Daniel Alexander Kessler (born 25 September 1974) is the

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

ist and

backing vocalist A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

for the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based band

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

. He was raised in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, unlike his brother, former ''Q'' magazine editior Ted Kessler.

Biography

Interpol

Kessler was born in London, England. It was his desire to play in a band which made him approach

Carlos Dengler Carlos Andres Dengler (born April 23, 1974), previously known as Carlos D., is an American actor, musician, writer, and filmmaker, known as the former bassist, bass guitarist for American rock music, rock band Interpol (band), Interpol. After dep ...

, with whom he attended a history class in

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. Kessler knew

lead singer The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Paul Banks from a summer program in Paris, France, and asked him to join the band when he ran into him in New York. Kessler's dormmate

Greg Drudy Greg Drudy is an American musician, primarily known for playing drums in several indie rock and screamo bands in the 1990s and 2000s. Career Drudy started his career on drums practicing with the defunct band Quid Pro Quo in a Tampa warehouse nex ...

was Interpol's first

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

. When Drudy left the band, Kessler asked his friend

Sam Fogarino Samuel Joseph Fogarino (born August 9, 1968) is the drummer of the band Interpol. He has played in bands such as the Holy Terrors, Gus, the Wahoos, Napoleon Solo, the Ton-ups and the Last Night. Biography Fogarino began to play the drums at the ...

to replace him. Kessler had prior experience in the music industry while working for

Domino Recording Company Domino Recording Company or simply Domino is a British independent record label based in London. There is also a wing of the label based in Brooklyn, New York that handles releases in the United States, as well as a German division called Dom ...

, and his knowledge of the business was very helpful to the band in their early years. He brought all the members together, and has said that he was looking mostly for specific personal qualities each member could bring to the group rather than just musical talent. He is a graduate of

's (NYU)

Gallatin School of Individualized Study The Gallatin School of Individualized Study (commonly referred to as Gallatin) is a small interdisciplinary college within New York University (NYU). Students at Gallatin design an interdisciplinary program that meets their specific interests a ...

in French,

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

. Kessler has been known as the member of the band who has been the most active in the New York underground rock scene, which included his jobs at multiple record labels, such as Domino Records and trading their early demo tape around to various bands and labels.

Big Noble

In 2014, Kessler announced a new side project with sound designer Joseph Fraioli of Datach'i called

Big Noble Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * '' Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show present ...

. Their debut album "First Light" was released on 2 February 2015.

Gear

In the band's early days, he was seen playing a red

Rickenbacker Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range ...

and a sunburst

Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bod ...

, but has since performed with a sunburst

Epiphone Casino The Epiphone Casino is a thinline hollow body electric guitar manufactured by Epiphone, a branch of Gibson. The guitar debuted in 1961 and has been associated with such guitarists as Howlin' Wolf, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, K ...

and a cherry

Gibson ES-330 The Gibson ES-330 (1959-1972) is a thinline hollow-body electric guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. It was first introduced in 1959 and the guitar had the same dimensions as the ES-335. History Sales of Gibson’s Electric S ...

as his main onstage guitars. The red Rickenbacker apparently belonged to Interpol's first keyboardist. He also owned another Casino in a cherry red, that was stolen from their green room alongside one of Banks' guitars by a drug addict in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

while the band was touring in support of ''

Turn on the Bright Lights ''Turn On the Bright Lights'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Interpol. It was released in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2002, and in the United States the following day, through independent record label Matador Records. The a ...

''. Following Interpol's third album, Daniel has also been seen on stage playing a sunburst Gretsch 6117-TH Anniversary on the track 'The Lighthouse' and also on their self-titled album 'Interpol'. He states in an interview around 2006, following the release of ''Antics'', that he plays through an old Fender Twin amplifier combined with a Fender Pro Reverb. His pedalboard includes: *BOSS TU-2 Tuner *BOSS TR-2 Tremolo *BOSS DD-5 Delay (Only for Evil) *MXR Carbon Copy *Tech 21 Comptortion *Vox V810 *Z.vex Super Duper 2-in-1 *Keeley Fuzz Head *Z.vex Super Hard-On *EHX Holy Grail

Personal life

Since 2006, he resides in a loft in the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

, and is the only band member who is a

pescetarian Pescetarianism (; sometimes spelled pescatarianism) is the practice of incorporating seafood into an otherwise vegetarian diet. Pescetarians may or may not consume other animal products such as eggs and dairy products. Approximately 3% of adult ...

(formerly having been a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

) and does not

smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product ...

. He also is fluent in French, having lived in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

- growing up in a village outside of Paris - until the age of 11. Kessler is co-owner of the

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

restaurant Bergen Hill, and is an investor in numerous

area bars. He is the younger brother of music journalist and former editor of '' Q'' magazine Ted Kessler. As of 2022 Kessler was reported to be living mainly in Barcelona, Spain.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kessler, Daniel English rock guitarists 1974 births Living people Musicians from London Musicians from New York City Interpol (band) members Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School alumni 21st-century British guitarists American post-punk musicians