- What were your roles at Julian's wedding? Did anyone make a speech?
- Nick: Nikolai made a beautiful speech. We were all groomsmen. What's a groomsman? You offer support for the groom and for the best man - in case anything goes wrong, you take care of it.
- Fab: If shit goes down, you're there. Right before the ceremony happened, we were all "backstage" in the church and it felt like a show. We were all so nervous for him, but it went great. Julian made this speech that me teary-eyed and Nikolai…
- Julian: OK…I don't mean to…this is embarrassing.
- Nikolai: Did I make a particularly bawdy best man's speech? No, I chickened out. I made him a cheesy little video.
- Nick: It wasn't cheesy. Old footage of them when they were kids, growing up. It was really heart-warming.
Anonymous asked: Any favorite quotes from each of the strokes members?
Ahh, there are so many! I really like the one reblogged a few posts down from Albert about him and Julian in the early days. However, my all time favorite is this one from Julian:
I was just totally alone. Totally alone. So many people had friends or were hanging out, and I would like talk to some people but it was a very alone experience, and hearing Nirvana and Pearl Jam made me feel… positive about shit. Because beautiful music with lyrics about the truth of how things can be not great is a powerful thing… It made me feel like, if I put my mind to it, I could make myself happy. Like I had some help…. The most powerful aspect of music is that it can open your eyes to the frustration of everything and give you the adrenaline and faith to go on with the ideal that you can make it better if you do your thing. SOURCE
You can view all the quotes we’ve posted to this blog from The Strokes and about The Strokes by checking out the quotes tag.
We were really ambitious. It’s all Julian and I spoke about every night. We set a goal of playing shows within a year. At first, we didn’t go out anywhere cool—just Rudy’s, which was near the studio and had free hot dogs and $5 pitchers. But slowly we’d go to bars like Don Hill’s and Bar 13 to promote, handing out flyers with stuff from weird seventies soft-porn movies like Emmanuelle. They started to recognize us—“Oh, there’s the guys from the Strokes hanging out”—and as a group the five of us were a pretty striking image. We were really cocky. Not in a bad way, we just believed in ourselves and so we were always balls to the wall.
(Albert Hammond Jr on the beginnings of the the Strokes.)” (via julianetglass)
What is your favorite TV show?
- Albert Hammond, Jr: Arrested Development.
- Julian Casablancas: Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
- Fabrizio Moretti: Bar none... Barney the Magical Dragon.
- Nick Valensi: I abhor television. Notice how I said "television" and not "TV," because "TV" is a nickname, and nicknames are for friends, and television is no friend of mine.
‘They were warming up and playing ‘Last Night’ on bongos and acoustic guitars,’ Rob grins. There was a little slit because it was just a divide between and we couldn’t help looking through, but Albert Hammond Jr. was staring at us going, ‘Stop looking through the windows!” Pulled Apart By Horses (band), about BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2011 (x)
(Source: julianquesablancaslove)
Nick Valensi (via 1251st)
(Source: soundonsound.com)
Anonymous asked: Why the band is called The Strokes
I love this question!
Why are you called the Strokes?
Julian: Because it means a lot of things that are artistic and strong. We all do interesting things in different ways and the words means interesting things in different ways. It just made so much sense that you can’t deny it.
Fab: We’d rejected a bunch of names. Nikolai said that made us laugh for days: ‘de Niros’ as in ‘the Niros’. I used to think of what the word actually meant: a stroke [holds his heart in an inaccurate medical mime], a stroke… blow to the face… a stroke in a painting. The one I think of the most is the brushstroke. But now I just of five dudes standing around.
Nikolai: There were so many different meanings to it, it could never pin us down. So many people have said ‘stroke of luck’, ‘stroke this’… there’s never one thing they can focus on. There’s when you have a stroke, cerebral congestion; there’s a stroke when you play guitar; then there’s the obvious sexual undertones.
Nick: When it first came up, it was like, ‘Oh, The Strokes, like a wank.’ Then a person said ‘No, it’s The Strokes like a heart attack’. Then another person said,’…like a caress’. It rolled off the tongue really well – sort of violent and sort of sexual and it just sounded cool to everybody.
Albert: We’d come in with all these bad names – the de Niros, the Rubber Bands, the Motels, Flattop Freddie and the Purple Canoes – and no one would agree. One day we’re in the studio after practice and Julian said ‘The Strokes’. And everyone was like ‘that sounds great!’. It was that easy; five guys agreeing. it doesn’t really mean anything. We thought it was a cool rock and roll name. When I first heard it, it sounded so old, like someone would have already taken it but no one did. Then I looked it up in the dictionary and ‘a powerful blow to the face, chest or body’ was the first thing. Perfect. That’s exactly what our music is. It’s like a powerful blow to the face.
—Chelsea
