In a 2014 interview with GQ, Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas explained how he came up with the tune, which has him repeating, "I've got nothing to say." Here's what he did say: "It's funny: This is one of those cheesy songwriter 'I dreamt it' stories, but I dreamt it was a Scissor Sisters song. And there was just a chorus where they kept saying, I've got nothing to say, and it was so hypnotic and weird and f--ked with my head. I woke up thinking it was a real song. And then I realized: 'Oh, wait, I made that up in a dream, so I can just do it and I'm not plagiarizing.'"
When asked if the lyrics expressed his true feelings, Casablancas replied: "No. I just think it's interesting, because there's something so vain about being in a band and being a singer. So to say 'I have nothing to say' seemed like a cool, refreshing kind of concept."
Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti gave his take on the tune in a 2006 Clash interview. "That whole song is like where we confess that we're just going to do our thing and we're going to be a band and live by our own integrity and never compromise," he explained. "The music industry is like any other business. It's about trade-offs. And very often when you don't give what people are expecting of you - you know, the powers that be that decide how successful you're going to be - they'll f--k you in the ass. I'm not going to name any names but a lot of times we haven't done things because we feel like we'd be embarrassed to do them and that's cut off our road with certain people."
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