This Is It!

As you read this, somebody, somewhere is buying a copy of Is This It? – easily the most hyped and talked about debut album of 2001. In the flesh, The Strokes look every bit as alluring and as photogenic as their promo shots promise – perfectly poised and posed yet still possessing a very natural sense of identity. Julian Casablancas – the owner of one of the best names for a frontman in existence – does not utter a single syllable during our fifteen minute conversation, leaving the spiel to his four fellow cohorts in rock n’ roll and skinny ties.

Lead guitarist Nick Valensi is the chattiest (and funniest) of the famous five. “These last few months have been dreamlike,” he says. Fab Moretti adds: “It’s been like an injection in the butt and we’ve just been riding this weird wave ever since, but we just want to keep on making great music.”

“It’s just so weird because a year ago we were just five guys playing local shows in New York doing what a local bands does,” resumes the smiley Valensi. “All of a sudden all this stuff started happening. So far, it has been cool and we are grateful for this golden opportunity.”

The Strokes hype machine began last September after a phenomenally received show at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York. Then when The Strokes touched down in the UK earlier this year and played to a fawning audience in The Monarch in London, they became the hottest property in the music press virtually overnight. “We just believe in having fun onstage amongst the five of us and that seems to transfer down into the crowd and they have fun too,” explains Valensi. “Its just the five of us playing songs very passionately. No Gimmicks. No shtick.”

But does such a young band ever feel dwarfed by their reputation? “We read what people write about us but we try not to believe it too much,” answers Nick. “When certain magazines exaggerate things and say we are the best band to come out of New York since so and so, we know that is simply not true. We feel like we have a long way to go and that we can still be a lot better than we are now. The second that we start to believe that we are already successful and accomplished then our downfall begins.” Fab Moreti is little more blunt. “I like to read it believing that it isn’t us but some other bunch of guys. Then I just laugh and think “fools!”

But when your rapidly growing fan club includes Radiohead, Oasis and Kate Moss, even The Strokes sometimes find it hard to act out the role of perpetually being the ice cool New Yorkers. “Backstage when we were playing in Oxford, we were just about to eat,” recalls Nikolai. “Then we were told, ‘Oh yeah, Radiohead are coming tonight’. We lost our appetite immediately and found it very nerve-wracking.”

“It was because I for one respect Radiohead so much,” adds Nick. “They’ve never taken the easy route and have always been tasteful, cool and inspiring. Then you are told they are coming along to check your band out!”

As copies of Is This It? are being turned up to eleven in bedrooms across the world, The Strokes believe the finished artifact will clear up a lot of the myths about their so-called ‘New York’ sound. “It’s easy for people to jump to the wrong conclusions when they’ve only heard one three song EP,” explains Fab Moretti. “While we are really appreciative of some of the comparisons we have been given, it is not the full picture. Hopefully when the album comes out people will realise that it isn’t just some New York thing and that it is a lot more universal than that.”

On initial hearings, Fab couldn’t be more right. Is This It? certainly owes much to the garage rock template, but ultimately it is far more than the sum of its parts and is as much a manic pop thrill as a rock n’ roll rollercoaster ride. (Am I the only one who thinks that ‘Hard to Explain’ sounds uncannily like the Frank and Walters? Just a thought) Maybe we will be blessed with a more exciting and vibrant debut this year, but for now, The Strokes are untouchable. Is this it? Hell, yeah!