Julian Casablancas

Julian Casablancas' sex appeal and obvious star quality was one of the first things many fans noticed about the Strokes, and he went on to have a successful solo career while still fronting the band. Born in New York City, Casablancas was one of the "beautiful people" from birth: His father John Casablancas founded the Elle modelling agency, and his mother Jeanette Christiansen was Miss Denmark. The Strokes originated in the rarified setting of the Lycée Français de New York, where Casablancas met fellow student and future bandmate Nikolai Fraiture. Casablancas went onto attend two other elite prep schools, the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and the Dwight School in New York, where he met the remaining members of the band. Despite their tony origins the Strokes were embraced by the punk world, with RCA winning a bidding war over the band. Their 2001 debut Is That It was widely hailed as the second coming of the Velvet Underground and the Stooges-and perhaps more accurately, of the Cars. Casablancas' sex-symbol cred was established when Courtney Love included a thinly-veiled come-on, "But Julian, I'm a Little Bit Older Than You", on her solo debut America's Sweetheart, he was also famously painted by Elizabeth Peyton. During the Strokes' initial heyday, Casablancas seldom worked outside of the band; his first notable guest appearance wasn't until the Queens of the Stone Age single "Sick, Sick, Sick" in 2007. Two years later came his solo debut, Phrazes for the Young, which featured longer tracks and more experimental arrangements than any Strokes album. To support the album he formed a side band, the Sick Six, which would back him through 2010. He also launched his own label Cult Records which eventually took on a stable of artists, including his Strokes bandmate Albert Hammond Jr. His music also became a fixture on TV commercials; he even wrote the song "I Like the Night" specifically for a fragrance company. By now Casablancas was estranged from the Strokes and they began a frustrating demo session for the next album, Angles in his absence. Fences were mended and he rejoined the band for that album and its followup, 2012's Comedown Machine, both Top Ten in the US and the UK. Casablancas began another round of collaborations afterward, first co-writing and appearing on the Daft Punk song "Instant Crush." 2014 brought his second non-Strokes album, Tyranny with a new band the Voidz. Considered the most challenging album of his career, the album had a paranoid political tone and drew from hardcore punk and electronics; the lead single "Human Sadness" was eleven minutes long. After a tour with that band Casablancas reunited once again with the Strokes, who were working on a new album as of early 2017.