Dazed Digital: Do you prefer writing and crafting your music to touring and promoting it?
Daniel Kessler: The two feed off of each other. When we first started touring we realised we couldn't write on the road - they're two totally different beasts. I enjoy coming back from tour, waking up in the morning, picking up the guitar and writing for three hours. It's not something I'm able to do on the road, but performing the songs is equally as fulfilling.

DD: Do you have to psyche yourself up before going on tour?
Daniel Kessler: TheNot really, it's more about timing and learning how to pace yourself. We've toured a hell of a lot now, and we know our own temperament and what each band member might be more sensitive towards. I guess we've still got things to learn but as four grown men travelling together and doing something so intense we've learnt what's bullshit and what's not.

DD: How do you deal with the success Interpol have achieved?
Daniel Kessler: The We made music for almost five years without anyone paying any mind, so when you think back to that it really helps in grounding you. I remember being depressed and really frustrated at the time sending out demos to every single label you could think of. Matador rejected us three times before they said yes, but I was working at a label myself so I knew you couldn't take it personally, it was just the nature of the beast. At the same time it really solidified my belief in what we were doing because it proved we had the drive to stick it out and weren't making music for superficial reasons. Every time we practiced and a new idea came about my brain would be stimulated in a way unlike anything else, and it put me in an almost Zen-like state where deals and all that shit didn't matter. I think we were part of the last sedge of bands that had to work hard and pay their dues, and it really helped us because we wouldn't have been able to handle it if we'd be thrown into the limelight straight away.

DD: That said, it must be difficult writing with so much expectation hanging over your heads?
Daniel Kessler: The You know, it really isn't. I don't know what it is about us but we kind of have a sixth sense which enables us to be very natural and organic when we're writing. We're four strong, stubborn personalities so there's enough pressure from each other alone without taking notice of anyone else's viewpoints.

DD: Your new album 'Our Love To Admire' is your most ambitious work yet. How much of a challenge was the creation process?
Daniel Kessler: The You can never predict where a song's going to go - from the minute you start writing them they take their own direction. The Heinrich Manoeuvre might sound like one of the most straightforward tracks on the album but we actually hit a bit of a roadblock when writing the middle section. Wrecking Ball almost didn't make it onto the record for the same reason, but others like Pioneer To The Falls and Mammoth came together insanely quickly. Interpol at it's finest is when we have this great flow of ideas and synergy, and we really tried to build on that with the more ethereal tracks like The Lighthouse.

DD: Did you worry that this new expansiveness in sound would cause problems when taking the songs to the stage?
Daniel Kessler: TheYeah, we knew they'd be a bigger challenge to perform and that's why we're not playing all of them live just yet. When most bands expand their sound with orchestration it tends to be based on quite simple samples, but we actually have this crazy, dangerous system where each keyboard part is constructed from scratch, so it's not simply a case of flicking a switch on the sound desk. I don't know why but we always seem to make things difficult for ourselves.

DD: Do you have difficulty listening to any of the music you've recorded in the past?
Daniel Kessler: TheNo, not really. After recording something I move on and tend not to listen to it, but I'm still immensely proud of the work, and I wouldn't change anything if given the chance. If I'm in a bar and one of our tunes comes on I don't sit there cringing, but Paul can be quite a harsh critic sometimes. Occasionally he'll be like "Why didn't we do that bit differently?" but then he'll hear it again and say "Actually, it's pretty damn good." And the rest of us will be like "Yup, we knew that all along!"

Mammoth is released 10 September on Parlophone