Interviews: Julian Casablancas talks to the Daily Beast, the Guardian

The Daily Beast posted an interview with Julian this morning, and it’s worth reading.

It covers many topics he’s been asked about, like: politics, staying true to himself and moving out of New York City. He also addresses the brunch comment he made in GQ.

You mentioned “pre-Revolution Versailles” before, and compared it to contemporary New York City. The one thing a lot of people gleaned from your GQ interview was that you left New York City I was born on the Upper West Side, and it’s certainly changed a lot since then, and native New Yorkers do always struggle with their relationship to the city and whether they want to cut ties. There does seem to be a lack of “community” and “neighborhood” now, with everyone wrapped up in their own business.

And juice presses. I like driving and come into the city all the time. This has been my dream forever: to be as close as I can to the city but have that Bruce Wayne fantasy where you drive through some mountain and you’re into the countryside somehow, yet still just four minutes from Gotham City.

So you’ve got your car parked behind a waterfall.

Not yet! Although that’s a good idea. The waterfall-garage. But God, that quote. People are mad about it! It’s so true, but I guess you can’t say it. That GQ reporter was bogus, anyway. He was a total part-of-the-problem yuppie guy. He was a very nice guy, but I was talking about when I dropped out of high school and when I went to study music, and he had this weird, scary, shallow grin thing going on, and then said, “Oh, I didn’t realize that until my last year at Harvard,” and we were talking about current political stuff. It went over his head. I wanted to say, “Maybe you’ll understand this in a few years,” but I didn’t. Now I wish I had.

And of course the writer’s friend, who works at Stereogum, came to his defense.

For the record, I live in a neighborhood in Chicago like the one Julian describes. More and more yuppies flock in each year, which drives up people’s rent and forces small businesses to shut down or move elsewhere. It’s very frustrating for me, as somebody who loves my neighborhood and loves paying a reasonable price for rent. The amount of white people who eat brunch and go to farmer’s markets on weekends is annoying here, too. New York City and Chicago have that in common.

Lastly, the Guardian has also posted a new interview with Julian. It covers many of the same things, but comes off as uncomfortable for him. The most interesting thing about it is where he talks about making Human Sadness.