How The Doors inspired Julian Casablancas’ songwriting
Indie icon Julian Casablancas is the heart and soul of The Strokes. Particularly in the band’s early years, the frontman took on the role of songwriter and penned almost all of their biggest hits, including ‘Someday’, ‘Last Nite’ and ‘Reptilia’. Casablancas’ name has become synonymous with The Strokes’ distinctive indie rock sound, but their live performance often doesn’t reflect this.
When The Strokes perform live, Casablancas focuses his attention solely on playing up to the role of frontman. While his bandmates take up their instruments, Casablancas only requires a mic as he alternates between sauntering across the stage and getting into the crowd.
The frontman once spoke about his refusal to perform with an instrument to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O. When the two indie icons interviewed each other for Time Out, he explained, “There’s an element of performing where I just like to get lost, and I think the technical thing of playing an instrument and singing is like walking a tightrope. I would have to focus on not falling off the rope.”
Rather than focusing on keeping his balance, Casablancas prefers to keep his options open onstage: “I just want to be able to whirl around like a fool and ‘shoo-bop-bop’ – scat if I want to, point to someone, make melodic or lyrical jokes within the song. And also, I want each guitar to be doing some crazy shit that’s almost too hard to play and sing at the same time.”
Those crazy complex guitar parts were first inspired by The Doors. As Casablancas recalls: “Early on, I always wanted to write things. That was my fantasy. I liked composers and more complex songs. Bands like the Doors”.
The influence of Jim Morrison can sometimes be heard in Casablancas’ droning vocals, but The Doors’ influence on Casablancas can mostly be found in the increasing complexity of his songwriting.
While The Doors’ complexity was spawned from their collaborative writing, Casablancas was determined to write all of the parts himself. Looking to emulate their intricacy alone, he recalls, “So I got into music and I would play, but I knew early on that I never wanted to perform an instrument in front of people. I’m not particularly skilled with that, and it’s just a whole pressure. I basically learn to play a thing to write it, and then once I write it, I forget and almost never play it.”
Casablancas’ focus on The Doors-inspired complex, solo songwriting does not translate to recording or live performance, which is where Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti come in. Taking on the pressure of the musical complexity and skill required to play the songs, they provide Casablancas with the space to perform and “shoo-bop-bop” to his heart’s content.
