RA Podcast

Frontman Paul Banks on the legacy band's creative evolution, why he prefers hip-hop to rock and their new album, This Mirror Weighs a Ton.

Interpol might not be electronic in the traditional sense, but they've long been the techno fan's indie band of choice. Cofounded by lead singer Paul Banks and guitarist Daniel Kessler in 1997—Banks is the lyricist, Kessler the composer—they emerged in Manhattan's burgeoning guitar music scene. Their 2002 debut, Turn On the Bright Lights, is widely considered one of the defining albums of the decade, and landed them in the middle of the early-'00s New York rock revival alongside The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and LCD Soundsystem. They went on to shape the moody, post-punk revival canon that defined the following decade.

Interpol are now back with an album that's been called their best in years: This Mirror Weighs a Ton. In this Exchange, Banks unpacks the LP's conception and composition with producer Andrew Wyatt—best known for his work with artists like Bruno Mars, Charli xcx and Dua Lipa—and its darker lyrical meditations on drone footage, mediated violence and the surveillance state.

Banks also reveals the version of himself that isn't typically in the press cycle. Outside of Interpol, the singer is an avid beatmaker who hasn't listened to rock music in over twenty years. He DJs hip-hop under the name Fancypants, released a sample-based mixtape featuring US rapper Talib Kweli and has collaborated with everyone from Wu-Tang's RZA to Kool Keith, Ghostface Killah and Method Man. In this conversation, he explains why he thinks hip-hop is the only genre still meaningfully inventing language—and what that means for the band he's been fronting for nearly 30 years. This Mirror Weighs a Ton is out now on Partisan Records.

Listen to the episode in full.

Supersized techno, from the Vault Sessions darling.

If you're part of the post-2020 cohort of techno heads, odds are you've heard of Grace Dahl. The Amsterdam native has become ubiquitous the past few years, via her DJing, productions and her label, Serial Disc Touchers. Her techno is energetic, embracing and big without sacrificing complexity or detail. This wasn't overnight, though: born in Hungary to seasoned ravers, Dahl started playing out at 18 and landed a residency at Vault Sessions and regular Berghain appearances soon after. Serial Disc Touchers, Vol. 1, a collaborative EP with Alec Dienarr, moves from ropey tech house to peaktime anthems and after hours acid, held together by her balance of floor functionality and emotional finesse.

Dahl brings the same MO to her RA Mix. Starting with a melancholic selection of dubbed-out techno, she waits until the 20-minute mark to get things funky. From there, RA.1055 is all party: bleep techno ready for a carnival, outrageous 303 work and a hint of vintage UK rave, with a tracklist spanning VNTM and Villa to Luke Slater, Underworld and Ian Axide. Big-room techno done right—careful and considerate in selection but ready to blast your boots off.

Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/1074
@gracedahl
@vault-sessions-collective

A decade on from her breakthrough, Jorja Smith reflects on growing up in the public eye, staying independent and turning towards the dance floor.

Jorja Smith's career took off in 2016, when "Blue Lights" introduced her voice to a global audience. In the 10 years since that single went stratospheric, the Walsall-born artist has released three albums, collaborated with Drake, Burna Boy, Wizkid and Ezra Collective, and built an international career without ever signing to a major label.

Her third album, What Are The Odds, marks a new chapter, as she turns towards the dance floor. Made entirely with producer P2J, the record draws from a broad palette of sounds, including UK garage, funky and Afro house—extending a run of summer-dominating, club-smashing collaborations with the likes of Nia Archives ("Little Things (Remix)") and Preditah ("On My Mind.")

Smith has described it as music to make people move, and she'll take the tracks to London's O2 Arena next summer for the first headline show at the venue of her career.

In this Exchange, Smith talks to RA's Content Product Lead Antonia Odunlami about growing up in the public eye, moving back to Walsall after London became too much and protecting the parts of herself she wants to keep private. She also discusses remaining independent, learning to set goals and how she curated her recent All Points East set.

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@jorjasmith

90 minutes of trip-hop and electronica, as the elusive SUED founder walks down memory lane.

Everything is cyclical. Stick around long enough and what was new and thrilling, then gauche, comes back around, rediscovered by a generation seeing it with fresh eyes. The trip-hop revival of the 2020s is a neat example. But what does it sound like coming from someone who was there the first time?

SW., AKA Stefan Wust, has an answer. The producer co-founded SUED in 2011 with SVN, a label whose hypnotic, stripped-back records arrived untitled and unannounced, and disappeared from Hard Wax just as quietly. For his RA Mix, he reaches back to those formative years, digging through trip-hop, breakbeat and electronica. Famously elusive, he explains in a rare Q&A below that the mix isn't a historical reconstruction but "an attempt to bring that memory back to life through my perspective today."

Built from loops, delay and hard cuts, RA.1054 reassembles the music of his youth rather than filing it away. His Reminder series did the same for Detroit and Chicago; this goes somewhere he never has, to the trip-hop and downtempo end of the same decade. An excerpt of Rachmaninov's Liturgy of St John Chrysostom sets church-like choral vocals against decaying electronics from Twine and Gridlock, and of course it wouldn't be trip-hop without Tricky.

Find the tracklist and Q&A at ra.co/podcast/1073

The British jungle star reflects on grief, artistic integrity, bass communities and why slowing down has become central to the next phase of her career.

In 2019, SHERELLE's life changed when a viral Boiler Room set introduced her high-speed blend of jungle, footwork and hardcore to a global audience. This much we know. So what comes after the storm?

In the 2020s, the Londoner has become one of the most recognisable figures in UK dance music: major festival stages, a BBC Radio 6 Music show and even a MOBO award. Yet after putting herself through over 100 shows a year, and turning 30, she began to question the pace of life as a touring DJ. The deaths of two close family members over the past 12 months brought those questions into focus, reshaping how she thinks about DJing, friendship, club culture and what she wants to leave behind.

In this Exchange, SHERELLE speaks with RA Editor Gabe Szatan about learning to take pride in her achievements, resisting the pressure to turn music into social media content and giving UK bass artists their flowers while they're still here.

She also discusses Hooversound—the label she runs with NAINA—racial and class hierarchies that shape dance music, and Rest & Restoration, her new party built around longer sets, affordable tickets and a simple philosophy to slow down, and make time for the people you love.

Listen to the episode in full.

@iamsherelle