Interpol frontman Paul Banks has spoken out over how people’s fears are being exploited for “political gain”.

In a new interview with NME, the band opened about their new album ‘The Other Side Of Make Believe’ and how it was one of their darkest records.

“What I’m interested in exploring is not so much ‘what is the meaning’ as ‘what is meaning, and how is it formed?’ I think meaning doesn’t exist: it’s just the by-product of the language we use to describe,” Banks said when talking about the record.

He continued: “What’s really unsettling is the way people have started seeing this as an area for exploitation. They’ve figured out that if you tell the right people the right story, they’ll go along with it, and they’re willing to exploit people’s fears for political gain. It’s super-disingenuous and frightening.

“Historically speaking, we’ve hoped people at this level of power would have some kind of moral righteousness, and some selflessness, but the possibility of, ‘Wait… some of the most powerful people on the earth are manipulating information for political gain…’ – it’s such a dark notion that that right there is fodder for literature and song lyrics.”

The band also spoke about putting their seventh album together during the pandemic and how they received “rejection after rejection from every record label” during their early days.

Reviewing the new LP, which is out today (July 15), NME awarded ‘The Other Side Of Make Believe’ four stars and described it as adding up to a “confident, rewarding and subtly adventurous new chapter for Interpol”.

To celebrate the release of the record, the band are set to launch a new global exhibition and pop-up shop. ‘Big Shot City’, which will run from today until Sunday (July 17) in London, taking place simultaneously in Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City and Tokyo.

Alongside the London ‘Big Shot City’ exhibition, Interpol will play a three-day run of sold out album release shows across the capital this weekend, with the band visiting St John’s Hackney tomorrow (July 16), Pryzm (July 17) and Kentish Town Forum (July 18).