X-clusive: The Strokes XXX Videos & The Bangles Influence
Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas has been speaking exclusively to Xfm about the rather spicy new video for their new single Juicebox and the influence of The Bangles on his new album.
Just days after The Strokes played an intimate gig at London’s ULU for a mere 800 people, singer Julian Casablancas appeared on the Xfm Breakfast Show, to speak to our very own Lauren Laverne.
The chat itself coincided with the release of the full uncut, somewhat racy video for their new single ‘Juicebox’ (which can be seen here). Julian explains,
“Large numbers of directors came to us and said, ‘They’re never going to play this on MTV you know? There’s going to be sex, there’s going to be murder, there’s going to be a torture film, nobody’s going to play it but it’s going to be revolutionary!’
“The way the video was told to us was, we were going to be playing a live radio show and there was going to be people listening to the song as we’re playing it and it was going to go from semi-steamy to extra-steamy. So when I saw for the first time, I thought ‘Wow, that’s a lotta homosexuality’ but it was too late at that point. But I didn’t kinda ‘put it in’ or ‘take it out’ so I’m alright.”
As for the new album ‘First Impressions Of Earth’, Casablancas, seems surprisingly unbothered about the expectations surrounding record.
“I wouldn’t say I don’t care. It would be nice if people liked it and it was successful. I guess I’m not obsessed with the chart position, that’s maybe what I’ve said in the past and came across as meaning.
“I don’t think about it, maybe subconsciously. But no, I wanted this time to give us a competitive shot, not be at a disadvantage just because we’re trying to play it cool or whatever.”
The band started the album recording sessions with longtime collaborator Gordon Raphael, thought eventually he was replaced with David Khane.
“Albert [Hammond – guitarist] knew him [Khane] from seeing him work somewhere and said ‘He’s really good with computers and has a good technical knowledge’. That’s how I got to know him. Then I learned he worked with The Bangles and Sublime.
At which point Lauren asked Julian if it was his love of The Bangles that led to the choice. And if you’re careful, you can hear Julian’s halo of cool, slip for just a second.
“Well yeah,” he continued, “That was one of the first tapes I ever…. No! Erm, definitely not. I didn’t really judge based on that, it was based on a song we did together. It actually didn’t work for a while. It was a bit confusing yeah it was tough because we were working with Gordon and David for a while trying to make like a dream team but it was an ego struggle nightmare… No I’m kidding.
"It was complicated but somehow we figured it out, I still to this day don’t know how but we finished it. It worked for three songs but then in the end David finally understood what we wanted and was able to give it to us.
"What did we want? We wanted a bigger more powerful sound but without losing anything."
To hear the whole interview click here.
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