Noisey: You grew up in New York, but I'm not sure how close you were to the Latino community. Today, in a really productive moment in your career, you decided to come to South America to do a huge tour. In cultural terms, do you feel a special connection with our region? Julian Casablancas: In New York, I grew up alongside many members of the Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Mexican community. When I'm in South America or Latin America generally, it's always in and out for festivals. I feel like the energy of the people here is incredible. For a year, we talked about the possibility of doing an extensive tour that would include small cities and that would also include shows in small clubs. We want to come more often—I personally want an adventure, I want to learn more deeply about the differences among all of your cultures. I have an idea, but I want to learn more. I also wanted to go to Venezuela and Cuba, but the organizers were like, "Don't do that." They weren't in agreement. But, in any case, in the end, I understood them.

Talking about The Voidz: What are you exploring right now? Where do you feel the most freedom? Does The Voidz satisfy different needs than the ones you have with The Strokes? Without a doubt. I'm still on the same mission, still with the same restlessness I've always had. I feel like the first album with The Strokes was the start of that mission and later, I wanted to take another direction. I was just interested in a another type of music, different styles, and countries. The internet opened my mind up a lot. The world of people expanded at a rapid speed and, as in music, you can only learn from it. To listen, for example, to Turkish music from the 70s, African music, or whatever.… It's incredible, but I think the process has slowed down, or, in a way, everything is happening to the contrary. The good new music is in danger—it's hard to find; it's more underground than ever.

Would you recommend that a fan of The Strokes go to a The Voidz show?

Not necessarily. If you're interested in the evolution of music, then I'd say yes, definitely. If you want to listen to mainstream indie rock, maybe not. But the idea is to reach everyone—that was really the goal behind the first album. We want to go farther in the future.

With the new songs we just want people to enjoy them. We're definitely trying to discover what sounds good to everyone. We still play songs from Tyranny, to, I don't know, other songs that are pretty aggressive. So, I don't know: Yes and no. [_Laughs_] I'm a terrible businessman, but one part of my mind says, "Everyone should come." I don't understand some of those people from the old school who grew up loving The Strokes and are now criticizing this new exploration. I wrote all the songs that you love and now you don't want me to change? I don't know. I respect the opinion, but I also don't give a fuck. [_Laughs_] I want to be positive and I want people to enjoy it. I'm trying new things that I think are interesting.

Do you have anything to say about Lizzy Goodman's book, _Meet Me in the Bathroom_**, which basically declares that The Strokes are the last true rockstars and** which also talks about The Strokes' influence on indie rock?

Um, honestly, I don't know. I know Lizzy, but I was never down with the idea of writing a book about that. I don't think I can identify with that feeling. I feel like it's weird to talk about. I don't know; it distorts things; it's not very precise. And it's like, I guess, like everything's always been: The person whose opinion is presented more eloquently or more loudly is the one who gets to tell the story. You get what I'm saying? But these things really bother me; they're like gossip. Honestly, I don't pay much attention to it.

I get it. So how do we understand that rock is no longer the voice of that generation? Is the fact that more synthesizers than guitars are sold today something that really bothers you?

The truth is, no. I believe there's room for everything, there's room for African music, for Indian, for electronic music, for rap…. Traditional rock is maybe a bit boring now, but I understand. I think there's good music in every genre right now, and finding new forms of music is what interests me. For example, the scales are a huge source of inspiration to me right now. When you talk about musical styles in the East, there's a whole word of scales that aren't fully understood; there's a lot of room for melodic music to be mixed with rhythmic music because it's almost always one or the other. It's unusual that the two are mixed. That's what interests me about working with The Voidz.

I don't think, "Oh, rock is dead." There's some hip-hop music that's inspiring. There's a lot of old music to rediscovered, like jazz from the 40s, underground stuff, legendary popular music that we don't listen to for some reason. The new artists of tomorrow will discover all that, so I don't limit myself to genres. I just believe that as long as music moves forward, who cares if rock is no longer what it was?