I'm just going to try and be a good dad and not spoil the kid: give him love and encouragement but also discipline. Me and my woman, we don't want him to feel too entitled.
— Julian Casablancas
Whenever I go to shows, I end up looking at what shoes the guy onstage is wearing and the jacket he's got on. And when you know everything's gonna be under scrutiny, it makes you feel more comfortable if you have cool stuff.
The problem with touring isn't the traveling and the shows, it's the vegetal state you get into.
I have to say, I'm good with gifts. If I find something perfect for a certain person, I'll just get it and put it away in a kind of nook under my bed - a little gift hutch, if you prefer.
I'm always writing something. I've got so much stuff, I don't know what to do with it. Some of it will be Strokes, some of it will be I don't know what - stuff for pop singers. TV themes. I've got a jar stuffed with songs, all these ideas that are just me humming into a recording device.
I enjoy songwriting. It's slow-motion improvising.
When the Strokes first started playing gigs, instead of getting into a costume for the shows, we talked about how we should dress every day, in real life, like we're playing onstage. I don't really care about clothes, but it's about wearing something that gives you social confidence. Or maybe helps you pick up chicks.
The Strokes can play anything. They could play 'Thriller,' and it would just sound like 'Thriller' as played by the Strokes.
In most cultures, you can have a kid at 18 and it's not a big thing. It's not like, 'Oh, you've got to get a different haircut and move to the suburbs and act, like, 35.'
My parents separated when I was eight. I grew up with my mom alone.
I very often have night terrors. Just think of the worst possible situation, and it's a regular thing for me. I've died in my sleep twenty-three different ways.
I would prefer it if people thought that I didn't work hard, that I just played the guitar for three minutes a week and was like, 'Check out this song - what do you think?' That would be ideal. I would prefer telling people that I'm just truly talented.
The artistic element of Manhattan has kind of moved to Brooklyn. Has it changed it? Yeah. Has it ruined it? I would say no. It is what it is. I say better that than an urban war zone.
I mean, I guess you could say I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
Boarding school didn't feel like my world, I felt like an alien; people there had a lot of money.
I always reference 'Mad Max' when I think about what I want to wear. But it's a fine line between that and 'Edward Scissorhands'.
That it's a lot harder to make a keyboard sound not-cheesy than a guitar.
A band is a good way to break up a friendship.
For a long time I didn't want to do a solo thing, but there comes a point where everyone else is going outside of The Strokes and The Strokes filtering process.
Songwriting is hard - it's so easy to fall into the same traps. It's not like I wake up and songs flow out of me.
I am a fan of 'SNL' and a big Jimmy Fallon fan, too.
One of the big songwriting things for me has always been: always think what you do sucks. Because the second you stop believing that, you suck. And that's a fact.
When you first start writing a song, it's fun, then when you start recording it, it's fun, but by the time you've finished recording it, you're sick of it.
L.A.'s kind of, like, seven really cool towns. It's so laid-back. If you go in the right spot, you can walk around, and you don't need a car.
New York is in my soul.
Sometimes I've sat outside, not to tan, but as a result of that I ended up tanning slightly.
You know some of the people in The Strokes, yeah, their parents had success - but we didn't live like yuppies.
I see myself out of my own eyes, which means I have no idea what's going on the other way around. I just think I try to be a good person - and I fail.
Making an album can be like being pregnant: you want to pop that thing out and show everybody!
I always want to make Strokes records and play Strokes shows.
I think I used to do everything and then people had a problem with that within the band, so we're doing more of a communal thing.
I think all of Manhattan has pretty much become a bar-slash-nightclub-slash-restaurant. There were always pockets of that. But now every corner of Manhattan is that.
I over-think stuff a lot.
If the choice is between doing something supercool and having no one hear it and doing something equally cool and tricking people into putting it on the radio, I don't think the second option is some big sellout.
I find it funny how people from Boston and New York hate each other because of pro teams. But, like, everyone on the Red Sox is a random millionaire athlete from somewhere else.
People often put me in a V-neck tennis club sweater, driving a Bentley, but my life wasn't like that.
I'm happy to feed the illusion that I'm a lazy recluse.
It find it funny how people from Boston and New York hate each other because of pro teams.
If you're in a bar and a certain song comes on and the vibe is just different, it evokes the kinds of things that you want to feel, and if music can do that it's a very special thing.
I think a lot of people study the rules too much and then don't know how to be creative.
I'm not a pop song lyric writer. I can't just focus on one simple meaning or even a double entendre.
L.A. is a vortex. The weather there tricks you into thinking you're on vacation, even when you're working fourteen hours a day.
Working on music is the funnest thing for me, and I love it, and I could do it all day, all night.
People are always arguing: New York or L.A.? They're both great places, you know.
No matter who I'm talking to, I always talk like I'm doing an interview.
Birth is a beautiful thing.
The thing for me is I never had this burning desire to do a solo record my whole life.
Compared to people in Africa, I think we've all had privileged upbringings.
I don't really care about clothes, but it's about wearing something that gives you social confidence.
It's not like I wake up and songs flow out of me.
