If You Really Love Nothing

Album: Marauder (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • Interpol's Paul Banks explained to Q magazine that this galloping track is about the unwieldiness of love. "It ain't easy, man, on these streets" he laughed.
  • Interpol debuted the song when the band began their 2018 headline tour at Teatro de la Ciudad in Mexico City on August 13, 2018.
  • Paul Banks considers the song to have a similar sentiment to the one expressed by the Turn on the Bright Lights track "Stella was a diver and she was always down." He explained to NPR that both songs "center around a narrator who is perplexed by a woman with unwieldy psychological pathologies involving paranoia and dissociation. This song, like 'Stella,' suggests the narrator gives up on this woman ultimately."
  • The song's music video co-stars Twilight actress Kristen Stewart and American Horror Story actor Finn Wittrock as a couple who experience a night of drama at a swanky bar/restaurant. We watch Stewart's character sabotage their relationship, illustrating the song's dark, intense theme of destructive allure.

    "Kristen Stewart is the perfect actress for this part," said Banks. "I don't think there's anyone that could have better played the role. She nails it, and I love the performance from Finn Wittrock. Another wonderful casting choice - he plays the role of Kristen's beleaguered companion beautifully."

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