Screen Shot: Strokes Front Man
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"Is This It?" met with Julian Casablancas in march and got the low-down on The Strokes rise to fame and how they took it, band manager, Ryan Gentles, wasn't free, but we spoke to the five band members on their own. The interview took place in july lastyear before their numerous gigs and was focused on the start of their success to their aspirations in the future.
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"We're not like fucking Oasis in England or anything like that, you know?" --- Julian Casablancas March 2002
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We recently caught up with lead singer Julian Casablancas on the road to ask him some of the more controversial questions about being a rising star.
So how are you finding it going across America, after enjoying so much notoriety in England first? Do you feel that's working to your advantage, or against you?
Julian: We're not like fucking Oasis in England or anything like that, you know?
You do get compared to them a lot in the UK. You know, the album being compared to (Oasis's debut) Definitely Maybe and all.
Julian: When we get to England we play pretty much the same size rooms we do in New York or in LA. It's not like Beatlemania over there or anything like that. It's not like our faces are famous and we can't walk down the street, but that's sort of the perception of how it is here in America.
I was in England twice in the three months before your record came out here, and The Strokes were everywhere –– covers of magazines, billboards, on the radio, the music critics and promoters were all talking about you. And you played the main stage of Reading (alongside Marilyn Manson, Eminem, The Cult). I felt The Strokes vibe just by walking down the street. I would argue that when Is This It came out in America, far more people in Britain knew who you were when your record came out there. Do you see that as being an asset or a liability in America?
Julian: I guess it helps. The tour in America has been really really good. Just overwhelmingly good. I had no idea that we could just sort of drive across America and have that many kids come to every show that we play. Just like in the Midwest and on the West Coast and places we hadn't really played before.
You're very lucky.
Julian: Yeah, I know, probably the luckiest five kids in the world.
So from your fortunate perceptive, being inside the band, Julian, what do you think distinguishes The Strokes from other bands out there?
Julian: Oh shit. You know, a lot …… a lot. Ever since we were kids one of our main goals was to not sound like anything that was on the radio and to not sound like anything, really. It was to make some sort of futuristic sounding music with obvious influences in it. I don't know, but I think our sound is really what distinguishes us from everyone. Just the fact that we're friends too, and we actually enjoy what we're doing. It's not a job for us, it's like having a good time and I think that transcends to people when we play live or even just when you put on our record.
What has been your biggest obstacle so far in getting your music out there and getting it heard?
Julian: I don't really look at it that way, we just sort of take little baby steps. We haven't really had to overcome anything huge just because we're going step by step, not really skipping anything. I don't know, just playing like when you go to a town for the second time and you're playing a much bigger place, that's pretty cool. Reading was different just because it's not like your show, you're at a festival and the crowd is so big, it's almost like you're just playing to one giant scary fan. I don't really compare those festival shows to our shows that we do on tour and shit.
Every time I go to Reading I just stand there and think oh my god Kurt Cobain, Neil Young, Paul Weller, almost anyone I've ever respected musically has been right here. I saw Noel Gallagher checking out your set, actually. I'm so overwhelmed just being able to be backstage, much less onstage. Did you guys think about that when you were standing there?
Julian: Yes. Yes. And we were really concerned with living up to what a lot of British people had been saying about us. We were really, really, really nervous. I felt like we didn't really do the best show, like on account of nervousness. We didn't really give it up. But we did Reading and then we did Leeds the day after that, and that was a little bit better.
Why did you decide to take the ““New York City Cops”” song off the US release of your debut album? It's a bummer.
Julian: I guess it is a bummer. That whole thing happened and it's just so weird and we didn't want our record to come out and have it be overshadowed by what was going on. We didn't want to have any affiliation whatsoever. And the song has nothing to do with what happened, the song was written a year before that. But we didn't want to be affiliated with any sort of political current event type thing. And who knows, maybe later on when they print more maybe we'll put it back on, but for now we just felt it was appropriate to take it off. We don't want people to get the wrong idea.
I understand why you took it off, but probably understand more why you wrote it. Along those lines, why did you agree to change the ““naked”” album artwork that originally came out in the UK?
Julian: That was my decision. The one with the ass on it (UK release), we had sort of decided to release that and then we were walking through the airport in Australia and i was flipping through some book of art and found this image that he fell in love with and decided that he wanted it to be the album cover. And we all agreed with him and backed him on it. It was suppose to be the album cover for the whole world, but it was too late because they had already pressed thousands of copies in all these countries, so we decided to just change it in North America. And that was the reasoning behind it. That's all. It's not a huge thing. People always get the wrong idea, it wasn't because we're compromising ourselves or compromising our album cover to maximize record sales. It's not that at all, it's simply a question of aesthetics. It's true, Charles. It's true.
What are some other Strokes “on the road” stories that come to mind?
Julian: Oh gosh. It changes every week. It's just like things feel normal every once in a while, but then you get moments where it just hits you, like man, we're a touring band, like a legitimate band with a tour bus and fans and big shows. A year ago I would go to Irving Plaza and see a band and be like wow. And now that's us. That's strange. So you get those sort of weird almost like flashback moments where it's just like oh my god, this is crazy.
Even writing about bands, when I was kid I never imagined that my life could be so cool. Is it the same for you?
Julian: Yeah, it is exactly the same. Well I imagined it, that's for sure. But I only imagined it and now we're all going through it together. It's really cool though hanging out with your four best friends and just being able to go from town to town and play shows to a bunch of people, it's the fucking coolest thing in the world. I couldn't have asked for anything cooler in life.
So tell me about the other guys. How would you describe, say Nikolai?
Julian: I don't know if I should do that while they're not here, I feel like I'd be back talking them.
That's only if you say negative things ... why don't you talk about the best qualities of each one?
Julian: Well, Albert is cool, because Albert is just genuinely happy and generous. What I've always liked about him is that he doesn't have to try to be generous or try to be happy. He's just that way naturally. Nikolai is cool because he's really, really smart and doesn't say something unless it has to be said. Doesn't talk unnecessarily, so when he says something he means it. And Fab is just also really, really smart and funny. Just fun to have around …… a presence in the room. And Nick is obviously talented. A little bit crazy, always fun. They're my friends. It's hard to describe the personalities of your best friends to someone who has met them before. Like I'm trying to sell you my friends, I don't feel comfortable doing that.
What do you think they would say about you?
Julian: They'd probably call me a cocky bastard.
So what other roles do you guys assume in the band, besides the instruments you play?
Julian: It's always sort of changing with us. We all keep each other in check when things get out of hand. It's not like any of us have set roles, like in the relationship circle. We all have similar personalities and interests so we just enjoy each other's company. When one person needs to assume a particular role, he can.
In stepped Nick Valensi...
How did you start playing guitar?
Nick: My father bought me a guitar when I was a wee lad and he taught me a couple of things. He didn't really know how to play that well, but he knew some pretty basics things like a couple of open chords. So I learned that at a pretty early age, around six or seven. Then a couple of years later, I started taking lessons officially. Music was just in my childhood. I was the six-year-old who watched MTV religiously and worshipped Guns N' Roses and The Cult. Compared to all the other rock music that was out at the time, they were just the shit. For me it was a (Reading) highlight because I've never seen The Cult live. I didn't see them there either, they were on a different day then us, but it was cool being on the same festival.
Did all of you guys grow up watching MTV?
Nick: I didn't know them when I was that young, I met all the others when I was about 13, and by then MTV was just not cool anymore. When I was 13, I was really heavy into Nirvana, Pearl Jam that whole thing. That influenced all of us at an early age, hugely. We weren't like underground kids, we were never the kind of kids who fished for obscure records and shit like that. Whatever got to you, got to you and you filtered out all the bad shit and whenever there was something really good, which was really rare, you sort of held onto it and tried to learn from it I guess.
What else besides music were you guys into then?
Nick & Julian: Nothing. Since we were kids, music was always a source of work and a source of play. It's what we did all the time. It's what we talked about, it's what we enjoyed doing. We weren't like jocks and none of us were really writers, none of us were interested in acting. I'm just trying to think of the arts... Fab likes to paint and sculpt I know that, but none of the others. Before people started paying attention to us, he was in school studying sculpture. I studied English (American Literature), Nikolai also studied English and music. Albert was studying film at first, but then switched to music. And Julian studied music in school for a little while, then he bartended. We were all just really into music, and making each other laugh and sort of quoting movies every once in awhile. That's all.
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