Interpol`s Daniel Kessler on Four Years of Rejection, a Brush With David Bowie, and Finally Making a Record Back Home in New York

The guitarist tells Broken Record’s Leah Rose how the band’s eighth album, This Mirror Weighs a Ton, came together in New York

Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler has spent nearly three decades writing the skeletal classical-guitar sketches that become the band’s songs, usually alone, before bringing them to bandmates Paul Banks and Sam Fogarino. Now scattered across Berlin, Barcelona and New York, the band reconvened for This Mirror Weighs a Ton, its eighth album and first recorded in New York in more than ten years. Kessler sat down with Broken Record’s Leah Rose to talk through the album, the band’s brutal early years, and a run-in with David Bowie that still stops him in his tracks.

A New York Homecoming

The record’s real starting point was the decision to work with producer Andrew Wyatt, a longtime friend of the band who’d impressed bassist Paul Banks with his arranging on a Rezzo track. “What it will bring atmospherically and keyboards and orchestrations—that was a really attractive point,” Kessler said. Sessions began in April 2025 in the basement studio of Wyatt’s New York house, and the first song they tackled, “Iron City,” set the tone immediately: “It felt very different right from day one,” Kessler said, with Banks writing the chorus melody and lyrics within two days. The closing track, “Sudden,” was recorded live in Wyatt’s living room at dusk—birdsong drifting in from the street made it onto the final mix. “It’s a nice sort of little natural ambiance,” Kessler said, “something you want to make sure perseveres through the recording process.”

Four Years of Doors Closing

Kessler was candid about how long it took Interpol to get off the ground. The band played its first show in March 1998 but didn’t sign a record deal until the fall of 2001—more than three years of demos, gigs and rejection. “All these doors would be shut in our faces, so to speak, and no one was showing any interest,” he said. Having worked at record labels himself, including Domino, he understood the mechanics: “Record labels only have so much space for new bands.” Rather than second-guess the band’s sound, Kessler said the delay bred a kind of resilience. He remembers leaving a rehearsal in Williamsburg after writing what became “NYC,” feeling euphoric—and also making peace with the possibility no one would ever hear it. “At least I’m getting something out of this,” he said.

The David Bowie Encounter

Kessler’s clearest pinch-me moment came during a 2003 or 2004 tour stop at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, the last show of a North American run. The band’s Scottish tour manager turned away someone at the dressing-room door, until the voice on the other side said, “I’m David Bowie.” Bowie had come to say hello before heading home to his young daughter, praising the band’s debut, Turn on the Bright Lights. “I don’t think you can do any better than that—one of the great artists of our time,” Kessler said. “It woke us up and fueled that show.”

Guitar, Coffee and a Movie

Kessler credited a strict daily ritual for keeping his songwriting alive since he was a teenager in Washington, D.C., where he discovered Dischord Records and Fugazi, by his account the single biggest influence on his playing. Even on tour, he tries to protect at least 30 minutes each morning: guitar, coffee and a film playing in the background. “The movie is more there to distract me from the weight of trying to write something,” he said. “I really do get centered by it.”

Twenty years after Antics, Kessler said the band still doesn’t read reviews or think in terms of legacy while writing. “We don’t start making records because we feel like we need to go do this,” he said. “It’s just this energy, this chemistry—it’s undeniable.” This Mirror Weighs a Ton, whose title Kessler insists has nothing to do with Public Enemy despite the echo, has drawn some of the band’s strongest reviews in years, with NME calling it their best album since Antics.

This Mirror Weighs a Ton is out now on Partisan Records. Listen to the full conversation on Broken Record.