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The Strokes named their latest album “The New Abnormal” well before knowing what our new normal would be. “It feels so prescient because of the parallel between something like coronavirus,” says Julian Casablancas, 41, lead singer and lyricist of the New York garage-rock band. “But the name came from the [2018 California] fires, when Malibu …
The Strokes named their latest album “The New Abnormal” well before knowing what our new normal would be.
“It feels so prescient because of the parallel between something like coronavirus,” says Julian Casablancas, 41, lead singer and lyricist of the New York garage-rock band. “But the name came from the [2018 California] fires, when Malibu basically burned down. Everything right around the studio where we were working burned down. And the governor [Jerry Brown] came up with that line.”
The Shangri-La studio of “New Abnormal” producer Rick Rubin — who has worked with a broad range of artists from Jay-Z to Adele — somehow escaped the wildfires. And out of the surrounding devastation, the Strokes emerged on April 10 with their first LP since 2013’s “Comedown Machine.”
“The Strokes thing just took a while to coalesce,” Casablancas tells The Post about the seven-year album hiatus of his band, which also includes Albert Hammond Jr. (guitar), Nick Valensi (guitar), Nikolai Fraiture (bass) and Fabrizio Moretti (drums). “We had to descend. Rick Rubin waits till you really hit rock bottom to identify you as someone that he can resuscitate.”
The new LP — coming 19 years after the Strokes’ landmark debut, 2001’s “Is This It” — finds the quintet harking back to the ’80s on such tracks as “Bad Decisions,” which echoes “Dancing With Myself” so much so that Billy Idol receives a co-writing credit, and current single “Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus.”
“It’s just a silly name I’ve been wanting to use for a long time,” says Casablancas of “Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus.” “It’s definitely my favorite bridge in the world. It’s pretty damn iconic.”
The Strokes also give titular love to New York on “Ode to the Mets,” the moody closer of “The New Abnormal.” “It was kind of a joke name because it was a sad song that I wrote,” says Casablancas of the tune’s nod to the National League team. “I was standing on the platform of the 7 train after they had lost in the wild card game [against the San Francisco Giants in 2016]. It was, like, a depressing moment. It was a song [I came up with] right after the Mets game, so we called it ‘Ode to the Mets.’ We got to a point to change it, and everyone was like, ‘No, we gotta keep it!’ ”
So is the New York native, who currently lives in Los Angeles, a Mets or a Yankees person? “Oh, a Mets,” says Casablancas. “Well, I mean, I quit sports because the Mets and Jets were just too painful.”
Given the current kibosh on concerts due to the coronavirus crisis, it will be a while before the Strokes can play their new tunes live. But in February, the group performed during a New Hampshire rally for then-Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders.
“He was the only non-corporate candidate, a trustworthy guy, so [it was] kind of a no-brainer,” says Casablancas, who was prepared when Sanders dropped out of the race earlier this month. “I mean, I was expecting it, so I wasn’t really that surprised.”
Now Casablancas plans to throw his support behind Joe Biden, who Sanders has endorsed. “I’m secretly holding out hope that he’ll choose Bernie as his running mate,” he says. “I feel like that would be a good way to guarantee victory in my opinion. But he’ll probably choose a woman.”
Despite the Strokes’ public support of Sanders, Casablancas doesn’t think it’s the “universal duty” of artists to take a political stand. “I think politics is a different beast,” he says. “To me, art is an escape [from] the absurdity of life. People are seeking to run away from the negative things and kind of find inspiration.”
But, he adds, “If you feel like you believe in something … to clearly stand for, I think you should have the courage to do [it], whether you’re a musician or not.”
Certainly, the singer — son of Elite Model Management founder John Casablancas and Jeanette Christiansen, a model — is doing his part to make the world a better place for his two sons, Cal, 10, and Zephyr, 5, with ex-wife Juliet Joslin. And for him, the rock-star life is much better in his 40s than it was in his 20s.
“That expression ‘Youth is wasted on the young,’ I think, applies,” says Casablancas. “I feel happier now as an older adult. I think I drank a lot trying to look for that kind of confidence. That’s probably my biggest regret — drinking so much when I was younger.”
Casablancas has now been sober for “15 years-ish,” he says. “I feel like I don’t really remember the early times, and I just feel like I embarrassed myself a lot,” he says. “It’s a typical thing, but more importantly, I think I just failed to kind of find the confidence on my own. And I think when you stop drinking, you start to really enjoy things more, learn who you are more and all that.”
But his sobriety is “a personal thing” for the rocker. “I’m not, like, against drinking or anything,” says Casablancas. “I’m not gonna be doing, like, PSAs or anything.”
