Paul Banks is a musician, songwriter and singer from New York, noted for fronting one of New York’s most admired and respected bands, Interpol. Interpol’s debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights, and the follow-up, Antics, are widely acknowledged as the soundtrack for the lower east side of New York in the 2000s, two of the city’s defining albums, each amassing 1 million sales worldwide and US Gold status. Interpol has since progressed through generations and seven studio albums to scale new heights in 2024, playing the biggest live show on record in Mexico City to upwards of 200,000 at Zócalo Square, and headlining shows including L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl, New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, and numerous others worldwide. Paul has released music in various other guises; partnering with Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA as Banks & Steelz, with Josh Kaufman and the Walkmen’s Matt Barrick as Muzz, and as a solo artist both as Julian Plenti and under his own name. Paul’s debut film score and OST for the film Sister Midnight is released, whilst Interpol works on new music set for 2026.
Three Great Things is Talkhouse’s series in which artists tell us about three things they absolutely love. To mark the release this Friday of writer-director Karan Kandahari’s new dark comedy Sister Midnight, starring Radhika Apte and with a score by Interpol’s lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Paul Banks, the acclaimed singer, songwriter and DJ shared some of the things that he enjoys most in life. — N.D.
Great Movies (Especially Ones with Just One Character)
When I was a youngster in Michigan, my brother and I grew up watching movies from early childhood, when HBO and cable TV were a new thing. A film that made a strong impression on me was To Live and Die in L.A., which you shouldn’t really see as a little kid. Another big one for me was a spy adventure movie called Cloak and Dagger that, even in retrospect, I think is a great film for children. I liked big Hollywood films and a lot of the stuff that played on HBO when I was growing up, but when I was in my senior year of high school and then went to college, I met a bunch of real cinema buffs and got introduced to the works of Roman Polanski, Orson Welles, David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch. Around that same time, I discovered the IFC Film Channel, and that really awoke in me a deeper appreciation for cinema.
Nowadays, what I watch depends on what phase I’m in. I went through a phase where I watched every Clint Eastwood Western. I’m also a big fan of sci-fi. And I’m a big fan of simple films, and there are a handful of films that I’ve appreciated in recent years that basically feature just one person. So, from that category I could single out movies like All Is Lost with Robert Redford and Locke with Tom Hardy, and there’s a fucking great straight-to-Netflix film starring Mélanie Laurent called Oxygen, about a woman who wakes up alone in a pod. That movie is surprisingly good. And then, of course, there’s Moon! I just think anything that can get by with just one actor on screen, and doesn’t suffer for that fact, is as engaging as a movie can be. It’s about a mastery of the craft by all parties. I just love a movie with only one person on camera!
Boxing
I had always wanted to do some kind of martial arts since I was a wee boy, watching The Karate Kid. When I was in college, I did a little bit of karate, and then for a minute I did a very trendy martial art called Krav Maga (which I think might have been the style of combat that Christian Bale was utilizing in the Christopher Nolan Batman movies). But then maybe 12 years ago, my girlfriend at the time was learning to box. I had a session with her trainer and it just erupted into a real passion for me. That was my entry point into having a proper coach for a martial art, and the practice just happened to be boxing. I think it was a time in my life when it really suited me to be a student; I had a good coach, so I got really into it, and now boxing is a consuming passion for me, both as a participant and a fan.
I think one of the most interesting things about training as a boxer is that it gives you a different perspective on the idea of confrontation; in a weird way, it teaches you that it’s really OK to walk away from a physical confrontation. Before you’ve had some training or learned the discipline, it’s almost like an ego thing that you’ve got to throw hands with somebody. But once you’ve seen what some people in the gym are capable of – and that some little dudes can beat the shit out of you – you find a humility that makes you not want to get your ass kicked. Also, I think a lot of confrontations come from fear; once you have a little less fear, there’s less inclination to get involved in confrontation. If some drunk person were to come up to me and provoke me, I no longer feel like I’d have to prove myself; I could just walk away.
It’s a great era for boxing right now. My favorite boxer in recent years is Gennadiy Golovkin, who’s now retired, but right now I really like Shakur Stevenson and Vergil Ortiz Jr. Dmitry Bivol’s exciting and a lot of fun, and I have a lot of respect for Artur Beterbiev. At the start of the month, I saw Terence Crawford face off with Canelo Alvarez, and I didn’t know until then that he was as tall as Canelo, so I suddenly feel like Canelo might have some serious problems with him. That’s going to be an awesome fight, like the Canelo-Golovkin fights, which were amazing. I just think Canelo is such a great figure in the sport. He’s just got a big heart for days, which he showed when he was getting his ass whooped by Bivol. I love his personality outside of the ring, too. He just carries himself really well.
Food
One of my great passions is food, and that can be either cooking or going out to restaurants. I had a buddy in high school who inspired me early on and made me a few dishes that I then started to emulate, when I was in college. Since the pandemic, I basically cook every day for my wife and my son. I think of cooking as an art form, like fashion, where it’s all about measurement and ratios, point and counterpoint. I love to dress and I love to cook, but I’ve never really felt that I’m particularly gifted at cooking. At times, I’ve come across people who just seem to have a gift, where they cook things in a way that’s both simple and sophisticated. People who have that touch and can take whatever happens to be in the fridge just invent something delicious from it. I aspire to that, but it’s beyond what I do.
For me, the preparation of food is really therapeutic, and the satisfaction of feeding people that I love is a great pleasure in life. I also have a big thing for kitchen knives being very sharp. I should really take a course with a chef, because I don’t even know properly how to dice like they do in fine restaurants, but I still dice up a storm every day!
As a restaurant goer, I’m not that adventurous, which I think is in part a reaction to how much time I’ve spent on tours, where you’re just always flying blind with regards to where you’re gonna eat. So when I am in a city I know well, I like going to tried-and-true places, especially if it’s for sushi. I live in Berlin now, and I’ve literally found one sushi place that I swear by. So when I do get back to New York or Los Angeles, I eat sushi four times a week, just to catch up on how much I missed it! I don’t mind mediocre Italian, American or Mediterranean food, but I absolutely can’t abide any sushi that isn’t tip-top.
