Thoughts on the NARC remix by Paul Banks

Greetings to all,

I’d like to begin today with an observation:

“I think Paul's remix adds another aspect to ‘NARC.’…I've never thought of the remix though as a precursor to ‘The Lighthouse,’ but I would see how it would- the element of isolation, pensiveness, maybe even a little bit defeat, and acceptance of a certain fate/path” - Pallid Urchin

- Firstly, I agree with the opening comment regarding Paul’s remix of NARC—I hear the remix as revealing more of the true inner landscape of the protagonist portrayed in this song. I think it is significant that the remix ends before the protagonist has a chance to enter into what I call, in my extended analysis, his “fantasy” key: in the original version of NARC, the music moves to a new key just as Banks’ protagonist sings of entering his space with his lover (“we steps into my bedroom”…). The fact that Paul’s remix ends before this occurs underscores for me the “fantasy” of this moment. Eventually undermined in the original version with the onset of the final part of the song, this fantasy is altogether removed in Banks’ more intimate and sparse remix of the song.

- Secondly, I like the connection made between Paul’s NARC remix and “The Lighthouse,” as I also hear the two as resembling each other, especially in their textural character. When speaking of texture in music, I am trying to qualify feelings of “richness” or “sparseness” (or any other textural attribute) by drawing a metaphoric connection between these extra-musical attributes and a musical work’s instrumentation and production. I hear the “isolation” and “pensiveness” mentioned by Pallid Urchin as being a result, in both songs, of the instrumentation (mostly guitar, with other instruments added as quiet accompaniment), and also as a result of the production (the vocals sound as if they are echoing from a distance).

- Lastly, in “The Lighthouse,” I hear the “acceptance of a certain fate” particularly in the final section of the song, as the texture is filled out with bass and drums, and the tremolo guitar line becomes a short melody that is repeated four times; the rest of the band has shown up to draw the song to a definite close. Further, the final guitar melody itself sounds resolved to fate, as it begins with the interval of a perfect 4^th (interval referring to the “distance” between two notes—the spatialization of sound is crucial to Western music theory, though it does not intuitively work for everyone), which has symbolized throughout Western tonal music a sense of arrival, or finality.

- It is my hope that by (all too briefly) expounding upon comments like Pallid Urchin’s, we can discover together ways of thinking about Interpol’s music that elucidate our reactions to their songs. As always, your comments, thoughts, and/or questions are welcomed and encouraged – and for those of you who have already contributed to these, thank you, and look to the near future for your thoughts to be addressed here!

Love from,

Meg

P.S. I also want to answer quickly another question from Pallid Urchin:

“Are you planning on analyzing any other songs at some point? If so, which ones?” - Pallid Urchin

- As of yet, I’ve only studied NARC in depth—I prefer to make transcriptions of the songs before I interpret them, and these scores take me a few days of fairly intense concentration to produce—but I have ideas and observations regarding several of Interpol’s songs that I plan on putting to paper at some point in the near future. In particular, “Take You on a Cruise” and “Rest My Chemistry,” are high on my list. Thanks for asking!

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Question 2: Scales, notes, and composition

Question 2: “I've found with Interpol, that there is a tendency to stick to the same notes and chords. F major starts no less than 5 songs - four on Antics (i think). Is there in fact theoretical genius with the scales and notes used, or does Interpol's genius lie mainly in the composition of the basic parts of the song?” - Josh

Before getting to the meat of this question, I’d like to quickly address a few of the concepts brought up by Josh, which are the concepts of “scale,” “key,” and “chord,” in music. These concepts are related, in that they provide for us a way of theorizing about the palette of pitches that musicians use to write any given song. Both the scale and the key of a song tell us the specific collection of pitches that predominate throughout the song, as well as which will be the most commonly found chords (a “chord” is generally 3 or 4 notes played simultaneously, all of which are found “in” the key of the song). “F major,” refers to a type of chord, called a triad, which contains the pitches F, A, and C—this chord is found in the keys of F major, C major, B-flat major, etc.

~ The fact that Daniel, Paul, and Carlos all compose their music on guitars (though, as you know, Our Love to Admire saw Carlos integrating the keyboard parts earlier on in the compositional process than he had done in the past) is an important factor in their choice of keys, and therefore chords, for their songs. I find it fairly common to hear bands favoring one key over the others, and from my limited experience with playing the guitar, I can say that my hand usually favors certain shapes over others (this is also true when I play at the piano). Having heard in several interviews that, when the band convenes to write, Daniel often brings in a short lick that provides the springboard for a new song, a possible explanation for Josh’s observation is that (at the very least) Daniel’s hands might favor the F major shape.

~ The latter half of Josh’s question speaks more strongly to my reaction to Interpol’s music: for me, Interpol’s cleverness lies mainly in the composition and collaboration of each band member’s musical line. Aside from being in love with their music, part of what makes Interpol a fascinating band for me to study is the way in which they write their music—each band member has a say in the composition of the song, and somehow they manage to reconcile their individual tastes and needs in a piece of music that communicates collectively and coherently. I am able to hear “Sam” while at the same time hearing him interacting with “Paul,” while at the same time receiving a coherent communication from all 4 of them (including the keyboard) at once.

Thanks for the question—I hope this provided at least some illumination.

Love from,

Meg

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