Nick Valensi

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Nick Valensi (born Nicholas Valensi, January 16, 1981, in New York) is a guitarist for the New York based rock band, The Strokes.

Nick Valensi
Nick Valensi

Contents

[edit] The Early Years

Valensi is Jewish. His father was born in Tunisia, and his mother is French [1]. He has two sisters, Céline (who appeared in the video for "Juicebox") [2] and Alessandra.

His parents gave him his first acoustic guitar when he was 5, and his first electric at age 8.[3] His father died when he was 10. By the time he was 11, he had mastered such advanced songs as Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode", and at 13 years old he felt comfortable enough with his skills to stop taking lessons.

Valensi went to public schools his whole life except for one year at the Dwight School in Manhattan.[4] It was there that he met future bandmates Fabrizio Moretti and Julian Casablancas.

Before starting the band Nick would hang out in Central Park with his elder sister picking out favorite songs on the guitar — including Jimi Hendrix. "I always thought I wanted to be able to play any song you could name," he says. "But once I started playing with Julian, that's when I really started to understand music"[5]

Quotations about Nick's youth include:

"Yes I was bullied a bit as a youth, I was. I got to a point when I was 11, 12, 13 years old where I didn't care, made myself an outsider to avoid that - stopped trying to be one of the guys - sort of said, 'fuck you, if you guys don't want me then I don't want you either.' And that's when things started to work out for me as a kid. That's when I found out who I was as a person" [6]

"Nick would walk in stoned every day... One time, the teacher asked, 'What did you think of the books?' Nick raised his hand and said 'I thought they sucked' [7]" Fabrizio Moretti

Valensi graduated from the NYC Lab School in 1998, and later attended Hunter College with fellow band member Nikolai Fraiture, but eventually dropped out to play with the Strokes full-time. Before they gained attention, he also worked as a part-time waiter in several upscale Manhattan restaurants. He is the youngest member of the Strokes (and at 6'4", the tallest). Being only 19 years of age when they formed, he had to borrow other band members' IDs to gain admission to many of the clubs they played in.

[edit] Valensi The Guitarist

Valensi's main guitar, which he uses for nearly every live show and recorded song, is a 1960s Epiphone Riviera with Gibson P-94 pick-ups. In a 2004 interview with Epiphone, he called it "the greatest guitar never made" [8] because there were no mass produced ES doublecut style guitars with P-94s at the time. He has several models in different colors (all with P-94s), including multiple naturals, one in vintage sunburst, one in red, and a 12-string in red. In 2005, Epiphone released a signature model of his guitar, the Elitist Nick Valensi Riviera P-94 guitar. Back-up/warm-up guitars include an Epiphone Dot fitted with 2 P-94s, an Epiphone Casino, and a Gibson Faded Special Double Cutaway with 2 P-90s.

Valensi with fellow Strokes member Albert Hammond, Jr. (left)
Valensi with fellow Strokes member Albert Hammond, Jr. (left)

Valensi often borrows fellow Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.'s backup guitars, which include a Gibson Les Paul Jr. and Les Paul Special. New guitars used for the First Impressions of Earth tour include a Gibson Les Paul Custom in black and a Fender Telecaster Custom. Valensi's amplifier is a 2x12" Fender Hot Rod DeVille, used with Fender 4x12" extension cabinets during live shows. His pedalboard consists of a Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive pedal, Demeter TRM-1 Tremulator, Vox Cooltron Bulldog Distortion, MXR Micro-Amp (2) and a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner.

He cites his influences as Slash, The Velvet Underground, The Cars, George Harrison and Brian May [9]

[edit] Personal life

In Spring 2006, Nick married his girlfriend of five years, Amanda de Cadenet. She is a British-born actress and photographer who is nine years older than Nick. This marriage also committed him to a step-daughter (Atlanta), de Cadenet's daughter from a former marriage to Duran Duran bassist John Taylor. De Cadenet published a book of photographs entitled Rare Birds in 2005, which includes several pictures of Nick, whom she refers to as her "muse" on her website.

Nick has described Amanda as "The coolest person I know." [10] Amanda gave birth by cesarean section to their fraternal twins, a boy (Silvan) and a girl (Ella)[11], on October 19, 2006. The family splits their time between New York and Los Angeles.

[edit] The Future

The Strokes have just finished a world tour promoting their third album, First Impressions of Earth. They are expected to have a break and begin work on album number four sometime in 2007. [12]

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Quotes

"Have you ever been scuba-diving?...That is some serious pressure. That's more pressure than I've ever felt doing an album or anything like that. Forty feet under water, man? Serious fucking pressure." [15]

"He was pretty brutal at times. I mean it really worked for me, but he could be really harsh. I would do a guitar solo or something, and he would look at me and say, 'That was really cheesy. You need to rethink that.' And I would be like, 'What did you just say to me?'" Nick on working with David Kahne [16]

"I think guitars should be aggressive," declares Valensi. "Especially in our music, where we have often have these really beautiful melodies on top of everything. To have mean, don't-give-a-fuck guitar parts is important. Our music is all about tension, tension, tension, and then release." [17]

"I heard a rumour that no one actually comes to our shows and that we only exist in magazines" [18]

"Julian eats, breathes, sleeps, and shits music" [19]

"Yes I was bullied a bit as a youth, I was. I got to a point when I was 11, 12, 13 years old where I didn't care, made myself an outsider to avoid that - stopped trying to be one of the guys - sort of said, 'fuck you, if you guys don't want me then I don't want you either.' And that's when things started to work out for me as a kid. That's when I found out who I was as a person."[20]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ (The Face Magazine August 2002 )
  2. ^ (As stated in an interview with Fuse.tv January 2006)
  3. ^ Interview with Nick Valensi. Epiphone.com (2004). Retrieved on February 11, 2007.
  4. ^ Interview with Epiphone 2004)
  5. ^ Rolling Stone 2001 Interview
  6. ^ (Sand Peebles Interview November 2005)
  7. ^ (Blender Magazine May 2006)
  8. ^ (Interview with Epiphone 2004)
  9. ^ (Interview with Epiphone 2004)
  10. ^ (Interview with Swedish magazine)
  11. ^ (Confirmed by Amanda in Hello Magazine January 2007)
  12. ^ (Albert Hammond Jr talks about Strokes plans)
  13. ^ (Spin Magazine December 2002 Interview)
  14. ^ (Spin Magazine December 2002 Interview)
  15. ^ (The Guardian December 2005 Interview)
  16. ^ (The Guardian December 2005 Interview)
  17. ^ (Guitar Magazine October 2001 Interview)
  18. ^ (The Face Magazine 2001 Interview)
  19. ^ (New York Magazine January 2005 Interview)
  20. ^ (Sand Peebles Fanzine 2005 Interview)

[edit] Links

The Strokes
Julian Casablancas | Nikolai Fraiture | Albert Hammond, Jr. | Fabrizio Moretti | Nick Valensi
Discography
Albums and extended plays: The Modern Age | Is This It | Room on Fire | First Impressions of Earth
Singles: "Hard to Explain" | "Last Nite" | "Someday" | "12:51" | "Reptilia" | "The End Has No End" | "Juicebox" | "Heart in a Cage" | "You Only Live Once"
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