New York indie giants Interpol have spoken of the debt of gratitude they owe John Peel.
John Peel is one of British radio’s truly legendary figures. The Radio 1 host helped to kick-start the careers of countless musicians, helping to provide assistance when label support when still some way off.
Working until the end of his life, John Peel never lost his passion for new music. Plucking a demo tape out of the pile, a quick play on Radio 1 changed the career of New York band Interpol forever.
Speaking to ClashMusic, singer Paul Banks explained that John Peel helped secure the band a deal with Matador. “Yeah, well it wasn’t until we did a Peel session, as John Peel liked us early on and heard our first demo, which is what got Matador’s attention and then we got a record deal. But by the time we were signed to Matador we already had a fanbase and were doing pretty good shows in Boston and New York.”
“We were just doing our thing and waiting for people to get with it rather than changing our thing to get with the people so we were just doing our shows and trying to get a record deal” he continued.
Releasing their debut album ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ back in 2002, Interpol quickly became critical darlings. To Paul Banks, however, the acclaim meant very little.
“No not really, because we had already built good foundations after four years of playing shows around Europe without any real hope of even putting out an album” the frontman explained.
“It’s hard to make it in NY and when we were starting out there were only a few pubs that you really wanted to play to make a difference and you play them hundreds of times without any luck.”
“There are lots of bands that don’t make it but we just really liked writing together and making it together. You need to do it because you want to do it and not because you want to be in a rock band.”
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