Julian Casablancas “couldn’t care less” about performing his biggest hits.
Julian Casablancas
The Strokes frontman admitted he never anticipated how “sick” he’d get of his own songs and the longer a tour lasts, the more “phoney” he starts to feel.
He said: “When you’re growing up and imagining playing music, it is for the excitement, but the one aspect of doing it for a living that is a sadness you don’t anticipate is that you play songs so much, you become sick of them.
“[Earlier this year] we hadn’t played for a while, so it was still fun, but when you start playing 30 or 40 shows, the music doesn’t move you. You feel phoney. To some extent, that’s why I play with [side-project] Voidz. I couldn’t care less about playing 'Last Nite.'"
The 42-year-old singer insisted his attitude shouldn’t be surprising, as it’s always easy to get tired of hearing the same songs over and over.
He added: “Really, it’s similar to listening to a song. I get sick of songs quickly. Even Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. You listen to that enough, you will get sick of it.”
But the ‘Juicebox’ hitmaker insisted he doesn’t regret the huge success of The Strokes’ debut album ‘Is This It’ 20 years ago.
He said: “Not really. Because I’m happy with where I’m at, so don’t need to time machine it.
“But there was an adjustment period; a few years where it was confusing, since I had written in a vacuum and, all of a sudden, I had to think about what other people said. It affected me. But, at the same time, I care about 50 per cent.
“For me, the first two records were one creative enterprise, but by the time the third record came out there were other issues going on. I was interested in a harmonic evolution. I liked a lot of modern classical music. That was where my mind was at, but it crashed with all the rock clichés of the touring and the drinking and infighting and the bulls***.”
And Julian admitted the reaction of fans is still important to him.
He said in a recent interview: “Hitting the sweet spot between edgy and catchy is the goal in everything I do and ‘Is This It’ is always what you’re aiming for.
“I’m a human animal and a prisoner of the crowd’s reaction on a biological level — I don’t want to care, but if people like it, it feels better than if people hate a song.”
Tagged in The Strokes Julian Casablancas