Words and Photos by Andrew Parks

It all started with animals copulating on an album cover—the front of Interpol’s third full-length, if you must know. Ever since then, it’s as if the band’s divergent ideas and apparent love/hate relationship (see also: The Strokes, who announced rehearsals for a ‘new record’ at nearly the same time as Interpol this past spring) were leading to a serious case of writer’s block. Not to mention the inability to top the pitch-black perfection of Turn On the Bright Lights. And that’s okay. Let Carlos D explore his film school inclinations while Sam Fogarino indulges his Swervediver fantasies. Meanwhile Paul Banks can return to his roots as…Julian Plenti? What is this, his mild-mannered singer-songwriter phase, complete with string arrangements and lots of laptop programming?

Yes and no. Assuming a long-dormant alias hasn’t relegated Banks’ career to a realm of self-indulgence so much as brought him back down to earth. Maybe we should have assumed this based on Plenti’s playful press photos, but the guy’s clearly happier than he’s been in years; finally free of the deadly serious stance that made Interpol shows appear stilted and joyless. Which isn’t that surprising. Unlike Carlos D or Daniel Kessler, Banks was never the type to assume a steely suit-and-tie guise in public. In fact, the last time we saw Banks wandering the Lower East Side, he was clad in a baseball cap and a classy but casual getup that screamed I’m really trying to be incognito here.