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Jul 15, 2022 By Mark Redfern Photography by Ebru Yildiz

Interpol have released a new album, The Other Side of Make-Believe, today via Matador. Now that the album is out, you can stream it here and also read our review of it. Plus their video for “Gran Hotel” was previously only available on Facebook but now can be watched below. Also stream the album below and read our review of it (which we posted yesterday) here.

When the album was announced they shared a video for its first single, “Toni.” That was quickly followed by its second single, “Something Changed,” via a video that was a continuation of the video for “Toni.” Then they shared its third single, “Fables.” That was followed by its fourth single, “Gran Hotel.”

The band recently announced Big Shot City, a global exhibition to coincide with the new album. The exhibition will run through this Satuday (July 12-16) and will take place simultaneously in London, Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City, and Tokyo in collaboration with photographer Atiba Jefferson and Brain Dead Clothing.

Interpol are Daniel Kessler, Paul Banks, and Sam Fogarino. The Other Side of Make-Believe is the band’s seventh album, the followup to 2019’s A Fine Mess EP and 2018’s Marauder full-length. The album began remotely in 2020 and in 2021 the trio got together in person in a rented house in the Catskills in Upstate New York to work on the material. Then the album was finished in North London later in 2021. Flood (aka Mark Ellis) and Alan Moulder produced the album and it was the band’s first time working with the former.

“We really extracted the honey out of this situation,” said Fogarino in a previous press release in regards to working on the album remotely at first.

Kessler agreed: “Working alone was raw at first, but has opened up a vivid new chapter for us.”

Banks was stuck in Edinburgh, Scotland for almost nine months during lockdown, but enjoyed the process of writing separately.

“We usually write live, but for the first time I’m not shouting over a drum kit,” he said. “Daniel and I have a strong enough chemistry that I could picture how my voice would complement the scratch demos he emailed over. Then I could turn the guys down on my laptop, locate these colorful melodies, and generally get the message across in an understated fashion.”

Banks added: “Flood told me the vocals on the demos evoked Mickey Rourke in Barfly, singing to a patron at the end of the tabletop, and we never felt the need to flip that smoky intimacy into something big and loud when it came to rehearse and record. I got a real kick out of doing the opposite.”

Of the album’s tone and themes, Banks indicated that this time Interpol leaned more to positivity. “The nobility of the human spirit is to rebound,” he said. “Yeah, I could focus on how fucked everything is, but I feel now is the time when being hopeful is necessary, and a still-believable emotion within what makes Interpol Interpol.”

Kessler agreed: “The process of writing this record and searching for tender, resonant emotions took me back to teenage years; it was transformative, almost euphoric. I felt a rare sensation of purpose biting on the end of my fishing rod and I was compelled to reel it in.”

Read our 2018 interview with Interpol on Marauder.

Since their last album, Interpol frontman Paul Banks released an album with Muzz, a new band that also featured Matt Barrick of The Walkmen and Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman. Their self-titled debut album came out in 2020 via Matador.

Read our 2020 interview with Muzz about their debut album.

Big Shot City exhibition events:

NYC: Hosted at 155 Lafayette Street, July 12 – 16
LA: Hosted at the Brain Dead space, July 13 – 16
Mexico City: Hosted at Not A Gallery, July 16 – 17
Tokyo: Hosted at Brain Dead’s space in Harajuku, July 15
London: Hosted at Truman’s Brewery, July 15 – 17

Interpol Tour Dates:

Jul 16 London, UK @ St. John’s Hackney (Rough Trade) SOLD OUT
Jul 17 London, UK @ Pryzm (Banquet Records) SOLD OUT
Jul 18 London, UK @ Kentish Town Forum SOLD OUT
Aug 25 Asbury Park, NJ, Stone Pony Summer Stage #
Aug 26 Toronto, ON, Canada Budweiser Stage ^
Aug 27 Portland, ME, Thompson’s Point #
Aug 28 Providence, RI, Bold Point Pavilion #
Aug 30 Columbus, OH, KEMBA Live! Outdoor #
Sep 1 Cincinnati, OH, Andrew J. Brady Music Center #
Sep 2 Atlanta, GA, The Eastern
Sep 3 Asheville, NC, Rabbit Rabbit #
Sep 4 Raleigh, NC, The Ritz
Sep 6 Pittsburgh, PA, Stage AE Outdoors #
Sep 8 Indianapolis, IN, TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park #
Sep 9 St Louis, MO, Stifel Theatre #
Sep 10 Oklahoma City, OK, Criterion Theater #
Sep 11, El Paso, TX, Plaza Theatre
Sep 13 Las Vegas, NV, The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas #
Sep 14 Paso Robles, CA, Vina Robles Amphitheatre #
Sep 16 Seattle, WA, Paramount Theatre #
Sep 17 Portland, OR, Pioneer Courthouse Square #
Sep 18 Portland, OR, Pioneer Courthouse Square #
Nov 4 –Jeunesse Arena. Rio De Janeiro, RJ %
Nov 5 – Primavera Sound – Sao Paulo, Brazil %
Nov 8 – Pedreira Paulo Leminski. Curitiba, Brazil %
Nov 10 – Asuncion Kilk Fest – Paraguay, Chico, Chile
Nov 12. Primavera Sound – Santiago, Chile
Nov 13 – Primavera Sound – Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nov 15 – Lima Arena 1. Lima, Peru %

# w/ Spoon
^ w/ Spoon and Metric
% w/ Arctic Monkeys

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