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On December 7th, CJLO walked ALL the way over to the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall where the Orchestra Philharmonia Mundi Montreal was holding a concert where they would play Dvorak's 9th symphony (New World Symphony) along with various other selections.  We did a live broadcast and thought it would be good to put it up for any of you that may have missed it.  The full concert program is:

Julian Casablancas + The Voidz delivered an awesome performance in a filled Corona Theatre on November 22, 2014. The openers, punk metal band Cerebral Ballzy, and hip hop duo Shabazz Palaces, set a good mood for the audience. Shabazz Palaces even performed "Father Electricity" with The Voidz, which was a great mix of hip-rock! The many fans that lined up for the snow earlier that night were ecstatic when Julian took the stage around 10:15. The band opened with "Xerox" off their album Tyranny, released last September on Cult Records. It was surprising to see that the attention was put on The Voidz, as Julian spent most of the show in the back, almost hiding from the lights. This gave an odd ambiance that fit perfectly with the fuzzy rock noises. Fans were still delighted because he often reached out to them to shake hands. The talent of Alex Carapetis has to be mentioned, as he wooed the crowd multiple times with his incredible drumming skills. The setlist was centered on tracks from Tyranny, but also included "Ize of the World", a Strokes cover off the album First Impressions of Earth, and "River of Brakelights" from Julian's solo album Phrazes for the Young. A highlight of the night was the first encore, as Julian performed "I'll Try Anything Once", another Strokes cover, along with Jeff Kite. It was a moving moment as fans held hands and sang in unison through to the end.

Carmen from CJLO's Plebeian Pleasures (Thursdays, 9 to 10 AM) sat with Julian Casablancas before the show to chat about his current tour with The Voidz, his creation process, and performing live. Below is the audio from the full interview followed by a transcript of the highlights.

Carmen: What questions do you not want to get asked in interviews?

Julian: "Where did you record the record?" That's the dumbest one everyone asks it. Why do I care where things were recorded? Or even what music I love. I guess it's relevant, but I think music speaks louder than that kind of detail to me. "How is this different than other things you've done?" That's also just kind of a lazy journalist question. I think any question that starts with the supposition that's basically the journalist kind of interpretation or opinion. So when someone says, "So, everyone thinks you're this, comment". That's the opposite of seeing a psychiatrist.

It's not good to know what other people think of you?

Well, no. Maybe it's nice to be aware. To be like, "So everyone is saying you're so bad now, how does that make you feel?" That's not nice. Any kind of question that has a rude undertone—if you just met me and we were socially talking—and think that's too rude to say to my face, don't ask it in an interview. I think it's bad.

So, you just played in Toronto, how was it?

It was awesome. Sorry to say that. I know Montreal and Toronto... But you guys don't need to worry about it, I think Montreal's a very cool city.

Tell me, are the streets in Toronto as smelly as they are here?

I don't really get to see much of a city. I wake up in an alley in every city behind the venue. I can't compare the smells.

So since the show in Toronto was awesome, how do you define a good show and what motivates you to perform?

I think the crowd is a big controller. How you play is one, how the sound is on stage is another. And I think the crowd can kind of take you on a journey. If they're great, then you become great and then it's a cycle that grows exponentially or whatever.

Well, I think that live music is the most natural, powerful way of hearing music and feeling music. It's probably in our DNA. When you're listening to music on headphones or in speakers or whatever, we're almost faking the feeling of seeing live music in a way. So it's almost the real deal. The best way to absorb it and enjoy it in the most emotional effect you can have on you if it's done well. So I think I've always loved that aspect of it and also you kind of have to do it to promote records and stuff too. There's many reasons to do it and if you don't do it, even though touring can become gruelling, it is fun. And if you don't do it, it's basically like career suicide.

[Laughter]

The Voidz was formed last year, why did you prefer joining a band project rather than pursuing your solo career? Why "The Voidz"?

I guess I seek collaboration. I feel like that's been my goal since the beginning, to be honest, to create collaboration. I guess the things weren't working so good so... I was kind of low in general. I think as soon as I started touring I realised that I liked performing music live. Getting a song together with people like you're gonna perform it, at the least, whether solo or collaboration or not.

You've been with The Strokes for more than 15 years, so it must be really special to be part of a new band. How is the cohesion between the band members different than what it was with The Strokes?

It's similar to what the Strokes felt back in the day but maybe with... kind of maturity. I think just as a musical level it's different than anything I've ever been a part of. For all of us in The Voidz, it's a pretty special musical journey. I think also when you grow up you don't have the same friends you have maybe when you're 18, so it's a little different.

Do you have any fun anecdotes of the tour so far? Did the van break down or something?

Oh man... all the ones that are coming to my mind are not appropriate.

You're really involved in your writing process, do you have a method, or a routine, how do you get comfortable when you write?

I don't really have a routine. Whenever a moment happens, I grab every moment I can to write. Sometimes things happen and I record them.

You compose, you write, you perform... What's your favourite part in this job?

Interviews. No, I'm kidding. [Laughs] My favourite part is stage one of everything. I think when you're first writing a song, it sounds good, that's the exciting moment. Then you record things you store and you don't listen to, and you find it back and you hear something that you haven't heard, sounds good, that's exciting. You're gonna play it for people and work on it, that's exciting. You play it with people, sometimes things don't work, but sometimes things have a magical spark and you're like "this is gonna be good". That's a great fun moment.

Then you work on things and sometimes you struggle to make that magic that you first had and sometimes you figure out a way to play them and you're like "this is gonna be great". And you play it, and it's powerful, and everyone gets goosebumps, and you're like "YES". Then you have to record it and dadadada: takes a long time. More you heard the song, song gets more boring to you. Then you're recording it, and sometimes things don't work recorded, but once in a while something works and sounds good and you get goosebumps and it's exciting. That moment: that first moment was great.

Then you work on the song 'til it's finished, and by the time the song is pretty dead. And so now you have to learn the song to rehearse it to play it live, so you're playing it. And that first time that you have to play it sounds good in the rehearsal room you're like "YEAH". And then you rehearse, rehearse, and it's boring, and you play it at shows, and you're nervous cause there's people there, and you're not playing it as good as you want.

Do you still get nervous?

You know what? Probably when you're rehearsing the song, and it sounds really good, that's the last time you really have musical enjoyment. I think you have to, when you're "a professional", work and hear a song so many times that by the time you're playing it... now I feel like live we're so much better. By the time... I don't know if I'm enjoying any songs, do you know what I mean? Any songs. When I play a Strokes song it's even less cause I've played them a 150 times. I mean I think it makes you good at it and I think its good to be at that level if you're performing the songs.

And I think the fun is that the crowd is reacting. But musically, being moved musically, that happened at those stages I'm talking about. And that's the most fun for me. And this is fun in a different way. It's like the after party of working. It's like what I imagined a Christmas office party vibe. It's kind of celebrating all the work you've done. I mean it is work in itself... I don't know what I'm talking about!

You play a lot of instruments too. Do you have a favourite one? When you compose, which instrument do you use?

I don't really play any instrument amazingly. Guitar best. I always thought I was gonna be a rhythm guitarist when I first started, before I knew that I could write songs I guess. I just thought I could help of it. Still in the band when I'm writing, I come up with guitar parts, riffs and stuff. I also like writing the solos too but other than that... I stopped basically coming up with drumbeats when I met Alex [Carapetis], because he's just another level.

So yeah, I mean keyboards is cool, but it sometimes doesn't translate. There's something live—I think that's why people like guitars—'cause it's that thing I was talking about: drums and guitars it's a live string, you see it moving. But when you play keyboard, there's something about an electric current... It replaces something real, inorganic. When you're hearing it, sometimes it's not as moving.

How has your creation process changed? When you started with The Strokes you were in your twenties. Now with all the experiences you've gained, how did it change your involvement with The Voidz?

Since we've all been in different bands and different situations, I know we all have such different strong personalities. So I think theoretically it almost shouldn't work, but somehow it works very harmoniously. I think when you're kinda young, you're more likely to just stump your feet and be like "I don't like how this is going". You would actually ruin the thing that's feeding you because you don't like some detail. Instead of now, I feel like we all respect what we're doing. Well you never know, you know, someone might tonight... The night is young [laughs], but I think in general we wanna inspire each other. And it's not really time to mess around I guess, and take things for granted.

Is there something you wish you knew about the music industry when you were 20?

I don't know that I can say that. I think I've always had kind of an understanding that it's a business. And that music is art, and that there's a weird dance that goes on, and I've always tried to be the middle ground of creating something that's artistic but that's also accessible. I'm aware it's always been a challenge, and I think it was easier maybe at the beginning, 'cause we had a major label behind us. But six months after, the guy who signed us was no longer at our label, and since then it's been kind of a struggle. Now we are going on an independent route.

What advice would you give to the "Julian juniors" trying to make a career in music?

Just be hard on yourself; never think you're too great.

With the lyrics featured on Tyranny, was there a political or moral message intended in the album?

I guess. There seams to be a lack of awareness. There's all the news channels and people just assume that it's objective news. I don't think somehow they can't imagine that there's agendas behind these news stations. They look so professional, and they just seem like everyone just trusts it so implicitly. It's kinda terrifying when you realize that. Oil companies own news stations, to simplify it I guess. Regardless of the issues, there's so many issues you can be into or look at and talk about 'til the cows come home. Doesn't matter what it is, whether it's wars, or environmental issues, or minimum wage, or whatever. It all comes down to one issue and that's money and politics, and that's gonna be the big issue. I think until you have that, then you have a complete system of subtle propaganda and just everything is pretty much f* up. It's similar to the monarchies. It's not the same, it's not only one leader, but...

Here in Quebec, the majority of news is controlled by companies that own big news stations, news papers... They basically decide what people will hear about, what people will like, and its just unbelievable. People are not aware of that enough.

It's everywhere in America. Everywhere in the world. It's so daunting, I don't even see how that's even possible. Because if you try to take politics out of money, you'd have every single government, every single military, every single large company try to stop that. The good thing about our democracies though, that I think in the west that still remain and why they're still great, it's that basically everyone has to be insanely aware and passionate about a certain issue. Then people can't circumvent it, but that's very very rarely.

And that's why I think awareness is good to wake people up about it. If everyone understood... If you put a magic pill, and everyone just completely had an insanely high IQ level of understanding of how the system works, I think everyone would be freaking horrified. But I think there's so much at stake. You talk the way I'm talking on any kind of mainstream news station and they dismiss you like a maniac... But that's how it's always been if you look at history. It's always the radicals of the time that get to the outside, and then that's the next generations of intellectual leaders. And so it's the same now unfortunately. And that's the sad part, is that we live in an era that we think we're beyond it, and now it's all out in the open but unfortunately it's not... Depressing.

[Laughter]

You have Spanish and Danish roots, is that something you relate to? Is that something you can get inspired by?

I relate, culturally I love the Danish side.

Danish music?

No. Oh, Iceage is awesome! Or at least their first record is. No, just the cultural way that they are, they're very nice and have a kind of cultural conscience and wanna follow the rules. As a kid from New York, when I would go—almost all my family is there so I would go once in a while—t was such a cultural shock. I was like "why wouldn't someone just take that bicycle", well "in Denmark we don't do like so", and I'm just like "what?". Because in New York... it's take and you can. Anyone will steel anything and try to go in front.

So you learned from the Danish values?

Well, I think that's a great thing to strive for. It wouldn't work in America, but I just think it's a cool utopia. But I wonder why? I wonder is it cause the Viking gold that they pillaged? They just stole all of the good-looking women from Europe in the early Viking days, and so the dudes are just all happy? But yeah Spain, I don't really... You go there it's very like aggressive macho kinda vibe... So I'm not so into it personally.

I was wondering, if you wouldn't make the music genre you make now, what other kind of music would you have done?

I don't know, the genres I do go all over the place. I wouldn't want to say hip hop. I love hip hop music, but maybe a hip hop producer.

I have read that you were interested in Homer's Odyssey and how he was obsessed with memorizing everything he wrote. Do you feel that way about your music? Do you feel that you have to memorize every song by heart?

I used to. I used to, when I started, just work on one song at a time. Then I had this weird, weird, thing that happened, where I recorded a couple things. The things that I thought were great didn't age so well, and the things that I had forgotten I thought were amazing. So I started recording everything.

[Laughter]

And the title of your solo album was inspired by Oscar Wilde, so I have to ask, what's your favourite book?

Probably The Odyssey. There's something about the odyssey where every line is almost like a wise fortune cookie quote. I've never read a book like that before where it's just a poem but it's 100 amazing poems that is one long story that has such a powerful ending. It's the most amazing book I think.

I was wondering what your opinion was on the vinyl trend coming back?

I understand. As much as online is awesome and practical—and I listen to most music that way—I think we're humans so we still have physical needs. You know what I mean, to touch things. And so I think that of all the forms that there has been, vinyl has the most character and charm. And you could argue sound quality. Basically when we're emulating sounds, I think what we're doing is you're faking what things sound like live. This new modern clean sound that's not... When you hear things live, nothing sounds like that so I think that with the vinyl it has that thing. It just has a more earthy magic or something.

I have a final funky question: did you ever hear about our famous poutine?

Well the producer of the record is Canadian. I should have been talking about it more. Shawn Everett.

So he's been talking about poutine?

Well, he's the best producer in the world I think, so congratulations on that! We went to a place near my house and he ordered poutine, he just kind of made his own. It was a restaurant where I know them and they're friendly and they'll just do whatever you want. So he's like "can I have fries with gravy and melted cheese or whatever". It looks real healthy by the way! [Laughs] And he said it was the best poutine he ever had in his life.

Dear White People takes place at a fictional Ivy-League university, and focuses mainly on four charaters: student activist Sam White (Tessa Thompson) who has a controversial radio show called “Dear White People”, Troy Fairbanks (Brandon P. Bell), whose father is the Dean of the University, Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams) who is an awkward uncomfortable budding writer, and Colandrea “Coco” Conners (Teyoneh Parris), perhaps the most ambitious of the bunch.  

The film brings up a lot of tough issues about race relations in the United States, including intra-racial tension that exists among the black student body at the school, but doesn't pretend to have the answers.  That being said some basic story points we also presented and then overlooked, which left me a little confused about the plot of the movie.  I found that the film tried to pack too many issues and questions into such a short time frame and thus came out a little sloppy

At a very basic level I really enjoyed watching a film that didn't have an all-white cast.  As a resident of cities for the past ten years of my life, I'm tired of seeing movies that only have white people in them, as that is simply not an accurate reflection of reality.  All of the acting the film was top notch.  It's not the best film about race relations that I've ever seen, but it's also not the worst, and it's definitely worth seeing.

So the Devin Townsend Project was in town on December 1, and I'm sorry to say that if you missed it we are no longer friends. It was way past my bedtime and so I didn't even stay for Animals as Leaders, but you have no excuse. Monday is the new Thursday, after all. In any case, I got what I came for, but now I face a mild dilemma. As the guy who got in trouble a couple months back for overplaying DTP's latest issue Z², it'll be hard for me to write this without it coming off as a love letter, so fuck it. Committing to the form.

Dear Devin Townsend, 

Hevvy Devvy!

What a delightful young man, you are. I want to lick your skull. Back to front if I'm choosing, but I can respect a man's right to have his naked scalp smeared with halitosis on his own terms. My urges are misplaced, however, because the best thing about your skull (your gleaming, smooth, candy-like skull) is what comes out of it. You are a turgid piñata of good vibes. 

There had been vexed murmurs in the ether regarding Toronto's show the night before, the details of which I have far too much "journalistic integrity" to be even incidentally aware of. I can concede from my experience that the show in Montreal did not go off without a hitch. The sound was kind of pants, unless one was possessed of elbows of steel such as I and able to shoulder at least halfway through the sold-out crowd. It was weird to be standing not six feet from the sound booth and hearing the smudgy mess you'd expect from out on the street. Next time you need to play on the god damn moon or something, I can't have you cooped up like that again. You have a big sound, Devin dearest. A stadium sound. Conversely, Club Soda is not a stadium. Moving this gripe-train along, part of the big fancy LED display behind you was glitching out something fierce the whole time, and you guys even slipped up on a few riffs, but you know what? 

Nobody gave an impacted giraffe's colon about any of that, you charismatic wonder.

The Ziltoid hand-puppets were brandished, banter was served, the packed mass of humanity moved with the music. I and a multitude of people like me came away from your set smiling like imbeciles. 

Heavy metal is a genre beset by virtuosity (there are worse problems). Historically, we metal heads seem to prefer quantifying our art, at least overtly focusing on the fastest, the heaviest, the loudest, the best executed. I'm not going to get into the values of this outlook here, I'm not even going to suggest that it still holds true, because Monday was the best show I've seen in a while, and it was only partly to do with the music.

You are a person, Devin. It's palpable. It's nice to see that nothing's gone to your head.

Your glistening, beguiling head.

Hearts, kisses, and ASCII boners

-DJ Spacepirate

--From the bowels of the underworld, DJ Spacepirate hosts Burnt Offerings, every Sunday at 6 PM on CJLO.