Biography

Guitarist for The Strokes

He started playing the guitar at the age of five.

His mother owns a restaurant on New York's Upper East Side.

He has a younger sister and an older sister.

Has been in a serious relationship with actress/photographer 'Amanda De Cadenet' since 2002.

Lots of bands with potential are just not devoted enough to drop everything else in their lives and be an amazing band. They're scared of losing their day jobs or they've got wives; there's something preventing them from devoting their lives to music, which is what we've done. We all dropped out of school, quit our jobs, pretty much sacrificed our social lives for a long time, cooping ourselves up in a rehearsal studio from eight at night till eight in the morning. We ate, slept, walked and talked music. We love it. That's the way it should be.

[December 2003] I'm not interested in letting people get to know me. I'm just not. I'm the type of guy who has very few friends. I don't trust people with too many friends and acquaintances. I've always been a little wary of people.

[After he claimed to never have made his bed in his whole life, a reporter asks if his mother did it for him] No, it just never got done. It still isn't. I tidy it up a bit right before I go to bed, but that's it.

Always respect people but never really trust them. If I need something done I try my best to go about it completely independently. Because I've learned throughout my short life that people are not to be trusted. Plain and simple.

[Do you realize some of your fans will hate the synths part?] You can't make everyone happy. I've always liked the fun swing of Last Nite, Someday and Under Cover of Darkness but we have to grow too. It's impossible to make every fan happy. The other members are my barometer. We've thought this way since the very first record.