Phrazes for the Young Phrazes for the Young Phrazes for the Young is the debut solo album by American songwriter Julian Casablancas, released on November 2, 2009 in the UK and November 3 in the US. Casablancas, who is best known for being the front man of New York rock band The Strokes, recorded the eight-song album in 2009 in New York, Los Angeles, and Omaha, Nebraska. Jason Lader served as producer, and musician Mike Mogis (from Bright Eyes and Monsters of Folk) contributed additional production. The album title is a reference to Oscar Wilde's "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young".
Is This It Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Casablancas's stepfather and Moretti's and Fraiture's older brothers introduced the quartet to the music of reggae artist Bob Marley, protopunk group the Velvet Underground, and alternative rock band Jane's Addiction. Discussing the formative stages of the group, Moretti noted, "Our music was, like, [the Doors'], but trying to be classical. We all took music classes and tried writing songs, and when we put them together they were this crazy amalgam of insane ideas that we thought was really cool." In 1998, Albert Hammond, Jr., who Casablancas knew from