Julian Casablancas is an American musician who is more famous for being the frontman for The Strokes and The Voidz. Casablancas has had numerous collaborations which includes Daft Punk, and Charli XCX.
Early Life
Julian Casablancas was born on August 23, 1978, in New York City, New York, to parents John Casablancas and Jeanette Christiansen. At the age of eight Julian’s parents divorced and he later lived with his mother who then married Ghanaian artist Sam Adoquei, the stepfather who Julian credited with showing him the world of art. Although Julian considered Adoquei as his “real father”, he still wanted a relationship with his biological father which led to his rebellious attitude and drinking problem before he was a teenager (The Guardian, 2010) . At the age of 13, Julian was enrolled in the Institut Le Rosey where he befriended fellow American Albert Hammond Jr. Julian would return to New York City to attend high school where he would meet Nick Valensi and Fabrizio Moretti, he would later drop out and obtain a GED to attend Five Towns College (The Vouge).
Career
1998: The Strokes
During high school, Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi, and Fabrizio Moretti usually played together in Manhattan and created an informal band in 1997. A childhood friend of Casablancas, Nikolai Fraiture, would soon join the band as the fourth member. In Late 1998, Julian reconnected with Albert Hammond Jr. who had just moved to New York and would join the band as a guitarist, thus forming The Strokes. The Strokes take their musical inspiration from the band The Velvet Underground with Casablancas wanting to emulate their style (The Guardian, 2010). The Strokes are considered to be the most influential band of the 2000s as many credit them for the “Rock Revival” of the 2000s. Click the Image to go to "The Strokes" page.
2009: Solo Career & Cult Records
During The Strokes hiatus from 2006 to 2011, Casablancas would launch a solo career starting in 2009 on New Years Day with the release of the single 30 Minute Boyfriend. Later in the year, Casablancas would release his solo album Phrazes for the Young, with the goal of creating a new sound that would be different to The Strokes. He would however explain his own regret to the album by saying that he played it “too safe” and was trying to keep it from becoming “weird”(NME, 2024). To release his solo album, Casablancas decided to create his own record label in 2009 called Cult Records, which will release the album in collaboration with RCA Records. Cult Records would go on to be the primary record company for The Strokes, The Voidz, and Promiseland.
11th Dimension
Julian Casablancas
Phrazes for the Young (2009)
2012-2013: Daft Punk and First Grammy Award
EDM duo Daft Punk met Casablancas in 2010 through mutual friend Warren Fu. In 2012, Casablancas was invited by Daft Punk to collaborate on a song for their album Random Access Memories (RAM) called "Instant Crush". Julian provided the lyrics and suggested he would have a more robotic voice. "Instant Crush" would end up being Daft Punk’s second most streamed song with 1.5 billion streams (combined total with Spotify and YT Music). However, before the recording of "Instant Crush", Daft Punk showed Julian a demo that they were planning to scrap. Julian would end up writing lyrics for the demo in hopes that the duo would be able to have Stevie Wonder as a collaborator, however, they insisted on Julian to perform it (Daft Punk, 2023). The unfinished demo would then be completed by Julian and his newly formed band The Voidz in 2013, unfortunately, it would not make it to the final production of RAM. RAM would be nominated for Album of the Year in the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, a category in which they won giving Julian Casablancas his first Grammy as a collaborating artist. In 2023, Daft Punk released a 10th Anniversary edition of RAM featuring the unreleased 2013 The Voidz collaboration song titled "Infinity Repeating" as a farewell and tribute for Daft Punk, marking it as the final song to be released by the EDM duo as they disbanded in 2021.
Instant Crush
Daft Punk & Julian Casablancas
Random Access Memories (2013)
Infinity Repeating
Daft Punk & The Voidz
Random Access Memories 10th Anniversary Edition (2023)
2013: Julian Casablancas+The Voidz
After deciding that his solo career played it “too safe”, Casablancas wanted to create music that was more experimental and different than what he was used to doing with The Strokes. Casablancas would recruit Sick Six members Alex Carapetis and Jeff Kite, his backup band during his 2009 solo tour, and solo guitarist Jake Bercovici who had previously worked with Casablancas. After liking how the band worked together, Julian recruited two more members, Jeremy Gritter and Amir Yaghami to form The Strokes spinoff band: Julian Casablancas+The Voidz in 2013 (The Voidz, 2013). Click the image to go to "The Voidz" page.
2020-2021: The New Abnormal and Second Grammy Award
After a seven-year album hiatus, The Strokes would release their fifth studio album, The New Abnormal in 2020. The New Abnormal received critical praise and would earn the band’s first Grammy at the 2021 64th Grammy Awards for Rock Album of the Year. This would be Casablancas’s second overall Grammy and the first with his band.
63rd Grammy Awards: The Strokes win Rock Album of the Year.
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