Julian Fernando Casablancas (born August 23, 1978) is an American singer, musician and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of rock band The Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since their founding in 1998. Casablancas released a solo album, Phrazes for the Young, in 2009. That same year, he founded the independent record label Cult Records, which has represented artists such as The Growlers, Rey Pila and Karen O.
Since 2013, he has been the frontman of experimental rock band The Voidz. The band has released two albums, Tyranny (2014) and Virtue (2018).
Julian Fernando Casablancas was born in New York City on August 23, 1978, the son of American-Spanish businessman John Casablancas, the founder of Elite Model Management, and Jeanette Christiansen (née Christjansen), a Danish model and the 1965 Miss Denmark who later became an artist. When Casablancas was eight, his parents divorced. He once stated that he wanted to be closer to his father, which "translated into teenage rebelliousness". His mother later married Ghanaian painter Sam Adoquei, who helped shape Casablancas' early musical taste by exposing him to music such as The Doors, which was markedly different from the mostly Phil Collins-influenced music he listened to as a child. He has several half-siblings, including an elder sister from his father's first marriage, and three other siblings from his father's third marriage.
