Julian Casablancas Calls The Strokes ‘A Very Cool Day Job’ He’s ‘Stepped Away’ From ‘A Little Bit’

In recent years, Julian Casablancas has split his time between his two main musical projects, The Strokes and The Voidz. If you ask him, though, it sounds like he prefers the latter to the former.

In a new Los Angeles Times interview (as NME notes), Casablancas was asked if there’s anything he misses about working with The Strokes or The Voidz, and he responded, “Probably one direction more than the other. I don’t know if I can answer that without being offensive to someone.” He later confirmed the “one direction” he was referring to is The Voidz.

Then he was asked if he feels like he was cultivating an “opiate-of-the-masses vibe” with The Strokes, and he said:

“No, because I think I put political thoughts now in Strokes songs, too. I always have to some degree. I definitely think a lot of Strokes fans don’t get that about it so much, which is maybe why I’ve kind of stepped away a little bit. But it’s a very cool day job that I’m honored to have, so I don’t feel negatively about it. If it was wasting so much of my time that I couldn’t do anything positive, then I would. But I don’t let it get to that point. At least I don’t think so. I could be lying to myself.”

Read the full feature here.