\n\t\tomewhere along the way from the Mercury Lounge to the modern age, Interpol<\/a> became the most reliable New York rock<\/a> band of their generation. They\u2019ve never broken up or imploded (though they\u2019ve come close at least once), and they\u2019ve kept to a steady cadence of one album every three or four years since their era-defining 2002 debut. All of which makes it feel like no surprise at all to press play on This Mirror Weighs a Ton, Interpol\u2019s eighth studio album, and let the tunes pour forth, as excellently moody as ever.<\/p>\n
\n\tGetting there, though, required some creative thinking. This Mirror Weighs a Ton features a pair of new contributors in the form of producer Andrew Wyatt and bassist Brad Truax, a longtime touring member of Interpol who had never before joined them in the studio. \u201cIt does feel like kind of a new day for the band,\u201d says frontman Paul Banks. \u201cIt all feels invigorating, this unexpected alchemy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tA few weeks before the album\u2019s Aug. 28 release, Banks and guitarist Daniel Kessler are sitting down for lunch at a downtown Manhattan hotel restaurant. Neither of them lives full-time in New York anymore; Kessler spends much of his time in Barcelona, and Banks is pleasantly ensconced in Berlin with his wife and two young children. (Drummer Sam Fogarino, the band\u2019s third member, lives in Philadelphia.) They both say they\u2019re happy to be back in the city. \u201cThere\u2019s something that I realized when we started touring,\u201d Kessler says. \u201cWhenever you came back, you could just pick up right where you left off. You come back here, and you can step right back into your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThey started this album not far from here, at Wyatt\u2019s basement studio in the West Village, where they met for a few days of jamming and songwriting with Fogarino and Truax in the spring of 2024. Wyatt \u2014 an experienced pop hitmaker who fronted the Swedish-American trio Miike Snow<\/a> in the late 2000s before co-writing chart-toppers for Bruno Mars (\u201cWhen I Was Your Man\u201d<\/a>) and Lady Gaga (\u201cShallow\u201d<\/a>) \u2014 might not seem like the most obvious choice of collaborator for Interpol, but they found that he opened up new possibilities right away.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe had a playful few days,\u201d says Banks, who got to know Wyatt about 10 years ago when he produced some songs for Banks & Steelz<\/a>, the singer\u2019s duo project with the Wu-Tang Clan\u2019s RZA<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s such an interesting dynamic to be friends with the producer. When it works, it\u2019s a real sweet spot of having a bandmate for the moment who has all this guru wisdom about how to make great-sounding records.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe other, arguably even bigger change to Interpol\u2019s process on this album involved bringing in someone they\u2019ve known for even longer. Truax has played bass in Interpol\u2019s live lineup since 2011, when he stepped in to fill the gap left behind by the band\u2019s volatile co-founder, Carlos Dengler, whose exit Banks compares to \u201closing a limb.\u201d Banks himself, meanwhile, has held down the low end on the three studio albums Interpol has made in that timespan (2014\u2019s masterful El Pintor<\/a>, 2018\u2019s Marauder, and 2022\u2019s The Other Side of Make-Believe). It\u2019s a role he took on by necessity<\/a>, but one he grew to relish. \u201cDaniel and I met up immediately after Carlos\u2019 departure just to see, what do we have here?\u201d Banks recalls. \u201cAnd it worked. It worked really well. We rode that for a while until it came to a good, organic end.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter a decade of working this way, Banks was intrigued by the idea of letting Truax take a crack at writing basslines to go with Kessler\u2019s chord progressions. \u201cIt allowed me, in my writing process, to go back to the old days, where I\u2019m either playing guitar or singing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt felt like being back home on the microphone.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was a very exciting moment,\u201d Kessler adds. \u201cIt felt like kids in the basement, just doing stuff. it really reminded me of being 16 years old, and everything is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tAfter five days at Wyatt\u2019s place, they had the basics of four new tracks, ranging from the classic Interpol rager \u201cWings on Fire\u201d to the unusually mellow \u201cSo Rides the Reindeer\u201d to the rhythmically tricky \u201cIron City\u201d to the somber ballad \u201cSudden.\u201d For Banks, it all felt like a return to what the band does best. \u201cLet\u2019s get in a loud room and jam it out,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll yell over the drums, and we\u2019ll build songs with that visceral energy that comes from playing live, which is how we began.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNot long after those sessions, feeling energized, Interpol played their biggest show ever, thrilling an estimated 160,000 fans in Mexico City<\/a>. They returned to New York later in 2024 for a couple more weeks of work at Gonzo\u2019s, a rehearsal space located in the former home of the late, lamented Mondo Kim\u2019s<\/a> on St. Mark\u2019s Place. Back in 1997, when it was still a video and music store, that\u2019s where Interpol\u2019s members first met Truax, who was working there as a buyer. \u201cI used to put up Interpol flyers there,\u201d Kessler says. \u201cPretty cool, full-circle to work there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThey recorded the bulk of This Mirror Weighs a Ton right there, in a room filled with the ghosts of turn-of-the-millennium NYC. \u201cThe fact that you can walk to and from the studio\u2026It reminded me of the old days of Interpol, walking to rehearsals together, walking out together, ruminating on the songs that won\u2019t leave your head,\u201d Kessler continues. \u201cExciting moments that happen unexpectedly, that kind of stuff. It\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn January 2025, after more touring, they met again in New York, this time at a new studio that Wyatt had opened on the top floor of an office space in Chinatown. \u201cIt\u2019s a very unconventional space,\u201d Kessler says. \u201cIt\u2019s like a 3,500-square-foot office with no divide. There\u2019s this openness, which is the point.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLooking out the windows at those ever-changing \u201cNew York vistas,\u201d Banks let his mind wander in all kinds of directions. Then he went home to Germany, where he spent the rest of 2025 writing the words to the new album. \u201cFebruary to October, that was my job, working on the lyrics for this record,\u201d Banks says. \u201cAnd having a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tInterpol\u2019s touring lineup, from left: keyboardist Brandon Curtis, bassist Brad Truax, guitarist Daniel Kessler, drummer Sam Fogarino, and singer Paul Banks<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tElliot Lee Hazel*<\/p>\n \n\tBanks met his wife seven years ago, and they\u2019ve lived together since he was stranded in Edinburgh during the pandemic. (\u201cFull-on Gilligan\u2019s Island scenario,\u201d he told me<\/a> in 2021.) They got married last year, and are raising a son, aged three, and a daughter, about one year old.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI have a wonderful life in Berlin,\u201d says Banks, whose left forearm shows the traces of two temporary tattoos applied by his three-year-old: a blue dinosaur and a fading pink elephant. \u201cI\u2019m a happier person.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLike many before him, he\u2019s found that parenthood has renewed his creative drive in surprising ways. \u201cIt made me focus on, if I\u2019m going to be a musician, then I\u2019m going to make it meaningful,\u201d he says. \u201cWhile, at the same time, having a little bit of a lighter touch towards the whole career side of things, because my fulfillment comes from my children\u2019s happiness and health.\u201d He pauses briefly. \u201cI could get super corny.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPlease, I tell him, go on. \u201cBecoming a father feels like new lights came on inside my soul that make me a fuller version of myself,\u201d Banks continues. \u201cIn life, sometimes we guard a little bit how much love we put out, because it\u2019s quite vulnerable to love. I may, in particular, have been such a person [who didn\u2019t] all the way open up. When I had children, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, my God, this is all of the love that my soul is capable of creating.\u2019 Just turn that valve all the way open, and blast it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBanks and Kessler have been bandmates now for more than half their lives. They met 30 years ago, in the summer of 1996, when they were both enrolled in a summer study program in Paris. \u201cI met Paul months after he turned 18,\u201d says Kessler, who was in his early twenties at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s really wild that you can just meet someone. It could be just a passing moment, and all of a sudden\u2026 It\u2019s beyond life-changing in so many ways. It\u2019s provided so much richness.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNeither of them takes that collaborative bond for granted. \u201cI mean, I love this guy very much as a human,\u201d Kessler continues. \u201cBut then you have this chemistry of making music, and you have the moments that we were talking about earlier, like in a rehearsal room basement. That\u2019s a very special thing to have when you\u2019re not a kid anymore. You know what I mean? To have that feeling. It\u2019s something to treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\tWe\u2019re talking just a few days after the release of Reality Awaits<\/a>, the much-discussed new album by the Strokes<\/a> \u2014 close contemporaries of Interpol in Giuliani-era NYC, though the two groups didn\u2019t know each other well. Banks brings them up when I ask what he\u2019s been listening to lately, and says he\u2019s particularly fond of \u201cLonely in the Future,\u201d<\/a> where an Auto-Tuned Julian Casablancas brushes off his band\u2019s perceived enemies and imitators. Really, though, he\u2019s more of a hip-hop head, as always. \u201cI\u2019ve been enjoying two of the three Drake records<\/a> that he put out,\u201d he adds. \u201cIceman and Maid of Honour.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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