Julian Casablancas: More Rock than Not

Arriving seven years after their last full album, The Strokes’ “The New Abnormal” is making headlines like they had never left. Having made many “Best Albums of 2020” lists, The Strokes surely still have what it takes to rock. And if we needed further proof, they’ve been nominated for the “Best Rock Album” Grammy for the first time in their 20-year career. However, lead singer Julian Casablancas is less excited about this accomplishment than he should be. In true don’t-give-a-damn rock star fashion, Casablancas says, “I’m not looking for Grammys as any kind of validation artistically. Basically, it validates you to people that don’t really understand music. If you’re a ‘Grammy-nominated artist’ it’s like, ‘Whoa, you’re like a serious musician.’”

Casablancas admits that “The New Abnormal” isn’t even his favorite album: “It’s my fourth favorite record I’ve ever been a part of.” The first two include the early Strokes’ albums “Is This It?” and “Room on Fire,” but the third remains a mystery. Indeed, Casablancas hints that the third will “get [him] in trouble.” In the past, Julian released his own solo album and is currently leading his own band, The Voidz. This electronic, experimental rock differs significantly from The Strokes, so one can only guess why his third favorite album might stir up some trouble. Especially when Casablancas views his music with The Voidz as “big if not bigger [than the Strokes], but with more meaning.”

To only add to the strain of Casablancas’ relationship with the Strokes, he recently revealed that he no longer enjoys playing their songs: “Like a little while ago, I saw someone perform a cover of some Top 40 song in an empty bar, like he probably just learned it two days ago. He was probably enjoying playing that more than I enjoy playing ‘Last Nite.’ I just smiled about it.” Casablancas blames his dislike on having to play the songs over and over, which only adds to his appeal in creating his own, new sound with The Voidz.

The discussion of the band’s infighting is not new. Drugs and alcohol placed strains on their relationships throughout the middle 2000s and early 2010s. Even though Casablancas cleaned his act up over fifteen years ago, his alcoholism almost tore the band apart after their third album, “First Impressions of Earth.” His former manager even described him as “a drunken nightmare to society as a whole.” He was known for horrible interviews where his sporadic actions and lousy attitude would ruin the whole experience. Casablancas himself admits that he “was probably charming 10 percent of the time, when I had a perfect buzz… You think it’s like truth serum, but it’s more like asshole serum.”

When Casablancas released his solo album and created The Voidz, no one doubted that the Strokes’ previous album “The Countdown Machine” (2013) would be their last one. Imagine the fans’ surprise, now that Casablancas and the other band members are back with a new album, still together after all their ups and downs.

Now, without the alcohol, Casablancas has become a more pleasant person, and the band seems to be getting along better as a whole. They’re currently working on a YouTube series in place of the touring planned before the pandemic hit. Titled “5guys talking about things they know nothing about,” the videos are exactly that as the band video chats about various topics and are generally just vibing together. In the first episode, Casablancas quickly relates that this is “something we’ve wanted to do for a while. It’s just like the good old times.”

The Strokes’ “The New Abnormal” was released on April 10, 2020, only weeks after the country began to shut down due to the Coronavirus. The name of the album was fitting the minute it was released. The world we faced was best described as “The New Abnormal” due to the mandated masks, social distancing, and many schools and businesses shutting down. No matter how relevant the title seemed at the beginning of the pandemic, it only became more so as the months passed by. Regarding the name’s relevance, Casablancas said that the title came from “something [Gov. Jerry Brown] said during the Malibu fires [in 2018], and there’s a parallel between global warming and the Coronavirus. A similar kind of threat to your reality.”

Having voiced his concerns in the interview series “S.O.S. – The World is a Mess,” Casablancas is now known for his outright and honest political views. In February 2020, he and the Strokes performed their controversial song “New York City Cops” from the 2001 U.S. release of their album “Is This It?” at a Bernie Sanders Rally. The song initially had been delayed due to its negative view of cops that would’ve been uncouth in the post-9/11 release. Their performance of this song was ironic as one fan was escorted off the stage by a policeman for jumping up. In retaliation, Julian began eagerly pulling more fans up onto the stage, showing that he still has a bit of that early rock-star rebellion left in him.

Concerns remain that the band might have lost its coolness after being in the game for so long. Casablancas, age 41, is divorced, has two kids, and doesn’t party that often. Even his manager sees him as “the sober, mature, grown-up dad Julian.” This domesticity goes against the cool, hard image of rock, but Rachel Tashjian put it best: “The Strokes, Somehow, Look Cooler Than Ever.” In their recent appearance on Saturday Night Live, the band continues to rock the too-tight skinny jeans and wrinkled t-shirts look. Casablancas specifically combined the classic look with a long, brown trench coat and sunglasses that worked. He didn’t care; they were going to work their grungy, mismatched styles, regardless of what anyone else had to say. Additionally, the fact that Casablancas later gave S.N.L. host John Mulaney his jacket with his sunglasses still in the pocket only adds to his image of calm carelessness that perpetuates their rock image, even with everything that might point to them being not.

Julian Casablancas only really cares for the music. With all the positive reviews, the Grammy Nomination, band drama, and the inability to tour because of the pandemic, Casablancas seems ultimately unaffected. He coolly states, “People are like, ‘Oh man, you’re not able to tour!’ I’m like, ‘That’s a bad thing?’”