Julian Casablancas has revealed some interesting details about The Strokes‘ new EP, the band, and his opinions on music festivals in general – in a recent interview with Zane Lowe.
During the course of the interview, Casablancas – who, let’s remember, is about to visit Australia with The Strokes to headline Splendour in The Grass – revealed surprisingly that he’s not actually big fan of playing festivals.
“98% of musicians that I know and talk to really don’t like playing festivals,” he said. “My main issue is the choice thing, where you have to choose who you want to see and you’re always left wondering if you should have gone to see the other one,” he added, explaining a very familiar struggle all music festival attendees face.
Casablancas added that while “it’s cool for fans to go and see a lot of bands… my favourite thing is playing surprise shows at half-empty bars, although that would be a devastating financial approach.”
That wasn’t the only interesting revelation The Strokes frontman made in the extended interview. Casablancas added that there was never a set plan to release the band’s recent EP Threat Of Joy. “We got together without an agenda and then three songs just appeared, and everyone said that’s a terrible idea,” he said.
Casablancas went on to reveal that there is a video in the words for the song Threat Of Joy, although the band originally wanted to make one for OBLIVIUS, but it “had all this political content, and through different indirect corridors it got shut down”.
Lowe went on to ask him whether the advent and influence of the internet has affected how he feels about releasing music. “It’s changed everything,” he said. “It’s a cliche to say but obvious I suppose”.
“You see the reaction, you get feedback pretty quick whether you like it or not,” he chuckled. “I don’t really check to see what people are saying. I think it makes more sense than the old school approach”. He then bemoaned the shorter attention span of audiences who can “pretty much get [what they want] straight away”.
Listen to the interview via Apple Music in full below.
