Julian: To hear some good music at last and also to meet people. There was no plan, no certainty. Just the need to find ourselves and it takes time to overcome our shyness. Anyway, in spite of all that has happened around us, it's still hard to talk to girls.
Today, is life easier on stage than outside?
Albert: We could actually start to wonder. Everything is so intense on stage, we can neglect ourselves. But, if we had these adrenalin rushes permanently, it would end in an OD. It's hard drugs, you know, it would make me crazy. But a perfect day ends, to me, with a concert.
What you've done in 1 year is amazing. Do you feel in control of everything that has happened to you?
Julian: It's like driving a fast car; Okay, you go very fast, but we hold the steering-wheel tight. We are pretty good drivers. And though, every evening, before going on stage, I wonder, "Why do I deserve to be here? Why should people be interested?" I think I'm very normal, a voice without interest. I don't believe a single word of what I read about us. All these eulogies are so exaggerated. I know where we come from. I didn't forget the years when we were nothing. Why the same songs, that everybody ignored in those days, should be so successful now?
Nick: There is a strange cohabitation in my body between who I was before and who I am now. It's very strange to go back home after a tour and to be with my family and my friends .
Nikolai: That's why neither our friends nor we believe what the press says. We all see these "Strokes of magazines" as creatures completely separated from us. We look at them with distance and amusement. If I really become what is said in the press, my elder brother would kick my ass.
From anonymity to fame, how do your bodies react ?
Nickolai: Today, we are, I hope, out of this mess after having been through exhausting moments. After the release of the album, we have toured too much, we fell in with all possible excesses. We wanted Rock 'n' Roll, well we had it. And going through these tough and exhausting moments together brought us closer. There were too many "unsaid" things, we had to burst the bubble and to have a rest, that was vital.
That's why you seriously abandoned Europe to concentrate yourselves on the US market?
Nikolai: We had to go to some US places where we had never been. And people in Europe were upset about it. Especially British people who reproached us for letting them down. The British press thinks they created The Strokes, and that we should be more thankful. Touring in US, for us, is less exhausting, funnier and more relaxing.
Have you been able to write new songs in the past year?
Nickolai: We've done only 2 songs since the release of our first EP, in more than 1 year… We can't wait to go back to New York to polish them up, to get back to our rehearsal room, our references points. But I already know that it will be hard to make an album after Is This It because our requirements are far higher. Not only will the songs will have to be better, but also recorded differently. The Strokes must progress.
Do you miss the time when you were writing your first album, when you were not famous?
Nikolai: I miss those days… We did that for a whole year: rehearsing again and again, always the same songs until we could play them perfectly. No one expected them, it was only for pleasure. But now, we know we have to make an album for other people.
Why are The Strokes so successful today?
Nick: Impossible to know how our passion and the public got connected. I used to watch a lot of educational TV programs like Discovery Channel when I was a kid, I would feel like being one of those journalists if I try to analyze this. It would be like saying to the camera , in the middle of the jungle, :" So, this is how the gorillas, that we've been observing for months, behave". I don't know why we are successful, but I do know I would pay to go to see The Strokes. We would be my favorite band.
Fab: We deserve it, we worked so hard, rehearsed so much to be where we are, to strengthen our wall. And looking from the audience, it seems a real, passionate and controlled show.
Nikolai: The public welcomed us so warmly, because it felt like it wasn't fake, that we are as casual, simple and gracious as our songs. There's no second degree in us, that makes us more accessible.
With your image, you created a fashion that spreads widely from the rock scene, how does that feel?
Nickolai: We recently played in Birmingham, and in the crowd, while we were playing, I saw our drummer, Fabrizio. The guy was dressed like him and had the same hair cut. There, it begins to be scaring. But, well, we won't take the fatherhood of this image. There were ties before The Strokes. (laugh) …
Before The Strokes, did you rehearse your pop stars' roles in front of the family mirror?
Julian: I used to answer interviews under the shower "so how do you think we can save the planet?" "Well, it's very simple…" (laugh). I was only dreaming about that, to be on stage, to play in a band, since I was 8… I was watching Michael Jackson's videos and telling myself: "I would give anything to be at his place".
Nick: When we were kids, we were all dreamers. For me, it was a full time job. It's good to dream.
Signing with the London label Rough Trade is very symbolical: the label discovered groups to which you are compared, from the Smiths to the Feelies. This choice can't be innocent.
Nikolai: I would like to say it was part of a big plan but it happened by accident. Before they contacted us, we never heard about them. But their enthusiasm, much more than their past, has seduced us. They had to be courageous to believe in some kids from New York without any reputation. We had the chance to choose the people with which we work , without accepting any asshole in our circle.
Julian: We've never been keen references. I just listen to songs without caring if the singer is cool or not. I don't even know who sings on many songs that I love, and which are mixed on tapes, and I don't care. I even don't look at the notes on the covers of the albums. Even if I always hang out with real music fans who knew everything. But I was ashamed, I used to stay quiet on my side. I couldn't take part in the conversations.
Did you personally negotiate your contract ?
Julian: We couldn't delegate, we absolutely wanted complete control on every artistic decision. We arrived with a lawyer, who was our spokesman, but with the firmness and the expertise that we don't have. We had seen too many bands get fucked with a big amount of money and who became prisoners of their record company. They all become, little by little, accomplice of this business, they start to believe what is written about them; imagine they are artists; untouchable! The idea of musical progress, of musical challenge don't even come to their mind. We shall never forget this rule : progressing and improving. We all count on each other to remind us, if one or many of us forget it.