Out of the Dark

Interpol's seventh record The Other Side of Make Believe carries an uncharacteristic optimism

- DAVID CHIU

INTERPOL IS ON THE ROAD AGAIN this summer for the first time in three years, and they've just released their seventh studio album The Other Side of Make-Believe on Matador Records. After years of COVID-19, Trump, general social collapse and now war in Ukraine, the usually somber and dark post-punk group sounds a little...hopeful?

According to Paul Banks, the group's lead singer/rhythm guitarist/bassist, "It's a little bit less melancholy, a little bit less so depressing lyrically, because I just felt like there's no space for that really we're saturated with bad vibes at the moment. What spoke to me was going the other way with a little bit more of an uplifting kind of attitude."

Drummer Sam Fogarino says about the shift in lyrical direction, "It's like Paul went from a very angsty, disillusioned young man to a very firm-standing mature man that isn't crying for help, but says that help is there. Along the way, it informs the music, too."

"Our songs are full of emotion," adds lead guitarist Daniel Kessler. "Where someone might be like, 'It's dark or gloomy,' to me, it's more like, 'No, we put our hearts into everything we do.' It's also part of the path forward, peeling away to the core of honesty."

The lockdown in 2020 initially forced the band to work remotely and send each other parts via computer rather than collaborating together in person. Eventually, they regrouped in the Catskills in upstate New York then completed the record in England with producers Alan Moulder and Flood (Mark Ellis), whose collective credits include U2, Depeche Mode, the Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails.