Fri. Jan. 8

 Julian Casablancas, the once-and-future singer for the Strokes has taken the same liberties as his band-mates to go, as he put it, “outside the bubble.” Casablancas, 31, has recorded and released his first solo album, “Phrazes for the Young,” and he brings a six-piece band to the Paradise Friday Jan. 8 to support it. We spoke with him from his Manhattan apartment, with his Jack Russell terrier, Balki, barking for attention in the background. (A  story ran in Wednesday’s Boston Herald, www.bostonherald.com.’ do check it out. Here’s some fun out-takes.)
   It’s a great-sounding disc, the kickoff “Out of the Blue” being the best of a good lot. It’s like an updated Johnny Cash-cum-Nick Cave rocker, hurtling along like a runaway train. Sings Casablancas, in his best Iggy Pop, “Somewhere along the way my hopefulness turned to sadness/Somewhere along the way my sadness turned to bitterness/Somewhere along the way my bitterness turned to anger/Somewhere along the way my anger turned to vengeance.” Chorus. Next verse: “Somewhere along the way exacting vengeance gave excitement/Somewhere along the way that excitement turned to pleasure/Somewhere along the way that pleasure turned to madness/Sooner or later that kind of madness turns into pain.”
   And for a kicker: “Yes, I know I am going to hell in a leather jacket/
At least I will be in another world, while you're pissing on my casket.”
    After I rattle on to Casablancas about the song’s genius he says, “Thanks.” Which was fine? What’s he going to answer, “Yes, it is truly the most resonant work of art one could imagine.” Thanks, was fine. But was a little more exposition, too.

You made some of the record in L., A. and from what I’m told, really enjoyed the idea of sunshine being more than an occasional thing. But New York is still your home, right.
Oh, yeah.
Why record there?
I wrote the record and started it here. It’s just the guys I was working with, there’s a lot of hookups in L.A, I got a house that I recorded in and it was cheaper than a studio would be in New York and bigger than my apartment in New York. You get value on space out there. And the band was there, it’s cheaper, the shows we were rehearsing and experiment with. We were going to tour with this big show.
Which you did there, but you’re not bringing in on the road?
No, I don’t think people cared. I do, I liked it.
You’ve got just 8 songs on “Phrazes.” What else fleshes out the concert? I might do some B-sides I did by myself, some Strokes songs, maybe a cover. I haven’t even thought of it yet.
What covers are you considering?
Um, I don’t know if I should say. It’s going to be so different and  I don’t want to say. It’ll be like jinxing it. If I say it. I’m not going to do it.
Fair enough. As I know there were, and are, some internal Strokes problems, it must feel good just to be out with guys wanting to play. Is it all strange? Or wonderful?
Well, it’s wonderful, it’s fun. It’s just nice to play with people who are receptive. There are seven of us, including myself seven.
There’s a lot in this album, a lot of contrasts and different genre clashes, kid of retro-futurist. Some old-timey banjos, the synthesizer burble, electric guitars? Were trying to fuse eras?
Um, No, I think maybe in the visual aesthetic. I had a few ideas in mind about sound and I’ve always had that, what I was going for, something you dig up 40 years ago that sounds current today and you go wow, this is amazing. I’ve always had that in the back of my mind. With this, it was more, I had some percussion things going on, and it’s hopefully modernized. They all meld together into one bizarre …I don’t know.
There is an ‘80s synth pop thing, maybe a move from guitars into synths and drum machines.
Well, the synthesizer thing, I’d always written on keyboards and guitars, and so I this time when I wrote on a keyboard it would just stay on a keyboard and when it would stay on a keyboard it would mean a lot of different things. It could mean strings, piano, synthesizers. So, the record starts out with that abruptly so that’s what pops out, but there’s guitars still in more.
Is it more upbeat, less dark than the Strokes? Less dark?
Maybe a little. I’ve heard that from a lot of people. I don’t overanalyze it. Obviously, I guess they like the mixture of dark and light. It’s weird, sometimes a sadder song will make you feel happy and a happier song will just kind of annoy you. I think you walk a fine line. The melody’s there, and it has that longing sadness, but overall you want the song to not be totally depressing. It’s like life. Sometimes it s more heated; sometimes it’s passionate; sometimes it’s hopeful; sometimes it’s what-the-hell’s-gonna happen now?
The spark to do this record, I believe, came in part from the other four Strokes doing music outside the band. How did you feel during that period?
It’s tough for me to just hang around, wait around, do all the work and it’s healthier for them anyway, and for me, to step. That’s the only way we’ll survive anyway and it’s all for the best.

Tickets are $20. Tanline opens at 9, Casablancas is on about 10:15.

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