Seventeen years ago, Interpol burst out into the New York indie rock scene with “Turn On the Bright Lights.” Its debut album helped influence many artists in the 17 years it has been out, and has been named to numerous “Top Albums of the 2000s” lists, cementing the band’s place in rock history.

Daniel Kessler has been with the band as its lead guitarist since its inception in 1997. Over the past 22 years, Kessler has no regrets when it comes to his career. He likes to be present and savor the moments that comes along with being part of the band.

Over the past two decades, the band has seen a rise to fame — and a bit of controversy. Despite that, it has put out six records and several EPs.

“I think the evolution [of the band] is in those documents. It’s a lot of life! A lot of years! It’s a different way of living; a profound experience that’s something you have to be very grateful for,” Kessler said.

He thinks that the records give a good indication on how the band has evolved musically over the years. To this day, the musicians still have very strong chemistry, and ideas still take form.

“We’re still enjoying it, and we’re very blessed that people still come to our shows and seem interested in our music. It’s a fortunate place to be, considering the craziness of the digital world and so forth.”

Interpol has been on the road for more than a year, which keeps the musicians quite busy.

“It’s always enjoyable when we get to go somewhere that you don’t get to travel to very often. It’s great to just play there, after all these years,” Kessler says about playing in Charlottesville, “It’s a storied place and very historic, and the whole band is looking forward to starting off the next run of the tour right there.”

He can’t recall the last time the band played our area, if at all.

“I feel like we literally played there one time back in 2002 or 2003, but that would be the only time. That was a very long time ago, and we certainly haven’t been back since then.”

The band members all are happy to perform in places that aren’t “always on the typical routing map.” They’re starting off the next leg of their tour at the Jefferson Theater, and it’s something they’re all looking forward to doing.

Their latest release, an EP titled “A Fine Mess” follows their most recent album “Marauder,” which was released a little over a year ago. Kessler noted that the band wanted to do something a little bit different.

“We were conscientious that we wanted to try to not just make it an album. We wanted to do more than that, and potentially have a supplemental release,” he says, adding that he didn’t know if it would be an EP or something more at that point.

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Staying humble with Interpol's Daniel Kessler