Fuck Yeah Interpol Quotes

A place for all the amazing quotes from every member of Interpol

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

I wrote some of my favorite music while basking in the sun and surfing

Paul Banks

[visualinfidelity]

Finally, how’s the day job? Do you have a date you have to be back in Interpol by? “No, because like I said I want to give this a good shake. I’m going to make sure I don’t burn myself out, so whether that means the band waits a little bit while I get my shit back together, maybe. I spent a long time promoting the last band record so I think it’s normal I would want to give this a good crack. I want this to be a career for me. I want my solo work to be a thing indefinitely, I want to make many records this way so I’m going to do what it takes to establish myself a little bit further on this one. And then whatever, I’ll go when I’m ready. At the same time the band has already kicked around some songs, we’ve talked about stuff. I managed to write my whole record on the road with them, so I’m sure I can contribute substantially to them while I’m on the road with this.”

Very interesting. So maybe a 2013 release isn’t out of the question.

[fuckyeahinterpolquotes]

Q: So are the rumours true, you and Julian Plenti have fallen out?

Paul: Yeah [laughs]. Part of the reason I did the EP [Julian Plenti Lives] was to answer the question of what happened to Julian Plenti: he lives! The first record had to be done under an alias for me because I had these old songs kicking around for almost a decade that I'd written and performed as Julian Plenti in the late 90s, early 2000. I just felt compelled to stick to that original vision and I used it as a way to recreate what it would be like to be a debut artist. I was off put by the notion of pushing my solo work at people by capitalising on the notoriety of the band and just marketing my record to Interpol fans. That was something I didn't want to do because I felt they were very different things and I liked the idea of a debut artist putting something out there and people come to it, rather than shoving it down people's throats. Once I'd done that there's now only one song on the new record that dates from that era, I put it on the EP - Summertime Is Coming - but other than they're all new songs and moving forward I didn't feel like sticking with the alias."

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

In some ways I’m at a point in my life where there is a bit more direct self-reflection. Young Again is me reflecting back and acknowledging the adolescent in me, the age when I formulated all my dreams and goals and I’ve sort of lived that out. I set those ideas in motion between 15 and 20 and I feel like I’ve spent the last 15 years paying tribute to that original conception of what I wanted to do with my life. Now it’s almost time where I’ve done that now and I think I’m at the end of the road saying, Oh shit, now it’s time to go down a new road, but I’m looking back very fondly at who I was. In that song where I say, jobs are disgraceful that’s not because I would say that today, it’s indicative of the attitude of pure rebellion and anarchic energy I had as a teenager. I’m very fondly looking back at that formative time. It’s carried me all this time, but I’m also acknowledging it won’t carry me further. But on other songs I’m assuming another character.

Paul Banks (via obstaclespecialist)

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

I’ve never been in the position of begging to a woman

Paul Banks, on the confessional tone of Interpol (via obstaclespecialist)

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

The best analogy I’ve had for songwriting is that it’s a bit like archeology. You’ll see something sticking out of the sand, and sometimes it’s a rock, and other times it’s a jawbone. I feel like songs are already there, so you really stumble upon something and you go about excavating it and revealing it. Some melody will come to mind and it could be the feet of the song and then the song would just do the work for you. I think bad bands say, let’s write a song that sounds like this or that, but if you’re functioning more with real inspiration the song will tell you what it wants to be. So the question of influence and inspiration is always a little bit tricky because it’s much more naive and impulsive and instinctual. On the critical side, of course bands can contextualize things. But the creative process is beyond rationalizing what you’re going for; it’s more like what you’re finding in the process.

Paul Banks (via obstaclespecialist)

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

I don’t even know if that would be legal, apart from being in really bad taste. I would never play an Interpol song without [the rest of the band].

Paul Banks, not playing Interpol songs on his own tour (via obstaclespecialist)

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

“With ‘Bright Lights,’ I wanted to sound alienated, to imply tension and desperation, by sinking my vocals into the mix and shouting them. This time, the songs are more expressive and less hopeless. I want the compelling aspect to be the melody, not the drama of the delivery.”

Paul Banks, talking about Antics (via obstaclespecialist)

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

Yeah, I suppose I wanted to simplify things this time around, …Julian Plenti was something that I had to do, but once it was done, I didn’t need to hold on to it. I didn’t want the burden of shtick for these songs. If anything, I’m trying to draw attention away from the notion of a persona this time. I’m just making music and hoping to let it speak for itself.

Paul Banks

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

Paul’s the only person in the band who pretty much gets carte blanche to do what he wants.[…] it’s because Paul’s never come up with something that we haven’t liked

Daniel Kessler, Under the Radar 2004

(via obstaclespecialist)

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

Once, Interpol’s appeal was all about cool detachment. Banks sang about not being impressed and training himself not to care, while angular guitars hit with pick-axe precision, trying to break down something frozen in him. But on Interpol, his voice is far clearer and warmer — and in many ways, sadder. “I explored vulnerability for the first time on this record,” he admits. “In the past I had more of a chip-on-my-shoulder stance,” — which, he says, was a reaction to critics who’ve refused to take the band seriously — “but now it’s more about my pathetic side.” Banks broke up with his longtime girlfriend Abbey Drucker while working on the album, and lyrically, he’s borrowed from that experience. “There were moments where I coped with jealousy, or where I learned more about my own insecurities,” he confesses. “Like, I make fun of my ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in one song.” He gives some credit to his voice coach Ron Anderson, who’s worked with everyone from Elvis to Axl Rose, for helping him bring out that pathos, both in his lead vocals, and in the ghostly, barely-audible background vocals that weave through many of Interpol’s new songs. “It’s almost like a subconscious undercurrent,” he explains. “It communicates the way we all have conflicting inner voices.”

Interpol: The Fame Monster, eMusic.com, Sept 2010

(via obstaclespecialist)

[unamezcladebeatayramera-deactiv]

But I’m a man after all and I have desires. It’s not my fault if I don’t feel the emotional connection that the other person feels. Does that mean that I have to be alone forever, until I do feel True Love? No. I have to learn, but so do women. Learn not to expect the impossible. Or to stay away. Or to say ‘no’

Paul Banks (via trainingmyselfnottocare)

[fuckyeahinterpolquotes]

Interviewer: and i wanted to ask you about this before we left... i think it's awesome.

Carlos: this, what? the uh-

Interviewer: the holster.

Carlos: well thanks, thanks a lot

Interviewer: and i don't know if anyone's ever done that before

Carlos: um, to my knowledge, they haven't. but it wasn't, you know, me trying to be an individual

Paul, Daniel & Sam: *giggles*

Carlos: wasn't me trying to be an innovator, to wear the holster

Daniel: if i get followers, so be it

Carlos: yeah, so be it. exactly. i'm not gonna like stop them.

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

I hear it’s the girth that counts. But “Girth of Love” didn’t have the same ring to it.

Paul Banks (via obstaclespecialist)

[obstaclespecialist-blog]

Being in a band that does well is almost like being a girl.

Paul Banks (via obstaclespecialist)

[psychedtodie-deactivated2013012]

We’ve encountered a good amount of anti-American sentiment on this tour. Much more than normal. There was a journalist in Stockholm who had interviewed some of us before the show. Afterward, in the dressing room, he commented that he was surprised that we knew anything being that we were Americans. I don’t recall if it was simply implied that Americans were stupid or if he outright said it, but the arrogance of it caught me off guard. I contemplated punching him in the face and throwing him out. If there’s anything I detest, it’s jackasses talking shit in our dressing room immediately after a gig. Both Carlos and I told him that he was a jackass. He said that he was just expressing the predominant sentiment in Sweden. I told him to get out. He didn’t think I was serious. I said I was. He got up and tried to shake my hand. I didn’t take it. He said, “But you know I’m writing a piece about you guys tomorrow.” What an asshole. It was just the way he said it, unsolicited, with a little weasel smirk. Anyway, we just found out that he did wind up writing a really bad piece about us. I regret not having smacked him.

Paul Banks : Tour diary for SPIN Magazine (via psychedtodie)

[fuckyeahinterpolquotes]

TL: I’m going to read you a quote… Let’s see if you can guess who wrote it: “To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.”

PB: Who is it by? A man or a woman?

TL: A man. It’s a novel.

PB: Who?

TL: Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer.

PB: But he wasn’t a singer!... It reminds me of a chapter in one of his books where he’s with a friend who draws for art magazine and they’ve run out of alcohol and he claims that he doesn’t need any alcohol because he can get drunk with water, and he drinks a glass of water and starts acting like a madman. What you just read reminds me of that aspect of his personality, all you really need in life is to let go, that’s what kept him moving…