Julian Casablancas 'never planned solo LP'

The Strokes' Julian Casablancas has claimed that he never planned to release a solo album.

The singer explained that the main reason he came to write Phrazes For The Young was to kill time before the New York band reconvene in 2010 to record their fourth album.

"I never wanted to do it," Casablancas told The Orange County Register. "But I feel like I was kind of forced a little, to be quite honest. The band wanted to go do their own thing, and that's cool – I respect that they need to go do that. But I didn't want to sit around."

He added that he is now concentrating on his solo show, which tours the UK in December. "Hopefully people [will] see something that they don't usually see, and that excites and inspires, and hopefully gets the word going around so that we can do this crazy show in other places, too," he said.

Addressing The Strokes' future, the frontman stressed that his solo project will not interfere with the group's new LP plans.

"Whether it takes off or not, I'll still do Strokes stuff," he stated, adding: "I think [recording] is going to start in January, but I'm free for them whenever."

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