iwannafight3

The Strokes learnt from the best. Besides Bob Marley, Valensi cites Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young as key influences - plus, tellingly, new wave stylists The Cars. "Ric Ocasek writes amazing songs. And as far as contemporary music goes, I like Supergrass." Casablancas favours Lou Reed and The Cure.
    "I think originality is more important than style, more important than anything," Valensi says. "I always felt we had the potential to do something different and cool, with the right influences."
    "Nowadays there really is no melody you can hum to songs except in extreme pop," Hammond adds. "We play melodious rock. And our beat and rhythm gives it balls."
    The Strokes have also learnt from the worst, as Fraiture explains. "We watched Spinal Tap and learned a lot," he smiles. "It's important to understand each person in the band to make sure we can continue to do what we're doing." (When reminded that the sleeve art of Is This It bears a marked resemblance to the concept for Spinal Tap's Smell The Glove, Fraiture is quick to retort: "There's no actual picture of Smell The Glove. But yeah, it's funny. People saw girl and glove and freaked out.")
    Fabrizio Moretti believes a more valid lesson can be learned from Guns'N'Roses, who made a great first LP then fired drummer Steven Adler for taking too many drugs and promptly lost the last-gang-in-town mentality that had made them the most exciting '80s hard rock band. In The Strokes everyone is of equal importance.
    "If this had been a band formed through ads in the paper it wouldn't have worked," Moretti notes. "We were all very close friends from school before we were musicians."
    The sense of "brotherhood" Moretti refers to is what keeps The Strokes close even when they are back home in New York City, where their one significant break from touring in the past year was in September 2001, when, Fraiture says, "the city changed totally."
    "If we're off tour in New York we maybe don't see each other for a day or two," Casablancas says, "but than usually we'll hang out with one or another, we'll see a movie, end up rehearsing and see each other every day."

    Casablancas is calmer as The Strokes prepare to board the bus for an 11-hour drive to the next date in Kansas City. He didn't really want a fight. That was the drink. And as with any night on the piss, Casablancas ends up woozily philosophical."
    "I think it's going pretty well," he concludes. "The way they cheered tonight, I think they're just happy to hear something that's different."
    Fabrizio Moretti is smiling again. "This is all I ever wanted. I could die happy. It could always be better, but I don't want to wish for anything because I don't want to jinx myself."
    You're not fearing a backlash after the hype?
    "I hope we make an album so good everyone has to love it. No offence to you, my friend," he says with a comforting pat on the knee, "but if people see the British press as this empire that builds and crushes bands, they're wrong. They could tell us we're the worst band in the world in a couple of months and it won't faze me. We're having a good time."