LiveDaily: In a recent interview, Paul [Banks, lead vocals and guitar] says that there was a lot of pressure on the band when recording "Antics" to measure up to the huge success of "Bright Lights"--but somehow you were able to release yourselves from that same pressure when recording "Our Love." Does he speak for the entire band when he says this?

Daniel Kessler: For me, I don't think we actually had pressure to ... I didn't feel pressure, I should say, for any of these records. I feel like we were pretty prepared when we were making "Antics," personally, because we never really stopped writing from when we were making "Bright Lights." We were very conscious of the fact that we were about to start touring and we knew our writing was about to change and be challenged by touring and doing interviews and attention. Then we kind of started writing really very quickly, so we basically never put down the writing pen. And that essentially just kind of helped us remember why we were doing this in the first place. So I didn't really feel any pressure with "Antics" as much as--well there's always a certain amount of pressure when making an album, not so much from worrying about it being good or people liking it, but more from the fact that it takes a lot of work to make something come out the way you want it to and things can get lost, very much, in the mix and in the recording studio. There's always that pressure to make sure that it comes out right, something that you can basically own up to the world, but I didn't feel pressure per se as far as success or expectations from others.

You released "Antics" very quickly after your last major tour, which gave you very little time to record that album, but you had a lot more time with "Our Love to Admire." How did taking more time change or affect the recording process?

[This time], we worked with someone else, Rich Costey, rather than producing it ourselves. [The recording process] changes when you're ... having a dialog with someone else and trying to create the best sound possible. It's not really the time. For us, for some reason, sometimes we just take a long time. I don't know what it is. We were pretty prepared for this record, as we were for all our records. We don't walk into a recording studio until all our songs have an identity and sort of, you know, we can play the songs. We've essentially rehearsed them, we write them in a rehearsal space and we know they're ready to record when we can really feel them...and it's up to you to make sure those moments come alive in the recording--and that sometimes takes time. And I don't know why this record took more time, but it wasn't due to difficulty or complications.

Which of your albums do you, personally, feel the most connected with and why?

Oh, they're all my children [laughs].

And you love them all equally.

[laughs] I think, artistically, you should always be the most connected to the last thing you did or what you're doing right now, so, for me, ["Our love to Admire"] is what I most identify with because that's me now. And I think the next thing I do will probably be the next thing that I'm most connected with. That said, I never want us to be one of those bands that are sort of like “yeah, we were trying to do this” or “I don't know why we did that.” To me, these are all moments of expression and I enjoy playing all these songs and, when I listen to all these records, I don't cringe. They're moments in time and moments that I always stand behind, but you've always got to keep moving forward, and the last thing we did is the closest to where we're at now.

You've definitely been a major influence on today's music scene, as there weren't a whole lot of bands out there with your sound when you first started--unlike now when bands are even being labeled as Interpol imitators. What was the band's reaction to this movement that you helped create?

I don't know, we don't really think on those terms. It's kind of funny when you go away for a few years and you come back. I think moreso now than ever, we really don't pay attention to what people are doing in other bands. ... You get so busy that, when you're just not doing band stuff, you just fall into [other] things that interest you. It just happens. And we, collectively, don't read music magazines to find out what's the latest and who's the newest; we don't do that. And I'm happy that we don't do that, because it's just not that interesting. ... I buy records all the time. I'm still into it, but I don't look at what the other guys are doing unless I'm already a fan. And it's flattering to think that possibly people might like us enough to be influenced by us, but I haven't really taken notice. But as I said, you go away for a few years then you come back and you start getting questions about influencing other bands that sound like you. It's not like I've noticed that, because I'm in a bubble. I don't listen to the radio and I don't have TV and I don't go reading up on the newest thing. So I like being in my bubble, I guess you could say.

So, in your bubble, who are you listening to right now?

Umm...In my bubble, I am listening to Liars because we just toured with them. I love them; they're a great band. A lot of electronic music. Not so many rock bands. I like the new Spoon record and the Blonde Redhead record, too.

So you've now moved from the clubs to playing some pretty large venues. Has that affected the way you approach performing?

No. Well, I mean, a bigger stage is a bigger stage, so it's going to affect our movements, but ultimately, it doesn't. In my opinion, a special show is a special show, and it could be in the biggest room in the world or the smallest one. So it doesn't really affect it. Surprisingly, the bigger stages, as much as it affects the intimacy, I don't think it necessarily loses it. It just changes it, for me at least. Maybe to a concertgoer it's a bit different, but to me, I like it. I still think there's room to connect with everyone who comes to the shows as a general mass of people moving with what you're doing, and you can kind of really feel the energy when it's roaring in a big room.

Do you think the fact that you're playing larger spaces might actually affect the band's songwriting or maybe the production?

Well, yeah, I think [so]. We just played Madison Square Garden, we just played the Forum in L.A. Those are big venues and you can't come in with the same lights and stuff like that; you do have to bring in more production. It doesn't mean that you're gonna all of a sudden have fire shooting out of the ground or a little Stonehenge moment. You're gonna do whatever in that environment feels comfortable to you, and it just happens that we're very associated with lights, and have always been since we got a lighting person. ... And the lights really move in conjunction with the changes in the song, and that's kind of something that I would always like to be there. So, if you're playing a bigger venue, the lights should be a little bit bigger, but ultimately it should be the same principle.

Describe your most memorable on-stage moment.

That's a tough one. Coachella's very memorable because it was our first show in the US in over two years and it was a memorable one. There was like 50,000 people there, and I didn't know what it was gonna be like and how I was gonna feel. I can't really say, though, because I've had a lot of very memorable experiences. Playing Madison Square Garden in my hometown ... The Forum was special, and Mexico City, that's always special, that's always one of my favorite places to play. There's a lot [of memorable moments]. One day, I'll sit back and I'll kind of look back, but right now it's harder for me to do that. I keep looking forward.