Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Evening listeners, It's been a while since I've said this,
Speaker 2: but welcome to a new episode of Midnight Chats. It
Speaker 2: feels good to be back. We went away for a
Speaker 2: little while, had a summer holiday, a few pinicoladas, a
Speaker 2: little lie down, got carried away with the Football World
Speaker 2: Cup and the heat wave. But now it's back to
Speaker 2: business and probably a good time to do a little recap.
Speaker 2: Maybe you've been with us since the start of this
Speaker 2: podcast just over two years ago, or maybe you're listening
Speaker 2: for the very first time. I'm Greg from Loud and
Speaker 2: Quiet and I host these intern with Stuart Stubbs, and
Speaker 2: Midnight Chats is our interview podcast series. The idea being
Speaker 2: that these conversations have a relaxed late night feel to them,
Speaker 2: maybe not as rushed or as formal as stuff you
Speaker 2: might hear elsewhere. And they're done with musicians who make
Speaker 2: our job worthwhile, which is to say that they're people
Speaker 2: who we think are interesting, people who we think have
Speaker 2: something to say. Anyway, we've used this little bit of
Speaker 2: time off that we've had to make some tweaks, which
Speaker 2: hopefully you'll like. The big one is we're going to
Speaker 2: do more. Instead of every fortnight, there will be a
Speaker 2: new Midnight Chats every week every Thursday, dropping at midnight.
Speaker 2: We're also going to be doing these in series, so
Speaker 2: we're starting now and this series will run up until
Speaker 2: Christmas time. And as ever, if you like what you hear,
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Speaker 2: helps in people discovering our podcast. Before I introduce tonight's guest,
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Speaker 2: let's get on with this. I am pleased to kick
Speaker 2: off this new series of midnight Chats with what I
Speaker 2: think is a really good episode. At the end of
Speaker 2: June I went to meet Daniel Kesler from Interpol. He
Speaker 2: was in London for a huge show they were playing
Speaker 2: with The Cure at Hyde Park. It was in the
Speaker 2: middle of both England's unlikely run to the semi final
Speaker 2: of the Football World Cup and also a British summer
Speaker 2: heat wave. So despite the fact that it was thirty
Speaker 2: three degrees, I think that day Daniel walked into our
Speaker 2: chat wearing an impeccable black suit, great hair, looked brilliant.
Speaker 2: Eye on the other hand, looked like a sweaty tomato.
Speaker 2: But we had a really good conversation. There was a
Speaker 2: lot to talk about, not least that interpol sixth album,
Speaker 2: Marauder was on the horizon and that's out now if
Speaker 2: you want to listen to that. This year marks twenty
Speaker 2: years since the New York band played their first show,
Speaker 2: and we talked a bit about those early days in
Speaker 2: what You're about to Hear. Their first trip to the
Speaker 2: UK recording a live session for the legendary John Peel
Speaker 2: at made Vel Studios right through to their decision to
Speaker 2: mark the fifteenth anniversary of Turn On the Bright Lights
Speaker 2: last year by playing that album in full at a
Speaker 2: bunch of shows. But it wasn't all reminiscent to me
Speaker 2: at least. Order feels very urgent, like a band who
Speaker 2: are basically determined not to drift into a permanent state
Speaker 2: of nostalgia. And you can hear that in the way
Speaker 2: that Daniel talks about it, and also how you can
Speaker 2: tell that he's absolutely thrilled that whilst they were rehearsing
Speaker 2: at the Yaya Years Space in New York for this record,
Speaker 2: it got shut down by police for noise complaints, and
Speaker 2: you can sort of hear that excitement that he had
Speaker 2: as if he was starting the band for the very
Speaker 2: first time in the story when he tells that. Anyway,
Speaker 2: loads of other stuff in there. It's great to be back.
Speaker 2: We're really looking forward to bringing you some brilliant episodes
Speaker 2: throughout the autumn here on Midnight Chats. So i'll leave
Speaker 2: you with this. This is Interpol episode fifty one of
Speaker 2: Midnight Chats. It's great to be back. Daniel, Welcome to
Speaker 2: our podcast Midnight Chats.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: How are things are you well today?
Speaker 3: Good can't complain.
Speaker 2: Obviously Interpol famously known as a New York based band.
Speaker 2: But you were born in London, right, so you're back
Speaker 2: in the place where you were born.
Speaker 4: I was born here, yeah, soy true. Yeah, so maybe
Speaker 4: a little family here and stuff like that. So it's
Speaker 4: always nice.
Speaker 3: To come back.
Speaker 2: I've been gone a long time though, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4: I moved when I was six, and it's why I
Speaker 4: lost the America hands, why I lost my British accent
Speaker 4: and gained an American one.
Speaker 2: Do you still feel an affinity to London? What it mean?
Speaker 2: Is it? Does it just feel like any other city
Speaker 2: when you visit, or is it something a bit more
Speaker 2: special than that?
Speaker 4: Still, No, it's much more special. It's my earliest memories
Speaker 4: in life. It's you know, it's earliest memories of family.
Speaker 4: I remember, you know, many aspects about London. You know,
Speaker 4: I was like a kid. I mean, six is still
Speaker 4: old enough that you're really you know, you're forming some
Speaker 4: of some cherish all kind of first memories. But no,
Speaker 4: you know, it still feels like I don't know if
Speaker 4: anywhere feels like home to me in per se, I
Speaker 4: guess New York.
Speaker 3: But England and London. So definitely feels very much like
Speaker 3: a part of me for sure.
Speaker 2: And when you come back to London, is it a
Speaker 2: chance to catch up that was still very early so
Speaker 2: possibly not with you know, friends from that era, but
Speaker 2: but it's still family based in London things like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have brothers who lives here, so I mean
Speaker 4: I saw them last night and it's a yeah. And
Speaker 4: I have a you know, my godmother lives here and
Speaker 4: my mother was from here or you know, from just
Speaker 4: outside London and so forth. So yeah, for sure, it
Speaker 4: feels somewhat of like a homecoming and you know somewhere
Speaker 4: that's it's not just like an anonymous place.
Speaker 3: It's somewhere of a connection for me.
Speaker 2: And what type of things has London got that you
Speaker 2: particularly appeal to you? You know, you live in a
Speaker 2: big metropolis, busy city similar to London and so many respects.
Speaker 2: But you know, we do, we have good pubs, we
Speaker 2: have we have certain things that maybe other places there.
Speaker 4: Watching the England Belgium match yes Sday and I pub
Speaker 4: so yeah.
Speaker 2: Eight year football soccer fan.
Speaker 3: I am. I'm not I'm not religious.
Speaker 4: I don't have to watch every you know, I don't
Speaker 4: have to watch every single match.
Speaker 3: I don't follow you.
Speaker 4: Know, the the line and every single day and so forth.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I am.
Speaker 4: You know, I played football when I was in high
Speaker 4: school and again my first sporting memories are of football
Speaker 4: and playing my brothers and stuff like that. And if
Speaker 4: I have to root for a team, I was routed
Speaker 4: for England as far as in the World Cup and
Speaker 4: so forth.
Speaker 2: So yeah, terrible game, well notally terrible, al right, yeah,
Speaker 2: oh well I think that. I mean they would say not,
Speaker 2: but it was clear, wasn't it that it was obviously
Speaker 2: being played. The game was not being thrown as such,
Speaker 2: but was certainly tactically placed to move and forward.
Speaker 4: I mean, if they had one, I think people would
Speaker 4: have been more angry than if they had lost.
Speaker 3: Now, ultimately, so yeah, they did, right.
Speaker 2: What was the atmosphere like where you were? Was it?
Speaker 2: Was it busy? Was it kind of fun?
Speaker 3: It was pretty civilized.
Speaker 4: I think everyone was sort of attentively watching the screens
Speaker 4: but also realizing that it's the best interest for them
Speaker 4: to not win, so kind of moaning when they.
Speaker 3: Missed a pretty close shop.
Speaker 4: But I think if you actually went to you know,
Speaker 4: further of investigation, I'm sure they'd be like, well, naturally,
Speaker 4: I don't really want them to score, but yeah, I
Speaker 4: guess was a desired result in.
Speaker 3: The end, losing one.
Speaker 2: Now it gets to this point in the year where
Speaker 2: festivals are happening, in big live music events and all
Speaker 2: of the well sporting competition so like the World Cup.
Speaker 2: And I've over the years so many times found myself
Speaker 2: being at a festival and they're being like England would
Speaker 2: be playing, and you're kind of like torn and you're like, well,
Speaker 2: I want to watch that, but I want to watch
Speaker 2: this band. From a band's perspective, Is there any Are
Speaker 2: there any sports anything that you're into where if like
Speaker 2: a clash comes up and you'll be like, I really
Speaker 2: really wanted to watch that. Is that happened over the
Speaker 2: years at any.
Speaker 4: Point It hasn't. It's more more of a curiosity, you know.
Speaker 4: I think it's more of a curiosity than anything. I
Speaker 4: think when the polls are really big, my band mate
Speaker 4: polls are really big. Boxing of Ficionado, and when Mayweather
Speaker 4: was last summer and there was the big fight Mayweather
Speaker 4: Connor McGregor.
Speaker 3: And the guy from UF Yeah, yeah, I pol is.
Speaker 4: Definitely and we were on tour and we're swinging around Europe,
Speaker 4: and I think it had to be sort of He
Speaker 4: definitely started planning that one on how to be at
Speaker 4: a conflict. As far as where we were traveling, I
Speaker 4: think maybe we're arriving in Denmark and Copenhagen or leaving Copenhagen.
Speaker 4: Either way, basically everyone had to was sworn into silence
Speaker 4: because with the time difference. I think the match was
Speaker 4: in Las Vegas, so with the time difference, no one
Speaker 4: could utter like any you know, any sort of semblance
Speaker 4: of tipping the result before he had a chance to
Speaker 4: actually watch it, because you know, they recorded and so forth.
Speaker 4: And then I think the next morning he watched it
Speaker 4: with one of our bandmates and the venue, and I
Speaker 4: think he succeeded in not knowing the results till he
Speaker 4: got to that moment.
Speaker 2: That's hard these days, you can all we have to
Speaker 2: do is turn on Twitter or Instagram.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's harder to uh, it's really hard to
Speaker 3: avoid it.
Speaker 2: It is about a mile from where we are right now.
Speaker 2: In a few days time, you are playing with The
Speaker 2: Cure in London, not for the first time into pub
Speaker 2: played with The Kill before. What are your first memories
Speaker 2: of meeting The Cure and performing with them before.
Speaker 4: I mean, it was a really really, really fun tour,
Speaker 4: and I mean that in full sincerity. There there was
Speaker 4: incredibly hospital It was also a fun tour because it
Speaker 4: felt like a festival tour because there were these other
Speaker 4: bands on that. There was Maguay, who I was, you know,
Speaker 4: old friends with fights who work at a record label.
Speaker 3: Magua was the they put out their first record on
Speaker 3: that label.
Speaker 4: So you know, I was there when I got to
Speaker 4: meet them when they first came to America for the
Speaker 4: first time. And so they played, and The Rapture played,
Speaker 4: and you know, many other bands played, and so there
Speaker 4: was like a nice camaraderie and then they would all
Speaker 4: sort of come come down to a nice little improvised
Speaker 4: like football match at she like after the festivals finished.
Speaker 4: But just with The Cure, there was just so hospital
Speaker 4: kind and they really just hung out. It wasn't like
Speaker 4: you know, there were two ships, theres and everyone else's.
Speaker 4: It was all, you know, sort of like a nice
Speaker 4: caravan and we you know, everyone was quite social after
Speaker 4: the gigs and hang out and just sort of it
Speaker 4: was a really fun tour.
Speaker 3: I'd to say it was one of the more memorable ones.
Speaker 2: This is the Curiosa exactly. It is about two thousand
Speaker 2: and fourish, that's right, So.
Speaker 4: You just you would have been just before it was
Speaker 4: right before he released Tantics. We just finished it.
Speaker 2: And Robert Smith, because he's just in the last couple
Speaker 2: of weeks been curating the Meltdown Festival London put on
Speaker 2: an amazing ten days of music. I think mag Whit
Speaker 2: actually played one.
Speaker 3: Of those nights.
Speaker 2: But he's these days from the outside people perceiven. Perhaps
Speaker 2: it's a little bit elusive because he doesn't necessarily put
Speaker 2: himself out there in public attention, doesn't do you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of interviews and things like that. He doesn't
Speaker 2: make kind of public appearances for appearances sake. He kind
Speaker 2: of gets on with the work and plays in his
Speaker 2: band and performs live and makes new records. Boiler accounts.
Speaker 2: He's actually pretty fun guy to hang out with, right.
Speaker 4: Oh, he's really social, really and I mean I haven't
Speaker 4: seen him since you know, we did that tour. It's
Speaker 4: been a long time. But mind you, he was really no,
Speaker 4: he was really social, really kind really you know, all
Speaker 4: that hangout and and not like I said, like you know,
Speaker 4: not not removed from all the other bands were playing
Speaker 4: the bill. Wasn't that facade. It was actually really nice
Speaker 4: camaraderie and a super cool guy. All the bandmates, all
Speaker 4: those bandmates are really great, his management great. Everyone was
Speaker 4: like really cool to us, and it was you never
Speaker 4: know what to expect when you go on, you know,
Speaker 4: touring with bands who've been doing this for a minute
Speaker 4: and they have a great legacy.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's going to be.
Speaker 4: Inclusive or exclusive, and you can't really say what's right
Speaker 4: and wrong in this. It's really you know, it's it's
Speaker 4: everyone has their own journey and and you know has
Speaker 4: to do what is right for them to keep the
Speaker 4: pace going. But he was really Yeah, he was very present,
Speaker 4: and so were his bandmates.
Speaker 2: Apparently he's a bit of a Steve Albinia and he's
Speaker 2: very good at the cards, and he like often we'll
Speaker 2: clear up with his support bands when they don't realize
Speaker 2: that he's so.
Speaker 3: Good play cards. I didn't.
Speaker 4: I don't think I played, but I do remember him
Speaker 4: being on the back of our bus playing cards with
Speaker 4: my bandmates and maybe his mothers.
Speaker 2: It gives us one hand, he's like, yeah, guys, come
Speaker 2: on too with us. Yeah, give me, it'll be a yeah,
Speaker 2: it'll be a tidy fe And then the other hand
Speaker 2: he's like, I'm taking my money off and taking you
Speaker 2: lunch money off you today.
Speaker 3: Maybe someone told him that list, you know, back in
Speaker 3: the day.
Speaker 2: Probably Yeah, you're playing on the show with a Cure.
Speaker 2: But also in a couple of months time, at the
Speaker 2: end of August, you were releasing Marauder, which is into
Speaker 2: sixth album. Just kind of untangle the process from where
Speaker 2: this album started for people listening. So last year we
Speaker 2: saw Interpol on tour. You were celebrating or marking the
Speaker 2: fifteenth anniversary of Bright Lights. So where did the kind
Speaker 2: of work on this album begin. Does it go back
Speaker 2: a few years ago? Now? Just talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about how it came together.
Speaker 4: Well, the songs tend to begin with me, so like
Speaker 4: I think I started writing like the foundation of the
Speaker 4: songs that would eventually end up on Morato. Probably here
Speaker 4: and there, maybe while touring on the back of our
Speaker 4: last record, up in tour, but at that moment we
Speaker 4: don't really know if you're writing or not writing. You're
Speaker 4: more just having a guitar present, playing in between tours,
Speaker 4: maybe playing a little bit on tour, but we don't know,
Speaker 4: it's not a real concentrated effort. But then sometimes the
Speaker 4: ideas come about and you record them, you play some
Speaker 4: of them when you are in between tours, you kind
Speaker 4: sort of realize them a bit more, you know, put
Speaker 4: them into some sort of arrangement and so forth. But
Speaker 4: I think really when we concluded touring on Elpin tours
Speaker 4: for probably towards the end in twenty fifteen, is when
Speaker 4: I started really trying to put some efforts into you know, songwriting,
Speaker 4: and then so and then I think we got together.
Speaker 3: So I wrote quite a bit over.
Speaker 4: Twenty fifteen, at the end of twenty fifteen, and predominantly
Speaker 4: in twenty sixteen. Paul and I first got together probably
Speaker 4: towards the end of twenty sixteen, and just to see
Speaker 4: if there's anything there for ready yet and so forth.
Speaker 4: But much like Elpintour, you know, things kind of the
Speaker 4: first few days of the process of writing to seeing
Speaker 4: you if we're ready to write a new record were quite fruitful,
Speaker 4: and you know, I remember exactly what songs. I guess
Speaker 4: actually we probably made some good foray into what would
Speaker 4: become the first song on the record.
Speaker 3: If you really loved nothing.
Speaker 4: And I don't remember exactly where else we went, but
Speaker 4: it was pretty clear that, you know, the chemistry was
Speaker 4: there and we were kind of ready to begin again,
Speaker 4: to begin anew and then Sam came by, you know,
Speaker 4: shortly after that. And then since we're not always in
Speaker 4: New York at the same time and Sam doesn't live there.
Speaker 3: Anymore, we sort of coordinate a schedule.
Speaker 4: So we do like ten days on or week on,
Speaker 4: usually about a week on I would say, once a month.
Speaker 4: And then you know, and the word felp in tour
Speaker 4: and I think it's lots of a man because you
Speaker 4: don't know if the results will be there, if you're
Speaker 4: gonna have chemistry, if you're gonna have ideas of think.
Speaker 4: Knowing that there's a bit of a timeline kind of
Speaker 4: kept our focus going. And then it gives you a
Speaker 4: little bit of space to reflect on the material you're
Speaker 4: working on from afar. So every time we come back together,
Speaker 4: we'd you know, advance it further and so forth. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it was it was cool to do this the second time. Now,
Speaker 4: like as we you know, up in tours, a bit
Speaker 4: of a different process for us, and having that under
Speaker 4: our belt I think made it sort of you know,
Speaker 4: I feel kind of confident with exploring what have become
Speaker 4: the songs for Marauder.
Speaker 2: When you marked fifteenth anniversary of Turned On the Bright
Speaker 2: Lights last year by doing those shows, what effect did
Speaker 2: that have on the process of making or actually, first
Speaker 2: of all, why did you feel compelled to do that?
Speaker 2: Why on the fifteenth a diniversary? Why was that the
Speaker 2: right time? And why did it feel?
Speaker 3: No, it wasn't something really it was.
Speaker 4: We didn't have the idea of doing it until probably
Speaker 4: something like January of two thousand and seventeen. It wasn't
Speaker 4: it was like we were already you know, instinctive. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we'd always initiated the process of what would become, you know,
Speaker 4: the songwriting for Marada, and but we never contemplated doing
Speaker 4: something like this before. We've never done tours in between records,
Speaker 4: even though you know, in the same age a lot
Speaker 4: of our bandmate, a lot of our friends who are
Speaker 4: in bands do that quite often without you know, wethinking it.
Speaker 4: But we usually just tour quite a bit on the
Speaker 4: back of a record, disappeared for a few years, come
Speaker 4: back for a new record and begin, you know, once more.
Speaker 4: And when the idea was sort of raised. It didn't
Speaker 4: take you know, it wasn't sort of like no. Everyone
Speaker 4: was sort of like, yeah, that sounds like fun, and
Speaker 4: everyone is. It was a real quick decision and no
Speaker 4: one overthought it. And and I think somewhere along the way,
Speaker 4: you know, we were already pretty by the time we
Speaker 4: actually ventured out wet. By the time we started rehearsing
Speaker 4: for Bright Lights the Bright Lights tour, probably in July
Speaker 4: towards end July or something like that, we were pretty
Speaker 4: far along with the songwriting with Marato. So it felt
Speaker 4: like kind of like a healthy thing to to, you know,
Speaker 4: to basically for once, try to do something a bit
Speaker 4: different where you okay. So now we're you know, I
Speaker 4: would say ninety percent there as far as actual at
Speaker 4: least the music. Maybe Paul still working on vocals and lyrics,
Speaker 4: but ninety percent there. Go out tour, leave these songs
Speaker 4: alone for several months, really, because we toured all of
Speaker 4: August into September in Europe, and then we went to
Speaker 4: la and New York towards the end of September or
Speaker 4: beginning of October, and then played in Mexico two nights
Speaker 4: to the third week of October, so we didn't really
Speaker 4: start writing it or get back together and start playing
Speaker 4: the songs until the end November. I think we just
Speaker 4: did one week of a session, but the songs came
Speaker 4: running back to us and we felt like a good
Speaker 4: place of what we captured.
Speaker 3: We liked the.
Speaker 4: Direction we're going in, and and a week later went
Speaker 4: in started we did our first recording session for Maroder.
Speaker 3: Like So it was really it was good.
Speaker 4: It was good, and I think it kind of I
Speaker 4: think maybe like neglecting them for a few months, but
Speaker 4: knowing that they're still there and forgetting about them, switching
Speaker 4: gears was I think we had suspicions it'd be like
Speaker 4: a healthy thing to do, but it really was.
Speaker 3: It was cool.
Speaker 4: I mean, we didn't need to do it, but it
Speaker 4: was definitely didn't hurt us by by you know, having
Speaker 4: that come about.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting to hear and you say that it
Speaker 2: was a very instinctive thing to do, because I know
Speaker 2: that some bands kind of aminah about whether doing something
Speaker 2: like that is the right thing to do, because it
Speaker 2: feels like looking back at a time when a lot
Speaker 2: of artists want to just always just be looking forward.
Speaker 2: But it sounds like you guys were like, well, that
Speaker 2: would be a fun thing to do.
Speaker 3: I mean, we were looking forward, you know.
Speaker 4: We obviously you feel more passionate, not more passionate than
Speaker 4: one record or the other, but you feel more passionate
Speaker 4: just in life about what's happening, and you're you know,
Speaker 4: at that moment, you know, and certainly from an artistic perspective,
Speaker 4: like the work you're doing now, that you should kind
Speaker 4: of feel like, oh man, I'm more invigorated by this
Speaker 4: than anything done previously. That's whether someone else feels the
Speaker 4: same way or not, that's debatable.
Speaker 3: But from an artist, you know position, I can get.
Speaker 4: You know, what's the point of doing something trying to
Speaker 4: if you don't feel fully invested in it, you might
Speaker 4: as well just do something else. And I think, you know,
Speaker 4: we never force being a band. We're a band together
Speaker 4: still to this day. It's because we still have great
Speaker 4: chemistry when we write music and when we play together
Speaker 4: and so forth. You know, I think we have We're
Speaker 4: quite different from one another in many ways, but I
Speaker 4: think we're going together writing music. I think we have
Speaker 4: a probably you know something we do. Think we're still
Speaker 4: advancing and getting better and better, and so and the
Speaker 4: fact that you know, I love that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I never want to be a band.
Speaker 4: That sort of divorced themselves from the first record or
Speaker 4: certain songs.
Speaker 3: I always want to be you know.
Speaker 4: I'm happy to play anything that people want to hear,
Speaker 4: and I just also don't when we're making Bright Lights
Speaker 4: and other records, especially Bright Lights, I can say since
Speaker 4: just a first record, I was really very mindful, like, well,
Speaker 4: this is kind of forever, you know, whether people actually
Speaker 4: care about this record or not. Eventually I had no idea,
Speaker 4: but it's more of like I want to be okay
Speaker 4: with this record forever, meaning that you know, years later,
Speaker 4: if I'm playing it, I should be okay if that
Speaker 4: versus well, I don't know what else trying to do there.
Speaker 4: I never want to be a band that was trying
Speaker 4: to do things besides what we were we wanted to do.
Speaker 4: I didn't want to try to please other people. I
Speaker 4: think artistically we try to please ourselves and hopefully if
Speaker 4: we're into what we're doing, then other people will be
Speaker 4: into it too, which is kind of what you know,
Speaker 4: sort of the catalyst of the songs that would be
Speaker 4: on Bright Lights. So that's kind of sort of our
Speaker 4: formula to date.
Speaker 2: I think by the time people hear this, Marauder will
Speaker 2: be out. I think it sounds like insp most urgent
Speaker 2: record today. It feels like there's an energy about it
Speaker 2: that feels like like a determination. I can't quite put
Speaker 2: my finger on it, but it feels really invigorated. Did
Speaker 2: it feel like that making it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there was. There's a couple of things
Speaker 3: to it. I agree. I think it was.
Speaker 4: I don't think it was intentional as much, just that's
Speaker 4: just what came out. I think the songs were coming
Speaker 4: out on me a little bit like that.
Speaker 3: And then when we.
Speaker 4: Were, you know, writing them in the in the rehearsal space,
Speaker 4: you know, I think writing sometimes in New York, you're
Speaker 4: there's no ideal rehearsal space. It's all the sort of
Speaker 4: you know where we Sell Upon was based, you know,
Speaker 4: basically the same place where we wrote our Our Love
Speaker 4: to myr Our, you know our third record, which is
Speaker 4: you know, one of the few buildings where like so
Speaker 4: bands rehearsing there and you can hear all the bands
Speaker 4: coming through the wall, so you really have to It's
Speaker 4: something that you you it's a lesson you learn early on.
Speaker 4: If you're intending to play music in your and even
Speaker 4: more so nowadays because there's even few rehearsal spaces or complexes.
Speaker 4: It's just got to really just drown out what's coming
Speaker 4: through the walls and just do what you're doing, and
Speaker 4: just you know, even I mean whether it's other bands
Speaker 4: or like taxis or cars, it's just you're just concentrating
Speaker 4: on what's happened in that room. Well that your bandmates,
Speaker 4: you know, performing what you're performing, and the energy and
Speaker 4: so forth. So I think in general, I think there
Speaker 4: was also kind of just the songs. There was a
Speaker 4: bit of like a rawness to the way we were
Speaker 4: playing them together. And uh and probably an urgency too.
Speaker 4: And and then I think working with Dave Fridman, we
Speaker 4: didn't really know what it would be like. You know,
Speaker 4: obviously we're great admirers of all the you know, the
Speaker 4: many great wonderful records that he's he's worked on, but
Speaker 4: they're all quite varied. You know, they're from MGMT to
Speaker 4: The Spoon to Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev mixing some
Speaker 4: of you know the mixings a he's unfi like Tim
Speaker 4: and Paula who I mean, it's not really one cohesive thing.
Speaker 3: It's all the place.
Speaker 4: So I knew we were making a really live records
Speaker 4: what it felt like to me, and I really wanted
Speaker 4: to keep that and so, but we wanted to be
Speaker 4: open too, and wanted to leave plenty of room for Dave,
Speaker 4: you know, the idea of going to work for a
Speaker 4: producer for the first time.
Speaker 3: I want to leave room for him to say something.
Speaker 4: And you know, I think until probably not that long ago,
Speaker 4: we probably would have been like a step back when
Speaker 4: someone else, you know, we're very sort of a punk
Speaker 4: rockers kind of like, oh we got this, you know,
Speaker 4: but we wanted to be open, you know, to if
Speaker 4: he has an idea.
Speaker 3: We wanted to like listen to it.
Speaker 4: So but I think from him listening to the rehearsal
Speaker 4: recordings that we've done, you know, we're banned that very
Speaker 4: much like even pre bright Lights, we go in the
Speaker 4: studio when the songs really have an identity, when they're
Speaker 4: kind of you know, we can play them from start
Speaker 4: to finish, and you know, and and this was no difference.
Speaker 4: So what we were sending and were really finished songs.
Speaker 4: There weren't many songs of holes them. Maybe they'll be
Speaker 4: portions where Paul hadn't finished, like the lyrics or maybe
Speaker 4: a vocal here and there, but the actual identity of
Speaker 4: the songs as as what ended up on the record
Speaker 4: was already happening in the rehearsal space, and so I think,
Speaker 4: you know, when he listened to them, he you know he.
Speaker 4: I think that's when he basically probably the reason why
Speaker 4: he wrote us an emails like thinking of recording this,
Speaker 4: you know, all in two inch tape, and which we've
Speaker 4: always recorded to two inch tape, but we usually have
Speaker 4: to a certain point just for ease and expediency, just
Speaker 4: dumping into pro tools, just to the guitar with doves,
Speaker 4: just not for the just to make it faster and
Speaker 4: not have to overthink things. But I think because he
Speaker 4: heard that the songs are so quite realized and he
Speaker 4: didn't have any issues with the arrangements, and I think
Speaker 4: he liked it. I think he wanted to be more
Speaker 4: exploit that attribute of the actual songs, the inherent songs,
Speaker 4: and I think that's one of the major contributions that
Speaker 4: he had to the record, and it was cool that
Speaker 4: he did that versus you know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: He's like a specialist.
Speaker 4: It's interesting he doesn't have one, like we were saying,
Speaker 4: doesn't have one particular approach, just applies to all the
Speaker 4: records he works on. I think he listens, he thinks,
Speaker 4: and then he gets an idea and then he wants
Speaker 4: to see it through. So I think he wanted to
Speaker 4: capture that identity, that rawness, that liveness, that urgency, and
Speaker 4: which really was pleasing to me because I would have
Speaker 4: I wanted to keep that too. I didn't want it
Speaker 4: to become too smooth. I wanted to sound like a
Speaker 4: dirty guitar jumping off your stereo, and I wanted sam
Speaker 4: strums to snap at you and I want to be
Speaker 4: I want it to sound like a band playing in
Speaker 4: the room.
Speaker 3: And I think that's what it sounds like.
Speaker 4: And I think I don't think it sounds like anything
Speaker 4: like turn on the bright Lights, but turn on the
Speaker 4: Bright Lights does sound like. It sounds like us as
Speaker 4: we were playing at that moment, And that was the
Speaker 4: idea of making that record. Was really just wanted to
Speaker 4: make it sound like us and as we were like
Speaker 4: as a rehearsal room, and that's what really that was
Speaker 4: one of the things that we just somewhat overcomplicated, and
Speaker 4: I would say to the greed that wasn't we have
Speaker 4: any goals? So much for Marato as much as I
Speaker 4: would say, well now that sounds like us where we
Speaker 4: played those songs, you know, live, we play together.
Speaker 2: And one day you're rehearsing and the cops turn up
Speaker 2: at the door.
Speaker 3: Well, this is before we went into this other. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we were.
Speaker 4: That was the first half, like, you know, two halves
Speaker 4: of the first half of the songwriting on this record.
Speaker 4: We were sharing the wonderful y Aays rehearsal space on
Speaker 4: the Bowery. It was like the greatest rehearsal space I've
Speaker 4: ever been in, and it was also kind of the
Speaker 4: most classic stored of rehearsal space in the sense that
Speaker 4: it was like subterranean and you have to lift up
Speaker 4: a grade from the sidewalk from the Bowery in New
Speaker 4: York City, you know, and so just like literally, I mean,
Speaker 4: it was the most romantic thing, if you want, in
Speaker 4: terms of rock and rolls, literally a half block from
Speaker 4: CBGB's and like right by Phoebe's, which is like now
Speaker 4: it's kind of like a night like a sporting kind
Speaker 4: of diner, but back in the Eveny's and Ramon's days.
Speaker 4: It was sort of like one of places that all
Speaker 4: those guys hung out at anyway, But yeah, and it
Speaker 4: was great in the ya yas they hadn't been using
Speaker 4: in a while, mostly in la and they were really
Speaker 4: kind about letting us use it and sharing with them.
Speaker 4: And it was so it was decked out all their
Speaker 4: you know, the toy paraphernalia and so forth, and it
Speaker 4: was so cozy and so nice, and it worked great
Speaker 4: for the longest time. I mean, you couldn't you know,
Speaker 4: you're down there just you just felt so comfortable, sounded great.
Speaker 4: And then you know, after I don't, I don't know,
Speaker 4: maybe a couple of months, you got like the first
Speaker 4: complaint from the cops and they have totally kind of
Speaker 4: figure out where it is.
Speaker 3: You have to go really down stairs.
Speaker 4: And then and then after a while the landlord, who
Speaker 4: was really cool too, she got another complaint from it
Speaker 4: was a neighbor.
Speaker 3: And then we try to meet the neighbor.
Speaker 4: We try to reason with him, we try to be like,
Speaker 4: you know, a peace to him, and he seemed like
Speaker 4: we were getting somewhere. But then soon enough the cop
Speaker 4: arrived at the second time. And then it was basically
Speaker 4: very much, you know, make clear that we need to
Speaker 4: get out of there otherwise face consequences. So it felt
Speaker 4: bad for the Yes, but I think they knew that,
Speaker 4: you know, that that name had already complained and you
Speaker 4: know that their days there were like numbered and so forth.
Speaker 4: So sadly we had to like sort of in a
Speaker 4: scrambl DeCamp and then we had to you know, go
Speaker 4: back to the same building that we recorded we wrote
Speaker 4: Our Love to Admire and you know, ten years ago.
Speaker 3: So it all worked out just fine, but still it
Speaker 3: was a little bit. It was just it was too
Speaker 3: good to be true.
Speaker 4: And some certain elements in yorka the s and age
Speaker 4: are too good to be true, or you know, are
Speaker 4: no longer too good to be true, I should say.
Speaker 2: I think London similar. One of the things that I
Speaker 2: was thinking about earlier was looking back on Interpol and
Speaker 2: the things you've done in the years previous. Back in
Speaker 2: the very early days, you recorded a session for John
Speaker 2: Peel at the Made of Vale studios in London, I
Speaker 2: think like early two thousand and.
Speaker 3: One around that was April two thousand and one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Made of Veil is a studio so for
Speaker 2: people listening. You most people will know Made of Vale
Speaker 2: Studios hosted so many bands over the years. It's a
Speaker 2: bit of a rite of passage if you get to
Speaker 2: go in there and record a session for the BBC.
Speaker 2: But that the BBC of moving out made a bell
Speaker 2: soon in the waving, Yeah, moving to a new facility
Speaker 2: in Stratford and made the veil won't be won't be
Speaker 2: what it was. And so like it's kind of sad
Speaker 2: to see buildings, you know, particularly buildings that have housed
Speaker 2: such kind of historic moments change.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Obviously we we we got we put out our first
Speaker 4: EPNG Chemical Underground, and and it was a big moment
Speaker 4: for us. And you know, they were all the people
Speaker 4: who were Chemical Underground the dog out as a band.
Speaker 4: They were alls, they were supportive of the band since
Speaker 4: the very you know, since the beginning, and they were
Speaker 4: like super cool. And then they had this idea of
Speaker 4: the series and they offered to put out a couple
Speaker 4: of our tracks from our first two demos and it
Speaker 4: was a big thing. And then through that, you know,
Speaker 4: we were a banned for a met you something like
Speaker 4: three started played our first we record that demo actually
Speaker 4: March like our February maybe like sorry, we played our
Speaker 4: first show March ninety eight, and then we recorded that
Speaker 4: demo like June ninety eight.
Speaker 3: But consequently and all that time, we saw, you know,
Speaker 3: you just kind.
Speaker 4: Of weren't really getting anywhere moving and you really want
Speaker 4: a tour, you want to try to give yourself a
Speaker 4: reason to continue as a band, and uh, and then
Speaker 4: they decided to put that out, and then through that,
Speaker 4: you really we really wanted to come to the UK
Speaker 4: and do like a little tour. Whether it was practical
Speaker 4: or not, or whether it was gonna be economical, we're
Speaker 4: gonna lose a ton of money. But one of the
Speaker 4: reason ways that we actually made it work was that
Speaker 4: they helped us, you know, chemical on ground helped us
Speaker 4: get a Peel session, which you know obviously was John
Speaker 4: Peel was a legend, and and uh then it just
Speaker 4: all the Peel sessions were like, you know, like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, that you know, so and so did the
Speaker 4: Peel session. Blah blah, I can't believe this. And on
Speaker 4: top of it was you know, we had like we
Speaker 4: just really wanted to go to the UK and just
Speaker 4: do some dates, and they give you like a little
Speaker 4: bit of money to to do that to record that,
Speaker 4: which was like great, maybe you can put that towards
Speaker 4: like renting a van and and flying over here like
Speaker 4: you know, and we had no money, you know, and
Speaker 4: so and uh so we did and the tour for
Speaker 4: the most part, I wouldn't say the disaster, but it wouldn't.
Speaker 3: It didn't really work.
Speaker 4: I didn't do anything, you know, played a funny well
Speaker 4: and it.
Speaker 3: Was just didn't really work out.
Speaker 4: And then, uh, the culmination was that we were going
Speaker 4: to do this peel session towards the end, and you know,
Speaker 4: it was it was great, It was really great. And
Speaker 4: I remember I saw the engineer Simon, who was like amazing,
Speaker 4: and uh, it's a really wonderful experience. But because of
Speaker 4: some of those recordings that eventually it led us to
Speaker 4: being you know, signed to the label that we're still
Speaker 4: a part of mad at Or and that's and so
Speaker 4: we have you know, I think we were a great
Speaker 4: debt to to that session and we have great you know.
Speaker 4: It's also those romantic early days of actually doing something,
Speaker 4: you know, actually having doing something, you know, kind of
Speaker 4: people actually being interested in what you're doing. We didn't
Speaker 4: have that many things to go on back then so
Speaker 4: someone being offering us a Peel session was a huge
Speaker 4: thing and consequently had a you know, great repercussion onto
Speaker 4: why we're still able to play music now, I think was.
Speaker 2: That a buzzbein stood in that in those legendary made
Speaker 2: of al studios, you got all your kit set up,
Speaker 2: you've got your headphones on, and then the voice of
Speaker 2: John Peel comes down the line and it's like evening interpol.
Speaker 4: Well, I think when you recorded, you record it separately,
Speaker 4: and that I think at the end he broadcasted like that.
Speaker 4: And so yeah, hearing him do that was definitely a trip.
Speaker 4: And we you know, it wasn't like we had no
Speaker 4: press back down we had. It was maybe at the
Speaker 4: very beginning of people paying attention to you know, the
Speaker 4: you know music coming out in New York.
Speaker 3: So yeah, the.
Speaker 4: Strokes are already started receiving quite a bit of attention
Speaker 4: and so forth. But so like we had, you know,
Speaker 4: those all things were definitely just there are big moments
Speaker 4: for us, and not even because it led to other ones,
Speaker 4: but just says it was a thrill. I think for
Speaker 4: us to record, there was a thrill to have it
Speaker 4: actually go out, and you know, definitely encouraged us to
Speaker 4: keep going.
Speaker 2: What's it been like being in a band that has
Speaker 2: straddled the pre Internet era and the post Internet era, because,
Speaker 2: like you say, early days of the band, late nineties,
Speaker 2: early two thousands, you come to the UK, you do
Speaker 2: something like a John Peel session, which is a big
Speaker 2: tick box, as you already said, like you a real
Speaker 2: buzz to do that, and there are certain handful of
Speaker 2: channels that you would go down to try and get
Speaker 2: your music heard. Twenty years on, eighteen years on, it's
Speaker 2: obviously a completely different world in terms of the way
Speaker 2: that people consume music. So did you have you always
Speaker 2: just gone with the flow with the way that things
Speaker 2: have changed, or do you have fond memories when things
Speaker 2: were a little bit maybe more straightforward or simpler, or
Speaker 2: maybe they weren't at til I didn't.
Speaker 3: I I don't know.
Speaker 4: I used to I used to work at record labels
Speaker 4: and stuff like that, you know, And so to me,
Speaker 4: I think I've just kind of all rolled with things,
Speaker 4: and I think with bright lights, I never had any
Speaker 4: other expectations besides hopefully making a record and putting it
Speaker 4: out on a record label that I loved. And you know,
Speaker 4: so as soon as we signed a mat or made
Speaker 4: a record. I had no expectations beyond that the fact
Speaker 4: that people, for instance, that you were interested in sort
Speaker 4: of had a slow growth, but it you know, kind
Speaker 4: of word of mouth sort of spreading, and it felt
Speaker 4: very much like I think Bright Lights is way more
Speaker 4: in common with the decades prior to the music industry,
Speaker 4: like word of mouth and build and so forth, and
Speaker 4: in America college radio, so had like a lot of
Speaker 4: impact on actually you know, spreading things. And every time
Speaker 4: we went on tour it got a little bigger, little
Speaker 4: bigger versus you know obviously now where things can go
Speaker 4: from zero to one hundred and twenty like in no time.
Speaker 4: And then but by the time we put out Antics,
Speaker 4: it was you know, he finished it, it leaked by
Speaker 4: like two weeks after he finished it, and like three
Speaker 4: months before it came out or something like that. Like
Speaker 4: we're on tour with the Curatu and the you know,
Speaker 4: and people were reviewing it like in the dailies or
Speaker 4: in the weeklies when we're going by, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, the reviewing basically a bootleg. And I think
Speaker 4: that was the beginning of like records leaking like that
Speaker 4: kind of I mean, not our record, but it was
Speaker 4: around the same time that things were happening, So I
Speaker 4: think even then I was sort of like easy compies,
Speaker 4: you go, you know, I mean, I'm fortunate that we're touring,
Speaker 4: we're playing, we're doing this, but like I can't control
Speaker 4: those elements. And no, obviously I think multiple cycles since then,
Speaker 4: you know, with seemingly you know, music industry going forever
Speaker 4: into an abyss with no you know, bottom as far
Speaker 4: as like creating a model when people actually gonna buy
Speaker 4: records or find you know, some sort of commerce for
Speaker 4: it to downloads and working here and there, like on
Speaker 4: iTunes and stuff like that, to now streaming, which is
Speaker 4: now sort of like really taking its course and become
Speaker 4: a you know, a legitimate thing, a legitimate entiteam people
Speaker 4: are responding to. So it's kind of like, I don't
Speaker 4: know's it's interesting. It's I don't know if it's completely
Speaker 4: settled upon where it's going to go who and who knows,
Speaker 4: But I think it's you know, the release is not
Speaker 4: in a boring time, you know, it's an exciting time.
Speaker 4: And I think it's also like ealitarian time in the
Speaker 4: sense that if you if you have like maybe you
Speaker 4: know taste, it's a bit searching, a bit more out there,
Speaker 4: and you live in a remote location. You're not punished
Speaker 4: for that, you know, You're not just like well you
Speaker 4: got to get down to the local supermarket and buy
Speaker 4: what they have. Now you can be like, well I
Speaker 4: like this and now and you know, I can through
Speaker 4: this source, I can get that record, I can listen
Speaker 4: to it and so forth. And I think that I
Speaker 4: think that was the thing that struck me even back
Speaker 4: in when you know, like around the antics sign was
Speaker 4: like cool man, So if like a kid lives like
Speaker 4: I don't know someone really remote, you know, someone somewhere
Speaker 4: like in Indonesia, someone like where there aren't like someonere
Speaker 4: remote and you know, very rule they they have that access,
Speaker 4: that they have that taste, and that's I think that's
Speaker 4: very fair to me. And that's just you know versus
Speaker 4: back in the day maybe you're you're you know, your
Speaker 4: only subject to your environment, and that's not quite fair.
Speaker 4: So I saw it was like I think I was
Speaker 4: even optimistic backed around the antics when of the record leagues,
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, well, you know the plus side
Speaker 4: is that music is probably at an all time you know,
Speaker 4: popularity level, and I think that's great.
Speaker 2: I've read before that Paul was saying that he still
Speaker 2: takes the most enjoyment out of making a record and
Speaker 2: if he could, he'd make three albums a year and
Speaker 2: like not tour as much. So do you think the
Speaker 2: music industry will eventually The way we've seen things emerge
Speaker 2: have been that as it's less financially viable selling records,
Speaker 2: you know, people don't make as much money, you know,
Speaker 2: in the current climate with streaming and things like that,
Speaker 2: and like touring has become such a big deal because
Speaker 2: it's such a big revenue for all bands. Do you think, though,
Speaker 2: it will grow to the point where that goes as
Speaker 2: a complete circle, and like streaming will be so omnipresent
Speaker 2: that maybe artists there will be artists that can just
Speaker 2: make music again, recorded music and live off that.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think anyone who's like yes is
Speaker 3: it's like how can you? How can you? How can
Speaker 3: you really tell?
Speaker 4: You also have to think that, you know, I mean,
Speaker 4: just like it took us, you know, four years that
Speaker 4: you can get signed. There's so much music out there
Speaker 4: right now, you know, because you don't have to wait,
Speaker 4: you know, you put anything up there.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. It's like a lot of I
Speaker 3: don't look.
Speaker 4: At music and other people doing stuff as competition. But
Speaker 4: you could say that there's a lot of people to
Speaker 4: digest and to choose from. So I don't know, I
Speaker 4: don't look at it, you know. To me, it's like
Speaker 4: I don't really overthink that stuff. Like I like, I
Speaker 4: like playing shows, I like touring, and I think Paul
Speaker 4: is too. It's just like, after all, yet there's a
Speaker 4: bit of a grind to just you know, sleeping on
Speaker 4: like someone on the run in a different hotel at
Speaker 4: night after night, or sleeping on buses or you know,
Speaker 4: border crossings and things like this. It takes its toll
Speaker 4: a little bit, and if you want to advance other
Speaker 4: elements of your life. But uh, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's really Also it's kind of
Speaker 4: I feel like it's kind of good to do things
Speaker 4: and then just kind of sit here for a little bit.
Speaker 4: Maye people kind of miss you and pay attention to
Speaker 4: what you're doing. That's that's the way I guess I
Speaker 4: am A little bit of stuff.
Speaker 2: We mentioned New York earlier. You still live in New York.
Speaker 2: As the city's developed and changed, and obviously, like everybody
Speaker 2: gets a bit older, do you still love it as
Speaker 2: much as you did when you first moved there, when
Speaker 2: you were first making music there? How things change, is
Speaker 2: it's still a place that feels vibrant and exciting and
Speaker 2: fit for where you are in your life now.
Speaker 3: I think New York's a great place to come and go.
Speaker 3: It's all.
Speaker 4: It's really feels good to leave that place, and it
Speaker 4: feels really great to return to.
Speaker 3: It, like like no other place.
Speaker 4: And I think that holds true for like a lot
Speaker 4: of people live there for a while. But I think unfortunately,
Speaker 4: I do travel quite frequently, and I know not to
Speaker 4: oversee my welcome there. It's all my my home. It's
Speaker 4: I've seen, you know, I've lived there for so many years.
Speaker 4: I've seen so many changes. I can't pretend that it's
Speaker 4: you know, as it's definitely an affluent place, you know,
Speaker 4: like not even just Manhattan. I think Brooklyn's prettyffluent in parts,
Speaker 4: or more parts of affluent now than they were let's say,
Speaker 4: ten years ago, which is, you know, some parts are
Speaker 4: really gentrified that no one ever thought would be possible.
Speaker 4: And that's just that's just that's just a fact of it.
Speaker 4: And but I think that, you know, like you're saying,
Speaker 4: London's on the same burl, and it's the same. Many
Speaker 4: other cities have done same. It's something that's happening all
Speaker 4: over the world. I still like New York. There's an
Speaker 4: ease about it. Not an ease, but there's an ease
Speaker 4: if you want to. You can have those great days
Speaker 4: where you can just do so many wonderful, like cultural
Speaker 4: things in one day. And it's a small and it's fascinting.
Speaker 4: It's a small little like Manhattan, a small little island
Speaker 4: where you can go to these some of the world's
Speaker 4: most incredible museums, you can go this restaurant, you can
Speaker 4: go to that, you can take a nice bike.
Speaker 3: Ride up here. You just you can have like really
Speaker 3: the best of days.
Speaker 4: And you can make it all happen. And there's something
Speaker 4: about that. I still have that romantic notion for this.
Speaker 4: But if I'm there for too long, then yeah, it
Speaker 4: starts weighing on me. And there's elements of it I
Speaker 4: do drive me crazy. Like you know, I spend a
Speaker 4: lot of time in Europe and uh, you know, Mexico
Speaker 4: and stuff like that. And it's just like in New York,
Speaker 4: you go out to dinner for someone and you you
Speaker 4: don't want to go to like a completely shitty restaurant,
Speaker 4: but you want to go. You know, it's like an
Speaker 4: okay restaurant. It's just like you have two glasses and
Speaker 4: wine each, and and you know, your two dishes each,
Speaker 4: and also you're you're paying like just you know, hundreds
Speaker 4: of dollars, and it's like, what is this And I,
Speaker 4: you know, all those other parts of the world that
Speaker 4: just are not anywhere near that, you know, I mean
Speaker 4: so yeah, So I did those elements.
Speaker 3: Definitely. They tried me at times, you know, but.
Speaker 4: Overall, like I said, like in doses, I think when
Speaker 4: I'm there, I, you know, have so many great friends there,
Speaker 4: have so much history there. I do still try to
Speaker 4: look on the positive what it has to offer, especially
Speaker 4: on the cultural elements. It's it's all right there if
Speaker 4: you want it. But I do really enjoy going and
Speaker 4: really attach myself and going kind of to a polar
Speaker 4: opposite location offering something completely different. And I don't need
Speaker 4: I don't feel like I have when I'm not in
Speaker 4: New York. I don't think I'm missing out on things.
Speaker 4: I don't I'm pretty good at being present and where
Speaker 4: I'm at at that moment and just trying to like, yeah,
Speaker 4: just explore what that city, what that location has to offer,
Speaker 4: and and really making the most of that.
Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned the lack of things like rehearsal
Speaker 2: space these days as properties got more expensive, things that
Speaker 2: had to move out of the city, and opportunities perhaps
Speaker 2: aren't what they were. Are you Is there any part
Speaker 2: of you that think it's kind of glad that you
Speaker 2: started out when you did, when there were more opportunities.
Speaker 2: It's like, do you think there are if you were
Speaker 2: starting a band now in New York City in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: is it is it a tougher thing to get going? So?
Speaker 4: I don't know, you know, because I think when we
Speaker 4: started out too, there were only two real clubs that
Speaker 4: mattered in the sense of you know, labels and having
Speaker 4: sort of some sort of repercussions on your advancement as
Speaker 4: a band. That was like the Mercury Lounge, which is
Speaker 4: still there, and Brownies, which is no longer there, And
Speaker 4: so you just kind of ping pong back and forth,
Speaker 4: and you know, they would count people at the door
Speaker 4: and see who's coming for you, they'd ask them. So
Speaker 4: it was kind of like you really but you know,
Speaker 4: since then, there's many, many, many many more clubs that've
Speaker 4: opened up. I mean not just you know, I mean
Speaker 4: Brooklyn really became a really sort of a pinnacle spot
Speaker 4: to play. And just in Manhattan, as many spots in Brooklyn,
Speaker 4: as many spots and people were kind of open, there's
Speaker 4: new spots silk sprouting up that are just as vital.
Speaker 4: Sometimes new spots don't really have to earn their way.
Speaker 4: People get really excited about them right off the bat,
Speaker 4: and they're more vital than some somewhere that's been there
Speaker 4: for a long time, which wasn't really the case when
Speaker 4: we started out. I'm happy that we, you know, things
Speaker 4: happened that they did for us, because it didn't come easy.
Speaker 4: We could have easily broken up many times. We made
Speaker 4: three demos before this, you know, we got signed. The
Speaker 4: same label that signed us eventually rejected our first two demos,
Speaker 4: even though a lot of songs are on both demos,
Speaker 4: so including PDA just on our first demo. Granted it
Speaker 4: wasn't as execute as well as maybe you know, like
Speaker 4: was would end up on the record for sure it wasn't,
Speaker 4: but so the it wasn't We weren't so far of course,
Speaker 4: of what would be the direction for the songs that
Speaker 4: would end up on Bright Lights. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: it's sort of like, you know, in kind of you know,
Speaker 4: maybe to draw on really like an American you know,
Speaker 4: sports saying, like the minor leagues you don't get in baseball,
Speaker 4: you don't get cooled up to the major leagues until
Speaker 4: you're ready. And so in that sense, I don't know
Speaker 4: if we were ready or not ready. The timing wasn't
Speaker 4: ready for us, and so, but I you know, it
Speaker 4: was very difficult, and it was hard to keep the
Speaker 4: band together, and I was you know, it's really fortunate
Speaker 4: that we just did and we crossed some sort of
Speaker 4: threshold probably maybe a year like in a year before
Speaker 4: we made the Bright Lights we got sign where we
Speaker 4: just kind of think we were hitting a streak of
Speaker 4: writing like nyc Obstacle One and some other songs that
Speaker 4: I think we you know, for me, I remember leaving
Speaker 4: a rehearsal early on, you know, with no sort of
Speaker 4: prospects that anyone was going to sign us, we'd never
Speaker 4: make record, you know, but having a particularly good rehearsal,
Speaker 4: feeling maybe really really excited about something we just were
Speaker 4: working on, and I, you know, I had this this
Speaker 4: this calm and I, you know, reflection to myself that
Speaker 4: I was like, if no one ever hears any of this,
Speaker 4: at least I'm getting something out of it. It doesn't
Speaker 4: have to be the culmination, doesn't have to be recording
Speaker 4: an album and so forth. And I meant to like,
Speaker 4: I just was getting something out of it, and you know,
Speaker 4: I was trying to find the piece next. I had
Speaker 4: no reason to think that there was anyone interested by,
Speaker 4: you know, and the stuff we're doing. Hence why when
Speaker 4: we did put out on the Bright Lights that there
Speaker 4: was a reaction was like nothing. I could anticipate it
Speaker 4: because every record label in the world rejected, So why
Speaker 4: would I think there'd be an audience for us? You
Speaker 4: know that said, I think it sort of kind of
Speaker 4: created something for us. And when we had to write
Speaker 4: like antics or we sort of were able to sort
Speaker 4: of just kind of put windows up and not think
Speaker 4: about xtations what people wanted, and just do whatever we
Speaker 4: want to do, because that was part of that's what
Speaker 4: we you know, we'd had that time to sort of
Speaker 4: formulate as a band, as a writing entity and so forth.
Speaker 4: So we didn't overthink what it's going to keep doing
Speaker 4: what we all done, you know, we just blocked out
Speaker 4: the noise. And we also didn't overthink. We didn't take
Speaker 4: too much time right you were writing. We're very conscientious
Speaker 4: of writing in between tours of Bright Lights, so we
Speaker 4: kind of got get ahead start before we had too
Speaker 4: much time on our hands. And so when we did
Speaker 4: finally stop touring for Bright Lights, you already had like
Speaker 4: a good sock of songs that would end up on Antics.
Speaker 4: And I think that was part of definitely like very conscientious,
Speaker 4: let's not get ourselves into the situation maybe with blank
Speaker 4: slate after touring for a long time and feeling a
Speaker 4: little bit, you know, like it was a bit of
Speaker 4: a weight around our you know, our neck. And but yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a very different time period.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I think it's probably the plus site is for new
Speaker 4: bands that you have the Internet to get your music
Speaker 4: out there. And I do still believe that good music
Speaker 4: will be heard. I felt that way even back then,
Speaker 4: even though you know, I just I did, But I
Speaker 4: think that way now. But the difficult thing is, like
Speaker 4: it's I don't know which is the best way to
Speaker 4: get it out there, and it's you know that everyone
Speaker 4: has the opportunity to put it up there, and like
Speaker 4: you know, in the various ways that are obvious to us,
Speaker 4: whether you get hurt because you're good or not good,
Speaker 4: I don't know, but I do believe it will be heard.
Speaker 4: I do believe that's what you have to do, and
Speaker 4: you just have to do it for yourself and that
Speaker 4: you know, I overthink, like I'm doing this for this.
Speaker 3: I hope this happens because of this.
Speaker 4: She's you know, if you find collaborators, if you need them,
Speaker 4: if you're not doing everything yourself, and just do it
Speaker 4: for you and keep it simple, and then I think
Speaker 4: good things can come about if you know things are
Speaker 4: feeling right to you.
Speaker 2: I talked a bit about those very early days working
Speaker 2: with Chemical Underground, doing the first John Peel session, right
Speaker 2: up to you know, he's celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of
Speaker 2: Turn On the Bright Lights and then making a sick
Speaker 2: that album Marauder. We head into almost a third decade
Speaker 2: of Interval in the next couple of years. Do you
Speaker 2: still love it? Do you you know? Do you function better?
Speaker 2: As a band these days, now that you've known each
Speaker 2: other for twenty odd years, Like, how you feeling generally
Speaker 2: about it?
Speaker 4: I mean, I think, you know, yeah, I do. I mean,
Speaker 4: I really love my bandmates. I feel really fortunate to
Speaker 4: have this. It's incredible that I've gone to you know,
Speaker 4: I love traveling. I love the fact that I have
Speaker 4: friends all the world. I love the fact that I've
Speaker 4: learned so many things. I feel this is something that
Speaker 4: I think I always wanted to be a sailor, and
Speaker 4: I got to become a sailor. And then and then
Speaker 4: the fact that you know, we were not still banned
Speaker 4: because well.
Speaker 3: Okay, well this is our livelihood, this is what we do,
Speaker 3: or an insecurity thing.
Speaker 4: I don't I really don't think that it's you know,
Speaker 4: I think it's all sort of you know, those early
Speaker 4: days of songwriting between Paul and I, especially right at
Speaker 4: the beginning, where it's like the last two records being
Speaker 4: very fruitful right off the bat, and you know, you know,
Speaker 4: a couple of songs from their identity right away. I
Speaker 4: think that's more of a testament like oh yeah, we
Speaker 4: still have much more to say. We're still going forward,
Speaker 4: and I think we all feel that way, you know,
Speaker 4: And I think the three of us after Marauder, we
Speaker 4: really felt it was probably the most on the same
Speaker 4: page you've ever been, you know, as far as leaving
Speaker 4: a record being.
Speaker 3: Like, we feel good about what we did. We feel
Speaker 3: really happy about this.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's so much there's a degree of like
Speaker 4: you can't control how people can react to receive it
Speaker 4: with a to say. And that's beautiful thing about music.
Speaker 4: There's it's not subjective. I mean, it's not objective. People
Speaker 4: think it is, but it's not. It's you know, maybe
Speaker 4: you love antics because you maybe that's when you met
Speaker 4: your future wife, like around that time listening that record,
Speaker 4: or maybe our love to my or bright Lights or
Speaker 4: what have you. But you know, at least from our perspective,
Speaker 4: I think we feel Marauda, you know, holds its own
Speaker 4: compared to anything we've done to date, and is you know,
Speaker 4: us moving forward. And so I think that galvinizes us
Speaker 4: to keep doing it. And you know, it's, uh, that's
Speaker 4: why we did it. That's onely reason why we did
Speaker 4: because we feel like we so more to say, and
Speaker 4: I you know, I really love I think you know,
Speaker 4: when we play the songs just even practice, I think
Speaker 4: we feel has an energy and we can't really wait
Speaker 4: to play them live. And I think these are the
Speaker 4: reasons why we're still banded to say and you know
Speaker 4: and onwards.
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