started playing as the bassist and the band was formed when guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. joined in fall 1998. Their first show as The Strokes was at the Spiral in New York City on September 14, 1999. The band released The Modern Age EP in 2001 under Rough Trade Records and was signed for a five-album record deal by RCA Records. The band released six LPs including Is This It, Room on Fire, First Impressions of Earth, Angles, Comedown Machine and The New Abnormal with tours and festival sets in the North America, Europe, South America, East Asia and Australia. Following the completion of their album contract deal with RCA Records in 2013, the band has continued to release new music through Casablancas' Cult Records. CRX In 2013, Valensi co-founded the Los Angeles-based rock band CRX. He is the frontman of the group, and is backed by drummer Ralph Alexander, multi-instrumentalist Brad Oberhofer, bassist Jon Safley, and guitarist Darian Zahedi. The band released their debut album, New Skin, on October 28, 2016. This was followed by the 2019 record Peek. Valensi has described the band's sound as a mix of power pop and heavy metal, and has named The Cars, Cheap Trick and Elvis Costello as influences. Other projects While much of his career has been focused on playing and writing for The Strokes and CRX, Valensi has also contributed as a session musician and songwriter to some of his contemporaries. One of his first notable credits was playing guitar for Regina Spektor's song "Better," which was released on her 2006 album Begin to Hope and also published as a single in a slightly different version on which the guitar parts are rearranged. He has collaborated with artists Devendra Banhart, The Stroke's Moretti, and Sia on multiple occasions. Nick Valensi sang backing vocals and played guitar for Devendra Banhart's song "Shabop Shalom" on the 2007 album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. Furthermore, he contributed backing vocals on the self-titled debut album of his bandmate Fab Moretti's band, Little Joy. He appears in the video for "No One's Better Sake" by Little Joy as drummer. He also appears in the video for "Adam & Steve," a song by Devendra Banhart and Moretti's side project Megapuss. He plays guitar on Sia's album 2010 We Are Born and has also written several hooks and melodies on it. Sia has also stated that she