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Julian Casablancas is the son of John Casablancas, the founder of Elite Model Management, and Jeanette Christiansen, a Danish model who was Miss Denmark in 1965, and brother of Cecile Casablancas. His parents were divorced when Casablancas was very young and he lived with his mother and Sam Adoquei who taught him about art and work ethic.
The first band member that Casablancas knew was Nikolai Fraiture while the two attended the same kindergarten. When he was 14, Casablancas was caught drinking before school and consequently forced into a rehabilitation program called Phoenix House twice a week. Soon afterwards, his father sent him to Institut Le Rosey, a boarding school in Switzerland. It was here that he encountered Albert Hammond, Jr.. Although the two were not friends at the time, they would later become band-mates and room-mates.
When Casablancas returned to New York after six months at Le Rosey, he continued his education at Dwight School in Manhattan, where he met Fabrizio Moretti and Nick Valensi, who later also became fellow band members. He dropped out in 11th grade and attended Five Towns College on Long Island for one year, receiving a scholarship after writing a classical composition. He worked as a bartender before going into music professionally.
Casablancas` musical influences are varied and wide ranging, including but not limited to The Velvet Underground, The Pogues, Bob Marley, Built to Spill, Guided by Voices, The Magnetic Fields, and The Doors. More recently he has stated that possibly two of his favorite songs of all time are Queen`s "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Bill Withers`s "Lean on Me".
As The Strokes` principal songwriter, he has the greatest impact on their sound and has been known to be extremely meticulous with it. Recently, however, the band purports that Casablancas has become more communicative and more open to others` contributions. [1]
Another recent change has come in the recording of his vocals, which is significantly clearer and louder than their first two albums. However Casablancas says this was adjusted only because it fit the songs more, and not because he was any less self-critical about his voice.
Known to not play much in Strokes` recordings, Julian has proved himself an able multi-instrumentalist through guest appearances. He`s played guitar on "Sick, Sick, Sick" by Queens of the Stone Age, bass guitar on Albert Hammond, Jr.`s "Scared," and the second set of drums on the Strokes` "Evening Sun".
On February 5, 2005, Julian Casablancas married Juliet Joslin, The Strokes` assistant manager, in a private ceremony in New York City, with Nikolai Fraiture serving as best man. Although he had not been dating Juliet for very long, they had known each other for years. He announced the engagement at several shows including Central Park, where prior to playing their song "Hard to Explain", he said, "I`m getting married and this is; hard to explain!"
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There are so many little places I want to play, sometimes weird places I think would be fun to play... a bar that`s half full.
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