Strokes man gives wake-up call on protest record

The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas says his side project's debut album is a call for people to "wake the fuck up."

The album, Tyranny, is released under the moniker Julian Casablancas And The Voids on October 13 via Cult Records.

He tells the Guardian: “There’s so many conflicts. It’s the more visceral, angry side of ‘Wake the fuck up.’ We live in a society where there is freedom of speech, but the truth is they can shut you down like in any dictatorship.

“If everybody understood what was going on, our problems wouldn’t be complicated. But we live in an era where everyone is trying to keep everyone in the dark, dumb and not really aware of what’s going on.

“I guess it’s kind of a protest record. It feels like one to me. It’s more to do with morality than politics. We have the sense that we’ve moved on from the system where the centres of wealth arbitrarily decide what is law and what wars we fight. But I really don’t think that we are removed from that.”

The Strokes’ most recent album was 2013’s Comedown Machine.

Tyranny tracklist

Take Me In Your Army 2. Crunch Punch 3. M.utually A.ssured D.estruction 4. Human Sadness 5. Where No Eagles Fly 6. Father Electricity 7. Johan Von Bronx 8. Business Dog 9. Xerox 10. Dare I Care 11. Nintendo Blood 12. Off To War

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.