{"id":300118,"date":"2026-10-05T14:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/300118\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T14:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:24:09","slug":"interpol-talks-new-album-new-york-roots-ahead-of-pittsburgh-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/300118\/","title":{"rendered":"Interpol talks new album, New York roots ahead of Pittsburgh concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Interpol arrives in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, they\u2019ll be investigating how the crowd receives their latest breakthrough at Stage <\/a>AE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The band rose to prominence in a time of unbridled energy in the post-9\/11 Manhattan garage rock revival scene alongside the likes of the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio and The Walkmen.<\/p>\n

Their tight, slow-grooving pulse is crafted primarily by lead guitarist and songwriter Daniel Kessler and bolstered by the full-bodied, vaguely deranged yet composed croon of singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Banks, who made his early career on setting up base camp for vocal passages in slightly discordant phrasing alleyways.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sound first exemplified in rawer and more minimal fashion than later works on tracks from 2002\u2019s \u201cTurn On the Bright Lights\u201d like \u201cRoland\u201d<\/a> and \u201cObstacle 1.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a band for like five years before we put out a first record. It felt very like, \u2018Oh, this is probably not going to happen. We\u2019re never going to get to release an album,\u2019\u201d remembers founding member and lead guitarist Daniel Kessler of those days. \u201cIt felt difficult and challenging, but at the same time was probably the best thing that could have happened because it gave us time to develop, kind of like being in the minor leagues, where you get comfortable with it. So when you do get some attention your way, you\u2019re a bit more solidified in the writing process and in the performance process and what it means to be a band.\u201d<\/p>\n

But attention would come quickly upon their debut release. The quartet set about measuring their sound with grace on songs like \u201cEvil\u201d<\/a> and \u201cSlow Hands\u201d<\/a> from 2004\u2019s \u201cAntics.\u201d They\u2019d mature their signature style further sans the earlier critical acclaim on songs like \u201cRest My Chemistry\u201d<\/a> and \u201cPace Is The Trick\u201d<\/a> from 2007\u2019s \u201cOur Love to Admire\u201d \u2014 a major label debut for which less universally positive reviews marked the beginning of a relative winter for critics\u2019 public love affair with the group.<\/p>\n

Kessler reflected on the insular scene that fostered them, with bands making the rounds between clubs like the Mercury Lounge and Brownies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pre-social media, so bands can coexist in the same backyard, so to speak \u2014 like New York or any city \u2014 and not really know about each other. I didn\u2019t really know about the the Strokes until all of the sudden they were playing a residency in the Mercury Lounge, and they\u2019re playing like every Tuesday for a month,\u201d said Kessler. \u201cIt was just unheard of back then. It\u2019s like, \u2018Who is this local band? How are they able to do this?\u2019 It was really exciting to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

And instant communication had not yet become a driver of the night\u2019s events.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would just go out, and then if you showed up at a certain place that\u00a0turned out, (there\u2019s a) great chance you can bump into people, like-minded, that you know or you kind of know. And then all of a sudden, a whole bunch of spontaneity would happen, and it would lead you to some shenanigans that were great,\u201d said Kessler. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s healthy for humans just to not know what\u2019s going to happen and be open to what happens next. So I do romanticize that, but I think it\u2019s just like we\u2019re very controlled and contained these days, and just always on our phones. I think just being in the moment like that is really good, especially when you\u2019re of a certain age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to 2026 and Banks, Kessler and company have drawn critical acclaim once more with their eighth effort \u201cThis Mirror Weighs a Ton,\u201d with the aid of layered harmonies and pervasive atmosphere, synths, keyboards and piano tactics that have defibrillated the band\u2019s consistent sonic profile via songs like \u201cSee Out Loud<\/a>,\u201d \u201cIron City,\u201d<\/a> \u201cWings on Fire<\/a>\u201d and \u201cEver the Actor.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all striving for progression. It\u2019s just more inherent of who we are, our makeup and who we are as people and artists,\u201d said Kessler. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re still a band, because I think we can still grow and we feel this connection when we start writing music together. It\u2019s never a laborious process as much as\u00a0an exciting and inspiring one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing sessions were wedged over just a couple of weeks between two tours \u2014 one for their last album \u201cThe Other Side of Make-Believe\u201d and an anniversary tour for \u201cAntics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI came in with a lot of songs, and then I think everyone just really vibed on them and then we just really grew them pretty organically,\u201d said Kessler. \u201cIt\u2019s just really great when you get a lot of green lights like that, not going down the wrong roads when you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh no, we want to go back this way.\u2019 Everything felt very fluid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band would record in NYC for the first time in more than a decade after concluding two and a half years of touring, enlisting New York producer and friend Andrew Wyatt and recording in his basement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just really kind of fit right in and everything he brought into it as far as keyboards and atmospherics and orchestrations \u2014 this wasn\u2019t even discussed, but it just expanded the songs, made them kind of wide and more (three)-dimensional,\u201d said Kessler.<\/p>\n

The results are being widely hailed as the band\u2019s best work in years.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterpol is an albums band, and always has been an albums band. Even when times have maybe been more about individual songs as far as momentum and so forth, we\u2019re always trying to tell a story,\u201d said Kessler. \u201cI love storytelling and I love giving the opportunity for escapism and hopefully trying to make something that is a cohesive record where every song leads to the other and is an answer to the other in maybe a slightly different direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interpol plays at Stage AE on Tuesday at 8 p.m. For tickets or more information, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Interpol arrives in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, they\u2019ll be investigating how the crowd receives their latest breakthrough at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-300118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}