I’d had my fill at that point, so I didn’t have so much attention. I’d heard ‘What A Waster’ and I’d thought it was OK, but that new single, I was out at a club the other night and the song came on, and I’d asked somebody who it was and I was really surprised it was them. I like that song. There’s quite a bit of hype surrounding Interpol, does this make you nervous? No, not at all. We’ve been a band since 98, we we’re trying really hard for a long time and I think things went in a sort of natural progression. Basically we went through a long process before we got to this – like we’re not one of these bands that form and then six months later we’re on the cover of the NME we’ve been doing it a long time and I think the longer you’ve done something the more thick skinned you get. I’m wary about hype because I know there’s always backlash and I people are really skeptical at the moment, that people are only listening to bands from New York because they’re from New York – post Strokes-hype. So I’m a little bit wary of people dismissing us as just a hype phenomenon, but at the same time it’s all very clear in our heads that long before New York City was big we’ve been playing the same music and doing the same thing. We’re not new to ourselves – we might be new to other people. Do you think in future the band’s sound will change? Yeah, well we don’t consciously work on changing our sound, all of our songs just wind up being what everyone in the band is comfortable with and what everyone likes to play – that’s the only criteria. But I think every song we did is a little bit of an evolution from the last one. So definitely the sound will change, yeah. Where did the idea for the PDA video come from? From the director It was all his idea? Well actually I talked to him a lot about it ‘cause I really liked the treatment, and when I met him in person I said to him there’s a lot of it that reminds me of ‘1984’. And he said “oh my god yeah I was watching 1984 when I wrote the treatment”. So then we started talking about accentuating the element of 1984 and then having me as a Big Brother figure. We discussed we should have a feminine presence in the video because the song has to do with a relationship. The way it looks – that’s entirely his vision – we had no say in how it looked. He said he was gonna do still photography and then animate it and we thought yeah that’s cool. Do you feel a kinship with other NY bands? I feel a kinship because I think it’s exciting what’s happening to New York. Some guys in the band have been friends for a long time with people from other bands. Like, Nick from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs has been friends with Carlos and Sam for years. But beyond that – no – its not like every band knows each other and hangs out or anything. I’ve since met the Liars, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and one of the Strokes, and they’re all cool, but I don’t necessarily feel like we all hang out and talk about music, nor did we ever do that. Are there any contemporary bands that you, um, like? Sorry, that’s a shit question… No, no it’s not, I like Ikara colt, as I’ve said, a LOT. I like them for the same reasons I’ve always liked Trans Am a lot. I really like the Liars for similar reasons – a rhythm section that kicks your ass. I mean I also like hip hop, but within rock. I like Goldfrapp. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Did you have any music idols as a teenager? Kurt Cobain, and then John Frusciante was a big idol. He did solo records, and they’re really fucked up and experimental. And then I was really into the Pixies and Frank Black’s solo stuff, Bob Mould’s project with Sugar. But the big one was when Nirvana was happening when I was, like, 14 years old. I still think they were a fucking great band. Is there anyone you’d collaborate with? I would yeah sure, but I’m not really cut out to be a collaborator. I didn’t actually want to be in a band when I joined Interpol because I didn’t think I’d be able to work with other people. I was just doing my own thing, and that’s what I was intending to do. So it want easy for Interpol to exist, it was really hard the fact that we all had to write because all of us have a lot of creative output, and could essentially compose for a whole band. To get to that point where none of us feel like we’re being overshadowed by other members of the band, or no egos are clashing – it took a long time to get that balance between us – so that everyone felt that they were creatively doing enough and that the sound worked. It’s a very difficult thing to achieve if there’s so many people in the band that write music and I don’t know if I’d be able to find that again. Do you think band image is important? I think everyone and everything has image, so in that sense it is important. Its not just that they were around that you’re wearing Converse All Stars (Transdis gets a little offended). I just think everything has a presentation so you’re either oblivious to the fact that you can control it, or you decided that there has to be a visual to everything, and I just feel that if there is a presence you might as well care about it. How important is image to Interpol? Its not important to our band, it’s just important to us as individuals I think. How do you feel about bands appearing in fashion magazines like The Face? That’s fine, it’s cool. That doesn’t aggravate me or anything at all, I think it’s good publicity for a lot of bands. Most fashion is unimaginative – I think any way that people can be encouraged to be imaginative is a good thing. If there’s photos of people wearing really weird shit – that’s a good thing. Were you inspired by other media, films or books? Probably more films, books yeah, deep down books definitely. What films? I really like Lynch, Nicolas Roeg, Cronenberg, Fellini, Roman Polanski, I love fucking Roman Polanski, Kubrick. All of us are big, big film fans. Film is our love. And Books, I’ve always read a lot, and I think deep down the point of reading is to get your brain going a little bit, and I think that probably comes through in music sometimes. What drug would best accompany Interpol? Probably Ecstasy. But I don’t really like it – or do it. That would probably be the best one. Are you lovers or fighters? Both. You’re doing a lot of European dates, so what’s your favorite country to play in? We haven’t been to Germany yet, so I don’t know what to think about that, but I dunno, England and France probably so far, but we haven’t toured that extensively yet so I don’t have that much of a sense of it. What marks you out from being just another bands in the rack? I was thinking about something related to that question last night. Everyone doesn’t really understand the notion of originality. Just because you have strange instrumentation, or you’re fusing electronica with rock or whatever, it might be an original idea, but that doesn’t mean the songs are good. I don’t think it’s really compulsory to do something new within music. Even if you play your songs with a fucking power saw and a bunch of glasses with water in, it’s still music. So basically the main criterior is: are the songs good? so I think that’s what we do – we write good songs. interview: Rachel, with some help from Silent Chris. Thanks to Paul and Interpol, Stevie, Lucy at Matador, and Hannah, Libbets25 and Binaryboy for their questions. |
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