B-More Indie Sound

Paul Banks – ‘The Base’ – from the album Paul Banks

So here’s some semi- new music courtesy of Paul Banks aka the lead singer of Interpol aka Julian Plenti.

This is Paul’s second solo album in 3 years.  The album preceding this release was 2009’s Julian Plenti is…..Skyscraper.  His second effort has a less pretentious album title, it simply is Paul Banks, but there is a reason he chose to drop the Julian Plenti moniker.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Paul conducted by FaceCulture (The whole interview can be found on Youtube):

“I never really pegged myself or looked at myself as a performer.  I think I like making art but the performance side of things was always a little strange for me….so I kind of gravitated in the early days to having an alter ego and a stage name and sort of trying to inhabit that idea of a public face to the art….Before Interpol even got off the ground, I was using that stage name.  I almost used my stage name in Interpol and then the band kind of collectively decided we would all use our real names but I was going to be Julian Plenti in the band."

"The reason why I did my 1^st record as Julian Plenti was because I basically, I had these songs before the band..and I just kind of left them there….I was originally going to be a solo artist and then I kind of got seduced into being in this band because I loved what they were doing.  I told myself at the time that I joined Interpol, you need to come back to this and finish what you started..because this is really your identity."

"As far as why not on this one [record] is because with the exception of ‘Summer Time is Coming’, there is no music on this record that dates back from that period….The first record had to be that because they were Julian Plenti songs.  These songs are just my most recent material, and I just felt it would be a little forced for me to continue with the alter ego for this record.”

A quick listen to ‘The Base’ should remind listeners and fans of the music from Interpol, simply because of Paul’s voice.  However, it would be a mistake to quickly throughout Paul’s songs as Interpol lite.  Paul does attempt to create his own sound and the listener can judge how well he succeeds. 

Like Interpol, this music does find Paul singing songs about his prevalent malaise.  It would be unique if one day something great happened in Paul’s life where his music would reflect a more upbeat attitude, however, such is his art and it is what fans have come to expect from him.

As a fan of Interpol, I much rather prefer the work Paul has done in that band and I feel nothing in his solo records come close to touching the greatness found on Interpol albums like Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics.

With that said, enjoy the song and Part 3 of the FaceCulture interview.