CRX front man Nick Valensi says he started the band as an "experiment" and as a way to stretch his creative wings when The Strokes were on ice.
Three years later, CRX is a full-fledged five-piece band with several sold-out tours under its belt and a strong sophomore effort, PEEK, available now. Valensi couldn't have planned it better if he'd tried. He tells Q104.3 New York's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke that CRX's actualization as a collective reminds him a lot of the early days of The Strokes.
"I didn't really know what it was gonna be at the onset," Valensi said of his early CRX demos. "While I was making it I put together a band of friends to take on tour. Over the course of touring that first album for quite some time, we spent many house in a van together and listened to a lot of music together. ... Just spent a lot of time really talking about music."
Valensi says the first CRX tours became a kind of "pre-production" for what became the collaborative effort behind PEEK.
Guitarist Darien Zahedi adds that the band discussed at-length the direction for the second CRX album before actually writing any music.
"What we were really vibing on at the time was a lot of David Bowie circa Scary Monsters, Iggy Pop circa The Idiot, Talking Heads circa Remain In Light ... The Cars I think is just part of our blood — Cars and Tom Petty with the songwriting and the vibe, so I think that kind of comes through a little more subconsciously," Zahedi added. "The other stuff, we gave ourselves those parameters to keep things consistent."
Check out the full interview in the video player above or here.
Valensi and Zahedi talk about the music video for CRX's "Falling," experiencing The Strokes legacy in 2019 and Valensi breaks some news about The Strokes' plans going forward.
Get all CRX's tour dates here.