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The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas “always wanted to be in Arctic Monkeys”

The Strokes frontman recreated the band's famous album cover for ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’

By Hollie Geraghty

The Strokes in 2020
The Strokes (Picture: Jason McDonald/press)

The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas has revealed that he “always wanted to be in Arctic Monkeys”, according to a new Instagram post.

The musician shared a photo yesterday (October 10) parodying the Arctic Monkeys’ famous album cover for their 2006 debut ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’.

He captioned the post: “lolll – i always wanted to be in the Arctic Monkeys,” next to a picture of himself in a similar pose.

The original cover features a black and white photo of Chris McClure, brother of Reverend And The Makers’ Jon McClure, with a cigarette in his mouth.

In his recreation, Casablancas captures a similar pose with The Strokes’ logo in the top left corner.

Chris McClure himself has since responded to the post on Twitter: “Anyone who knows me will know of my love for The Strokes. So when I see @Casablancas_J posting a photo pretending to be me. It’s reeeeaaaalllllly mad!!!!!”

Casablancas’ comments are also a direct spin on Arctic Monkeys lyrics, after the band hailed The Strokes on ‘Star Treatment’, which featured on their 2018 album ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’.

I just wanted to be one of The Strokes, now look at the mess you’ve made me make,” Alex Turner sings on the track.

They have also previously covered The Strokes’ ‘Is This It?’, with Turner telling NME about his love of the band back in 2011.

“I remember I used to play that first album [‘Is This It’] in college all the time, when our band was first starting. Loads of people were into them, so loads of bands coming out sounded like them.”

He added: “I remember consciously trying not to sound like The Strokes, deliberately taking bits out of songs that sounded too much like them, but I still loved that album.”

The Strokes recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of ‘Is This It’, which Rolling Stone gave four stars back in 2001. “This is the stuff of which legends are made,” Joe Levy wrote.

It was recently announced that The Strokes would join Red Hot Chili Peppers as special guests at the Nashville Nissan Stadium on their US tour on August 12 2022.

It was also reported that Arctic Monkeys were working on a new album in Suffolk, according to NME. It is thought they recorded the album at Butley Priory, after the venue revealed they were recording their seventh album in there between June and July. 

A statement on the site read: “Musicians love the acoustics in the Great Hall and Drawing Room, with their huge vaulted ceilings. Being serenaded while watering and weeding the garden, listening to the double bass, drums and piano wafting out of the open double doors, was pretty nice. Thank you, Arctic Monkeys.”