Interpol's Paul Banks Revisits 'Turn on the Bright Lights' 10 Years After

It's hard to believe it's been a decade since Interpol released their debut album, Turn on the Bright Lights. The group have since weathered band-member departures, major label deals and a thousand imitators, but to many their debut is still the quartet's moody, unimpeachable peak.

It turns out their former label Matador agrees and to celebrate they've planned to re-release the record, bulking up its original 11 tracks, which have been remastered with a slew of demos, rare and unreleased tracks and a DVD. The package was overseen by guitarist Daniel Kessler.

Paul Banks, Interpol's singer who just released his first solo album under his own name (he's put out two as Julian Plenti), says the band won't be playing any shows behind the re-release, which he described in a recent phone interview as a "celebration of Bright Lights."

Looking back, Banks tells Spinner he's proud of the record and "proud that we're talking about it 10 years later." Turn on the Bright Lights was released in the midst of a music media feeding frenzy on the band's native New York. The Strokes were white hot thanks to the hyperbolic press in England and the hype soon found its way over to North American shores. Suddenly anything associated with that scene was being tipped as the next big thing.

"I think we really benefited," admits Banks. "The Strokes blew it up for everybody. I think a lot of bands really benefited from the Strokes notoriety. If you were a rock band at that time, you definitely got a second look from people."

Yet Banks holds no grudge with the media for throwing Interpol in with a wildly divergent group of artists that included the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, Walkmen, Blonde Redhead and TV on the Radio.

"That was a movement," he says. "There was some really fucking good music going on then so, no that didn't bother us. I think we knew then that it was good company to be in and I certainly feel that way now."

Although he had no part in digging through Interpol's archives, Banks sees the deluxe edition as a treat for old fans.

"If you're a diehard fan it's going to be pretty cool," he says. "It's not like a half-assed thing, that's for sure. We did say, 'What's the point in re-releasing this unless we're really giving something to people.'"

He also hopes that a new generation of fans will discover the record.

"Some kids were five when that record came out."