Sunday, January 15, 2006
The Strokes in the Mirror (UK)
6 January 2006
STROKES FOR FOLKS
They may not have had sales figures to match their profile, but to many The Strokes are the coolest band on the planet.
The good-looking, skinny New York boys are well known for their celebrity girlfriends (drummer Fab Moretti dates Drew Barrymore, guitarist Nick Valensi squires Amanda De Cadenet), and their roughneck punk sound ignited an international rock revolution when they emerged with their This Is The Modern Age EP in early 2001.
But the group’s frontman Julian Casablancas views the band’s chic image as an albatross hanging around their necks.
“To me it’s annoying because it’s not what my life feels like,” he explains. Recently married to Juliet Joslin, who works for the band’s management company, Julian, 27, has begun to put his wild party days behind him.
“It wasn’t a quick romance,” he says. “I’ve known her for something like seven years and by the time we got married we’d been together for two years. I felt real lucky – like I’d been taken over by a bigger power. You meet someone who makes you feel a better person and you feel the same way about them. I’ve never felt happier.
“How have I changed? Well, I’m always trying to be a better person, trying not to be an asshole. It is tough. Communication is a strange thing. Little things can make a big impression. You change a line, a word, or the way you are looking at someone when you say it, and it alters the way relationships will develop. I feel things are clearer and more fulfilled since I got married.”
Julian is also looking forward to the release of the new Strokes album, First Impressions Of Earth, the follow-up to the band’s underperforming second effort, Room On Fire.
The album’s meaty production, courtesy of former Paul McCartney producer David Kahne, sounds like an attempt to ensure that the band’s sales catch up with their often slavering press coverage.
“I didn’t really see it that way,” says Julian. “I know in the States that we don’t get played on radio or MTV, so it would be nice to get our foot through that door. We want to do it in a cool way with less corporate whoring, but maybe we went too much in the indie direction before. We’re still trying to figure out the balance. With David we got a bigger sound, but with the same vibe and attitude. It sounds like us.
“I didn’t really get a sense of David cracking the whip. At first I wouldn’t trust him. Part of me wants to let go completely, just do three takes my way and tell him to put it together. But I had to be sitting there to make sure that things I liked were kept in.”
And are you ready for the big breakthrough if it comes?
“I haven’t even tried to get my hopes up,” he says. “I’m excited and tense, but confident. I hope it does well, but I have no idea. We learned from Room On Fire not to get overconfident. We were popping the champagne corks and then it was like, ‘What do you mean it’s not selling?’”
The Strokes’ reputation as a hard-working, hard-partying band is pronounced, but Julian denies that he’s ever been floored by the lifestyle.
“Not clinically,” he laughs, “although sometimes I have laid in bed for a week. I have felt close to breaking down, but I don’t think I have ever been broken. Well, if I have I haven’t noticed it. We never had to stop a tour.”
It is not just his relationship with his wife that Julian has to attend to – his bonds with the band need constant attention.
“The relationships are fragile and complicated,” he says. “You have to work at it to make sure they function properly. We have our ups and downs, but overall I think we manage pretty well. It’s important to keep a balance to our schedule so that it doesn’t get to where we want to kill each other.
“It’s hard to find the balance. If you have too easy a week planned that can create problems too. It’s always a work in progress thing.”
One problem that seems to have been solved is Julian’s insomnia, something that has plagued him since the band first got started.
“Since I was 15 or 16, I’ve gone through phases were I couldn’t sleep, lying in bed until the sun comes up,” he says. “It’s unpredictable and I can’t connect it to anything – work, drinking, happiness or sadness. It’s totally random, but I feel fine now.”
On the new album, Julian shares songwriting duties with the rest of the group for the first time. “It’s been a good thing for everyone,” he admits. “I wanted everyone to feel that they could do their thing.”
And that has given him time to concentrate on his frontman duties.
“To be honest I used to do nothing to warm up. I’d smoke, drink, take whatever was put in front of me before a show and not take care of myself. The new songs are a little tougher to sing and so I have to take more care.
"I sometimes even catch myself humming songs before the show.”
First Impressions Of Earth is out now.
I think I've read almost all of the press regarding the Strokes as they've put out their third album and this is by far the most coherent interview that Julian has given. It's so coherent and sweet that I want to believe it but I can't. Why? It's the frigging Daily Mirror which is notorious for making things up, exaggerating, etc. So on the one hand we have a nice, sweet, believable article that it would be stupid to make up but then again we have a newspaper that does that sort of thing routinely and which no one (other than Jude Law's nanny) gives actual interviews to. It's the bastardized British equivalent of The Enquirer. For example, The Mirror is also currently running this quote from Sienna Miller:
"Daisy [the nanny] better live in fear. I'm quite looking forward to the days when our paths will cross, which I know they will," snarled Sienna. "I just hope that woman doesn't run into me in a dark alley!"
Right! I'm sure that Sienna Miller spent weeks with a Vogue journalist painting a rosy picture of herself and her "we're just close friends now" stance regarding Jude Law only to turn around and exclusively tell a tabloid that she's actually planning on beating up a nanny.
I guess I should shut up and be bemused that a gossip rag found one of my favorite bands worth writing about period without resorting to the Drew Barrymore or Amanda de Cadenet angles. This is a magazine that announced Julian Casablancas' engagement to Juliette Lewis (because God forbid there be another person on the planet with the same general first name). Even this article misnames the band's debut EP.
STROKES FOR FOLKS
They may not have had sales figures to match their profile, but to many The Strokes are the coolest band on the planet.
The good-looking, skinny New York boys are well known for their celebrity girlfriends (drummer Fab Moretti dates Drew Barrymore, guitarist Nick Valensi squires Amanda De Cadenet), and their roughneck punk sound ignited an international rock revolution when they emerged with their This Is The Modern Age EP in early 2001.
But the group’s frontman Julian Casablancas views the band’s chic image as an albatross hanging around their necks.
“To me it’s annoying because it’s not what my life feels like,” he explains. Recently married to Juliet Joslin, who works for the band’s management company, Julian, 27, has begun to put his wild party days behind him.
“It wasn’t a quick romance,” he says. “I’ve known her for something like seven years and by the time we got married we’d been together for two years. I felt real lucky – like I’d been taken over by a bigger power. You meet someone who makes you feel a better person and you feel the same way about them. I’ve never felt happier.
“How have I changed? Well, I’m always trying to be a better person, trying not to be an asshole. It is tough. Communication is a strange thing. Little things can make a big impression. You change a line, a word, or the way you are looking at someone when you say it, and it alters the way relationships will develop. I feel things are clearer and more fulfilled since I got married.”
Julian is also looking forward to the release of the new Strokes album, First Impressions Of Earth, the follow-up to the band’s underperforming second effort, Room On Fire.
The album’s meaty production, courtesy of former Paul McCartney producer David Kahne, sounds like an attempt to ensure that the band’s sales catch up with their often slavering press coverage.
“I didn’t really see it that way,” says Julian. “I know in the States that we don’t get played on radio or MTV, so it would be nice to get our foot through that door. We want to do it in a cool way with less corporate whoring, but maybe we went too much in the indie direction before. We’re still trying to figure out the balance. With David we got a bigger sound, but with the same vibe and attitude. It sounds like us.
“I didn’t really get a sense of David cracking the whip. At first I wouldn’t trust him. Part of me wants to let go completely, just do three takes my way and tell him to put it together. But I had to be sitting there to make sure that things I liked were kept in.”
And are you ready for the big breakthrough if it comes?
“I haven’t even tried to get my hopes up,” he says. “I’m excited and tense, but confident. I hope it does well, but I have no idea. We learned from Room On Fire not to get overconfident. We were popping the champagne corks and then it was like, ‘What do you mean it’s not selling?’”
The Strokes’ reputation as a hard-working, hard-partying band is pronounced, but Julian denies that he’s ever been floored by the lifestyle.
“Not clinically,” he laughs, “although sometimes I have laid in bed for a week. I have felt close to breaking down, but I don’t think I have ever been broken. Well, if I have I haven’t noticed it. We never had to stop a tour.”
It is not just his relationship with his wife that Julian has to attend to – his bonds with the band need constant attention.
“The relationships are fragile and complicated,” he says. “You have to work at it to make sure they function properly. We have our ups and downs, but overall I think we manage pretty well. It’s important to keep a balance to our schedule so that it doesn’t get to where we want to kill each other.
“It’s hard to find the balance. If you have too easy a week planned that can create problems too. It’s always a work in progress thing.”
One problem that seems to have been solved is Julian’s insomnia, something that has plagued him since the band first got started.
“Since I was 15 or 16, I’ve gone through phases were I couldn’t sleep, lying in bed until the sun comes up,” he says. “It’s unpredictable and I can’t connect it to anything – work, drinking, happiness or sadness. It’s totally random, but I feel fine now.”
On the new album, Julian shares songwriting duties with the rest of the group for the first time. “It’s been a good thing for everyone,” he admits. “I wanted everyone to feel that they could do their thing.”
And that has given him time to concentrate on his frontman duties.
“To be honest I used to do nothing to warm up. I’d smoke, drink, take whatever was put in front of me before a show and not take care of myself. The new songs are a little tougher to sing and so I have to take more care.
"I sometimes even catch myself humming songs before the show.”
First Impressions Of Earth is out now.
I think I've read almost all of the press regarding the Strokes as they've put out their third album and this is by far the most coherent interview that Julian has given. It's so coherent and sweet that I want to believe it but I can't. Why? It's the frigging Daily Mirror which is notorious for making things up, exaggerating, etc. So on the one hand we have a nice, sweet, believable article that it would be stupid to make up but then again we have a newspaper that does that sort of thing routinely and which no one (other than Jude Law's nanny) gives actual interviews to. It's the bastardized British equivalent of The Enquirer. For example, The Mirror is also currently running this quote from Sienna Miller:
"Daisy [the nanny] better live in fear. I'm quite looking forward to the days when our paths will cross, which I know they will," snarled Sienna. "I just hope that woman doesn't run into me in a dark alley!"
Right! I'm sure that Sienna Miller spent weeks with a Vogue journalist painting a rosy picture of herself and her "we're just close friends now" stance regarding Jude Law only to turn around and exclusively tell a tabloid that she's actually planning on beating up a nanny.
I guess I should shut up and be bemused that a gossip rag found one of my favorite bands worth writing about period without resorting to the Drew Barrymore or Amanda de Cadenet angles. This is a magazine that announced Julian Casablancas' engagement to Juliette Lewis (because God forbid there be another person on the planet with the same general first name). Even this article misnames the band's debut EP.
