Carlos Dengler

Carlos Andres Dengler (born April 23, 1974), previously known as Carlos D., is an American musician best known as the former bass guitarist for the post-punk/rock band Interpol.

Early life

Born in Queens, New York to a Colombian mother from California and German father. He and his family lived there until his early teens, after which they relocated to New Jersey. Speaking to Spin magazine in 2005, Dengler described this move and the subsequent period as formative.

Interpol

While attending New York University (NYU) in 1998, he was approached by the guitarist Daniel Kessler after a class the two had enrolled in. Kessler had been looking for musicians to play with and assumed Dengler to be one based on the clothes he wore, a style Kessler described as "similar to the way he's dressed now". He was studying philosophy and history at the time and wanted to pursue a career as an academic but agreed to play with the then unformed band, eventually finding his place within the group.

Dengler's trademark style is marked by grounded and stylized bass lines, strident staccato bursts, a clean tone brought about by his Fender Jazz Bass, and octave jumps, almost in a disco-like fashion. The low E string is lowered to D as the band writes many songs in the keys of D and B minor. One of his influences is the Joy Division/New Order bass guitarist Peter Hook and, like Hook, he also wears his bass guitar very low – often near knee level – and uses a pick to pluck the strings. Others of his biggest bass influences are Simon Gallup of The Cure and John Taylor of Duran Duran.