Paul Banks explains who, what, when, where, and why he is Julian Plenti

Alex Young

May 19, 2009 | 4:00pm ET

After Dark Night of the Soul, Paul Banks’ upcoming solo album may be the most unique, and confusing release of the year. As we told you earlier this month, Banks, aka the frontman of Interpol, will soon emerge as Julian Plenti, aka a musical alter ego, with the release of Julian Plenti Is…Skyscraper, aka his debut solo album. Besides that, we didn’t really know all too much.

Well, that was before today.

It turns out, via the latest press release, that Banks developed the Julian Plenti alter ego in the mid-1990s, aka the times before Interpol. Then, he joined Interpol, and Julian Plenti “went on sabbatical.” A decade later, Banks revived Julian Plenti, because he finally realized all one needs to do to release a solo album is acquire “the music production software Logic Pro.” And from there, the rest is history.

Julian Plenti Is…Skyscraper will be released on August 4th via Matador Records. It will consist of 11 tracks, many of which feature guests, like Ratatat’s Mike Stroud, Interpol’s Sam Fogarino, and The Occasion’s Charles Burst – no word on whether everyone circled around Banks’ computer to accomplish this feat, though we can certainly hope so. It will be supported by “select shows.”