They were a big 00s buzz band \u2013 but looked in danger of fading out. Empowered by fatherhood and anger at war and AI, the New Yorkers explain why they \u2018really showed up\u2019 again<\/p>\n
Suits. Gnomic poetry. Moody, insistent riffs. It used to be that you\u2019d know what to expect from NYC rockers Interpol. The band\u2019s first two albums, in the early 00s, were blockbuster successes, shifting half a million units each thanks to dramatic songs also fit for jerking around at an indie disco. Interpol duly jumped up to a major label, but then quickly fell back down again. Their talismanic bassist Carlos Dengler quit, and the band settled into a decade of solidly successful but pretty predictable albums. The most recent, 2022\u2019s The Other Side of Make Believe, only reached No 178 on the US charts.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s a bit unexpected that their upcoming eighth album, This Mirror Weighs a Ton, is their masterpiece. \u201cWe just all really showed up,\u201d frontman-guitarist Paul Banks says of a band that has swelled to a quintet as two touring musicians, bassist Brad Truax and keyboardist Brandon Curtis, become full-time members. \u201cThe lyrics on the last record, it\u2019s really hard for me to identify with what I was doing,\u201d Banks continues. \u201cI felt as if I made some mistakes.\u201d What were they? \u201cI don\u2019t want to draw attention to them! I just didn\u2019t want to walk away with that feeling again.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4fbb3ff1b5d526f79a29a24dee0e7498b38efdcb\/390_0_1274_1019\/master\/1274.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6fa0a5634d2c55badac1463c86fae48e\" "\\"\u2018Elon")
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