Words: Adam Granr

The Strokes

“I really don’t know what people think about us anymore. I find that people sometimes hate us, and I understand that. I could imagine if I were to read some of the stuff that came out about us, I’d imagine hating us too,” considers Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. from a room on the 9th floor of the Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto. “But we just try to win them over later with music–in due time.”

Ladies and gentlemen, The Strokes–the one band in the world that’s as loved as much as they are hated within the eyes of the music press and hipster fans from across the land. It hasn’t always been this way for the New York quintet, as early indications in 2001 were that this group of fashionably un-fashionably dressed dudes were about to save rock ‘n’ roll.  

After quickly releasing The Modern Age ep, the band began taking offers from numerous bigwig record companies before finally settling on RCA. What would follow is the album that changed the lives of Julian Casablancas (vocals), Nikolai Fraiture (bass), Nick Valensi (guitar), Fabrizio Moretti (drums) and Hammond Jr.: Is This It. Instantly, the album’s seventh track, “Last Nite” became a radio classic and propelled the group toward extraordinary praise from magazines like Rolling Stone, nme and Time. This lead to touring the globe, headlining festivals and subsequently becoming one of the biggest buzz bands of the new millennium–then, depending on who you ask, the bottom fell out not too soon after that. Released in October of 2003, the much-anticipated sophomore effort Room On Fire made it onto record-store shelves, but when the smoke cleared, fewer copies made their way toward the cash registers than that of its predecessor. So what happened? “You make a record and you try your hardest,” says Hammond Jr. “Everyone wants you to put it out–(the record company) gave us a month to do it and we wanted more time. One producer (Nigel Godrich) didn’t work, then you end up doing 300 interviews in the span of two weeks where they’re all giving you this sh!t, and it’s annoying. “It builds up. Then you have to go on tour, and handle it better as the band becomes a little more in shambles.” After a mere five months of touring in support of this record, The Strokes said “f*ck this,” and prepared to go back to the drawing board.

While Room On Fire did give birth to memorable singles “12:51” and “Reptilia,” a lot of the band’s original fans saw the album as Is This It–2.0. It was time for a substantial change. “It feels like we’re back at album one, but with the knowledge,” suggests Hammond Jr. Part of this starting-fresh phase included the construction of the band’s own recording space, Red Carpet Studios, located in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. This time The Strokes brought in their own gear to the sessions, a new producer, David Kahne, as well as an open attitude in regard to moving in a new, less lo-fi direction. Flash forward to January 2006, and the arrival of First Impressions of Earth–an album that would show The Strokes’ ability to rev-up their rock ‘n’ roll engines to a fever pitch. “Juicebox,” would introduce the album to the world with its fast-driving rhythmic unity and Casablancas’ willingness to vocally let it all hang out. Luckily enough for listeners, the 13 cuts aside from that one do just as great a job of showing off the Big Apple Boys’ ability to get the lead out–take, for instance, the enormously bold performances found on “Heart In A Cage,” “Vision of Division,” and perhaps the quietest, inadvertent punk song in history, “Ask Me Anything.” So as different as The Strokes may be today musically, outwardly, much of the attention that has helped and hindered their career at points remains intact. And while Hammond Jr. contends that “I don’t feel like we’re that famous,” there is no doubting that the abundance of eyes surrounding The Strokes are just as observant as ever. “It works both ways–one way it gets you attention, and it’s there forever–you’ll always be that band that got that attention,” feels Hammond Jr. “The bad thing is someone waiting to see something that you can’t even do–expectations are just too great.” “It’s kind of cool that you know people still want to hear you after three albums, because they’re so curious to hear what you sound like,” he continues. “It’s part of what you do–if you’re in a band and you have success, there’s going to be people looking at what you do, so you have to accept it, and find a way to create around it.