The Strokes

indie rock · alternative rock · post-punk

The Strokes are an American rock band formed in New York City in 1998, comprising Julian Casablancas on lead vocals, Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. on guitars, Nikolai Fraiture on bass and Fabrizio Moretti on drums. Casablancas, Valensi and Moretti met as students at the Dwight School in Manhattan before recruiting Fraiture, a childhood friend of Casablancas, and Hammond Jr., whom Casablancas had known at a Swiss boarding school. Their debut album, Is This It, released by RCA in 2001, is widely credited with driving the garage rock revival and the broader post-punk revival of the early 2000s; its interlocking treble-heavy guitar parts and deliberately compressed production influenced bands including the Killers, Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand. Room on Fire (2003) and First Impressions of Earth (2005) followed on the same label. An extended break after 2006 gave every member time for outside work, with Casablancas forming the Voidz, Moretti playing in Little Joy, and Hammond Jr. and Fraiture releasing records under their own names; the two albums that followed, Angles (2011) and Comedown Machine (2013), were assembled in a more piecemeal fashion. The New Abnormal, produced by Rick Rubin and issued in 2020 through Casablancas's Cult Records with RCA, won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 63rd ceremony. Their seventh album, Reality Awaits, was released on Cult/RCA in July 2026 and drew generally positive reviews, with a number of critics noting Casablancas's prominent use of vocal processing. The band performs mainly as an arena and festival headliner, playing sets that stay close to the studio arrangements and lean heavily on the first three records.

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