The Strokes have shared In Transit: Part II, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at the making of their new album ‘Reality Awaits’. Watch below.
The 10-minute video serves as the sequel to the New York band’s In Transit, a mini-documentary they filmed in 2001 as they played their early shows around debut album ‘Is This It’.
Per IMDb, the now-classic candid vlog was released on DVD to members of the now-defunct ‘Alone, Together’ fan club back in 2004.
Julian Casablancas and co’s follow-up comes over 20 years on from the original, marking the release of their seventh full-length record today (Friday July 24).
Directed by Johann Rashid, the video was captured over the six weeks the band recorded ‘Reality Awaits’ in Costa Rica with acclaimed producer Rick Rubin.
The clip begins with drummer Fabrizio Moretti laying down a part, before we see Casablancas goofing around in a car while he makes his way to “the compound”. Elsewhere, The Strokes take guidance from Rubin, with Casablancas then playing keys.
Other scenes find the band working on recent singles ‘Falling Out Of Love’ and ‘Going Shopping’. Later, Albert Hammond Jr takes a dip in the idyllic garden’s pool. A snippet of an upbeat acoustic guitar part closes out the vlog as the sun sets over the studio.
Check out The Strokes’ In Transit: Part II in full here:
Reacting to the short sequel doc on Reddit, one fan wrote: “I feel like it’s 2002 all over again. I need this on DVD stat!” Another user said: “Can’t believe this is back, I don’t think I can take the nostalgia.”
Someone else shared: “So funny looking at this picturesque recording studio and thinking back to the chaos and moving around of In Transit p1. The boys really did make it.”
‘Reality Awaits’ is the long-awaited follow-up to 2020’s ‘The New Abnormal’. The album was originally meant to arrive on June 26, but the group announced last month that it had been pushed back to today.
Hammond Jr subsequently explained the delay, saying The Strokes wanted the streaming release date to match that of the vinyl edition.
He’d previously called ‘Reality Awaits’ his “favourite album” that the band have ever made. “I can’t express how beautiful it is,” he said. “I listen to the whole thing and wanna start from the beginning again. It grows and grows and becomes intoxicatingly good.”
The Strokes are currently on tour in North America, ahead of shows in the UK and Europe this autumn. This will mark their first full run of headline dates in the UK and Ireland in over 20 years, and it includes two stops at London’s O2. Find any remaining tickets here.
In a previous interview, Hammond Jr recalled the sessions for what would become The Strokes’ “looser” new album.
Here, the musician was asked about Rubin revealing in 2022 that he was working on another LP with The Strokes, and had finished a recording session with them in Costa Rica. The producer previously helmed the Grammy-winning ‘The New Abnormal’.
“There’s not much detail I can give besides what [Rubin] said,” Hammond Jr explained. “In my own words: we got to record in the most fantastical environment I have ever been able to record in.
“I almost want to leave part of that description to when the record comes out and what we show of it. It was very exciting for me, and for all of us.”
In other news, The Strokes have teamed up with The White Lotus‘ Walton Goggins for the official ‘Going Shopping’ music video.
The post Watch The Strokes record ‘Reality Awaits’ in ‘In Transit: Part II’ – over 20 years on from original mini-doc appeared first on NME.