00:00What's up? It's the world famous K-Rock. I'm Postmaster Johnny here at Coachella, but more
00:04importantly, I'm here with the legend himself, Paul Banks of Interpol. Dude, how are you doing,
00:10man? I'm well, thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm shaking a little bit because I just
00:14know like, dude, you're a legend, dude. You're a legend somewhere. I'm trying not to like
00:18fanboy over here, but I'm like, I'm dying out here. I appreciate it. Welcome to Coachella.
00:23How are you feeling? What's good? Good. I feel good. I love being in California. I love
00:27the weather. Yeah. Went to Nobu the other night, got some good sushi. So that's always
00:33welcome on tour. No way. Yeah. That's like, that's my high point on tours. Like I can get
00:37a good meal. Is that like the destination you're always looking forward to? Because you travel
00:41the world and stuff, but you're like, I got to end up in Nobu and Malibu. Well, I just
00:44Googled sushi and I, you know, no Nobu's. I like Nobu. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. It was
00:50great. Paul Banks, a man of taste. I like, I like that. How do you prepare for a show
00:55like Coachella and how does it compare to other shows you would play, uh, throughout
00:59this year? Um, just, uh, get dressed, get ready. There's no, no particular prep. Um,
01:12I like the fact that we're in a tent because I know it's going to be kind of dark in
01:15there
01:15and atmospheric. Yeah. So that's something that I look forward to, but I don't know.
01:19I do so many of these. I don't really do anything in particular to prep. Really? Yeah. I mean,
01:23we put together a set of songs that we think is going to go over. Well, like more upbeat,
01:27right. More kind of, you know, play the hits. Well, that's what I wanted to ask you too. Like,
01:31how does like Coachella affect the set list? Is it like we're going more for hits? We're
01:35gone. I mean, I think it's like any festival where you have to account for the fact that
01:38not everybody's going to be a fan necessarily of your barrel, like know your catalog. They
01:42might just be checking you out. So I think we play the songs that like a casual listener
01:46might know of ours rather than just like do the deep cuts. Totally. So it just makes it
01:50like a, usually feels like a fast paced rocking set. Yeah. But then oftentimes the bill is
01:56a little shorter. So it's kind of fine to do it that way. Just like 60 punchy minutes.
02:00Nice little tight set. Yeah. So I want to talk about New York City because New York City is
02:05alive and well here at Coachella. You got the Strokes playing. You guys, of course, are playing
02:10too. Geese is playing a brand new band that just came about a couple of years ago. Are there
02:15any other like New York City bands that are on your radar right now that we should know
02:19about? Water From Your Eyes. Water From Your Eyes. You know them? Write that down right
02:24now. I do not, but I'm, I thankfully you're, you're educating me right now. It's Nate and
02:29Rachel are the two members and Nate has a project called This Is Lorelai, which is also kind of
02:34taken off. And I feel like Cameron Winter of Geese did a cover of one of Nate's songs.
02:39Yeah. So it's like real kind of like postmodern indie folk kind of thing that they do.
02:44Like Carpenters and Beach Boys and like Pink Floyd and John Frusciante mixed into one
02:51duo. And now I'm talking about Water From Your Eyes. Yeah. It's really exciting and really
02:55cool music. Yeah. Is there anything that you listen to to like pump you up before a set
03:00or you guys all put on or? I mean, I just, when I'm listening to music, I listen to a
03:06lot
03:06of hip hop. And at the moment I was just listening to some Kodak Black. You listen to, Paul Blanks
03:13listens to Kodak Black. Yeah. He's one of my favorite rappers. Yeah. Okay. I'm so glad you
03:17said that because that's what I wanted to segue into next. Interpol does a collab with any rap
03:21artist, anybody spanning any era or Reese or alive right now. Who are we collabing with?
03:27Well, I mean, I would, um, probably go with my good friend RZA as a first choice. I had a
03:33project
03:33called, I have a project called Banks and Steels with the RZA. Yeah. So that's a collaboration that
03:37I've, you know, done. So I'd always check in with, with my big bro at first. I think we
03:43would love as a band, probably like, um, Doom or Madlib. MF Doom? Yeah. Or Dilla. Or Dilla,
03:53really? Yeah. Yeah. For me, like I just listed, I think kind of like my favorite producers
03:57in, in, in, in hip hop. Yeah. RZA, Dilla, Madlib. All time favorites. Yeah. All time
04:03favorites. Oh my God. Doom, I don't, did Doom produce? I don't know. I mean, I, I, I should
04:07know this cause I'm hyping him up, but, uh, no, no, I get you. I'm not sure if MF Doom
04:10produced. No, I'm not sure if he wrote the beats or just the rhymes. I know Doom right
04:14now because I know like my generation, he has a song on TikTok that's kind of like blowing
04:18up and it was using a bunch of memes and videos. And I was like, what is that? He's
04:21the shit. He's, he's the shit. He's like the Earl sweatshirt of, you know, 20 years
04:26ago. Dude, you, Earl sweatshirt? Oh my God. Okay. You know what I mean? Kind of like
04:29esoteric poetry kind of, but like. Forgive me. I don't want your like knowledge to be
04:33like blowing my mind, but it's like, dude, okay. Yeah. I like hip hop, man. You do.
04:37You're a hip hop fan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, I want to transition really quick to
04:40new music. You just had a new, uh, song come out, uh, album. Where are we at? Coming?
04:46Yeah. Album just got mastered. Um, and yeah, it's done. It's was a few years in the making.
04:54Very excited about it. Um, the song that we've been playing live, which is the one that's
05:00like out is, uh, called see out loud. And yeah, it's fun. We have, uh, my bandmate,
05:06Daniel, the other guitar player singing in this one. Yeah. So it's like, I take the first
05:09verse, he takes the second verse and shout out Daniel, shout out Daniel. And that was
05:13something that we had wanted to do for a long time. Just get him back to singing. Cause he
05:17sang on our first record only on before our first record. And then we just sort of didn't
05:21do it. So it was like a kind of a concerted effort to make that happen on this record.
05:26But it came about, it wound up happening very organically on this particular song.
05:32Yeah. And I just think it's a really fun kind of a classic Interpol rock song. Yeah. And
05:39then on the record that we just finished, uh, I think there's a lot of like new directions
05:43for us, a lot of kind of new innovation. And we worked with a good friend, Andrew Wyatt,
05:48who's, uh, was in Mike Snow. Yeah. Is in Mike Snow. Writes with a lot of, uh, pop stars too,
05:53right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like Liam Gallagher and, uh, Miley, I think a lot. Anyway,
05:58he's a genius and he'd had like a amazing contribution for the record and just kind of
06:01like gave it some extra energy that I think was, was really good for us at this point in
06:05our career. And I think we made something great. So we're waiting for it. We're starving
06:09for it. I want to ask you this really, this really quickly too. I know you brought it up a
06:14couple
06:14times before too. Did you go see Nirvana when you were a kid? Yeah. And fly Kurt Cobain
06:20a cigarette in a little paper airplane? I did. Yeah. Okay. First of all, how old are
06:25you when you're getting a cigarette? Where are you getting a cigarette at? I mean, it was
06:28Madrid, Spain. So I was smoking when I was like, I think 15. Yeah. That's kind of like
06:36when kids start smoking Stokes out there. Okay. And did it ever get to him? So I put, yeah,
06:41I put it in like, cause it was like this brand, like, you know, smoking is like cool when you're
06:44like a kid. So it was like the Spanish brand called Fortuna. Yeah. Which is like fucking
06:48pretty hard. Oh, pardon my French. It's a pretty strong cigarette. Yeah. And so, yeah,
06:53I was like, you know, always try one of these. Cause I figured he'd be used to American cigarettes.
06:56Yeah. So I'd like put it in a paper airplane and I threw it and I landed like between his
07:00feet on stage. But I'm wondering if I threw it after he walked off stage or if I threw it
07:07when he was on stage. I think I threw it when he was on stage, but then he left stage
07:10and
07:10then Rhodey picked it up after the show. Cause we like stayed in the front row to like see
07:14if anybody came out. So I don't know if he got the cigarette, but it like his Rhodey did
07:18get the paper airplane. I was going to say like, he's, I mean, he looks down at his feet
07:22all the time when he plays usually too and stuff. I love Kurt. Kurt's like the whole reason
07:25I got into music too. Like kind of like you. Yeah. Yeah. So this was like Pat Smear in utero
07:29era. Oh, early night. Well, 93. Is that right? 93. Yeah. Cause I love that record, man. In utero is
07:35such a great record. That's a no skip album right there. It has some of my favorite work of theirs.
07:40Cause
07:40I feel like instead of getting more poppy, they kind of went like harder. There's some
07:43really edgy songs on that record. Steve Aldini production. We'll just do it. Yeah. Yeah.
07:48I met Butch and he was like really sweet, but Steve Aldini man doesn't compare. It's
07:54kind of wild. Paul Banks here with the world famous K rock at Coachella. Paul, I appreciate
08:01you so much, man. Thanks man. Can I dab you up really quick? I feel like, you know, your hip
08:05hop
08:05kind of like, come on, come on, my man. Oh, Paul Banks, everybody.
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