The Strokes burst onto the scene in 2001 with their EP The Fashionable Age, which, on the time, sparked one of many largest bidding wars between document labels in latest reminiscence. Quickly, the New York band had been signed to RCA Data, releasing their acclaimed debut album, Is This It, later that 12 months. As figureheads of the early 2000s storage rock revival scene, The Strokes outlined an period, changing into identified for his or her distinctive fashion of leather-based, Converse, and blazers, in addition to their refreshing strategy to indie rock.
After the success of their debut, The Strokes launched Room On Fireplace in 2003, which was primarily critically praised. Two years later, the band dropped First Impressions of Earth, which was extensively thought to be the band’s weakest output of their profession. Though the album comprises some stellar tracks, akin to ‘You Solely Reside As soon as’, ‘Coronary heart in a Cage’, ‘Juicebox’ and ‘Imaginative and prescient of Division’, it’s honest to say that among the band’s most forgettable tracks additionally reside beside them. Cuts akin to ‘Killing Lies’, ’15 Minutes’ and ‘Ask Me Something’, whereas possessing their very own deserves, pale in comparison with the beforehand listed songs.
However, ‘Ask Me Something’ comprises a captivating backstory involving a weird dream concerning the long-forgotten pop group Scissor Sisters, who had been as soon as described as “the perfect pop group on this planet” by Elton John earlier than fading into the ether. Throughout a 2014 interview with GQ, Casablancas mentioned how he wrote the tune, which incorporates the repeated lyric, “I’ve obtained nothing to say”.
He defined: “It’s humorous: That is a type of tacky songwriter ‘I dreamt it’ tales, however I dreamt it was a Scissor Sisters tune. And there was only a refrain the place they stored saying, I’ve obtained nothing to say, and it was so hypnotic and peculiar and fucked with my head. I awoke considering it was an actual tune. After which I spotted: ‘Oh, wait, I made that up in a dream, so I can simply do it, and I’m not plagiarizing.’”
When Casablancas was requested whether or not the tune represents his true emotions, he replied: “No. I simply assume it’s attention-grabbing as a result of there’s one thing so useless about being in a band and being a singer. So to say ‘I’ve nothing to say’ appeared like a cool, refreshing sort of idea”.
Moreover, drummer Fabrizio Moretti shared his ideas on the observe in an interview with Conflict in 2006. He shared: “That entire tune is like the place we confess that we’re simply going to do our factor, and we’re going to be a band and stay by our personal integrity and by no means compromise. The music business is like every other enterprise. It’s about trade-offs.”
Moretti continued: “And fairly often, whenever you don’t give what persons are anticipating of you – you understand, the powers that be that determine how profitable you’re going to be – they’ll fuck you within the ass. I’m not going to call any names however quite a lot of instances we haven’t completed issues as a result of we really feel like we’d be embarrassed to do them and that’s minimize off our highway with sure folks.”
